Labour of Love-Music of Nick Lowe

Nick Lowe

Product Details

• Audio CD (September 25, 2001)
• Original Release Date: 2001
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Telarc
• ASIN: B00005Q46K
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #61,403 in Music (See Bestsellers in Music)

Track Listings

1. All Men Are Liars - Dar Williams

2. The Rose Of England - Graham Parker

3. Cracking Up - Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers

4. Half A Boy And Half A Man - Sleepy LaBeef & C.J. Chenier

5. Where's My Everything? - Greg Brown

6. Television - Marshall Crenshaw

7. Shting Shtang - Joe Clay

8. When I Write The Book - Andrea Re

9. Cruel To Be Kind - Marshall Crenshaw

10. Faithless Lover - Charlie Musselwhite

11. Soulful Wind - Guy Davis & Levon Helm

12. (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding - Joe Louis Walker

13. Egypt - Elvis Costello

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Labour of Love casts attention on a facet of Nick Lowe's talent that's surprisingly uncelebrated--his songwriting prowess. Having made his mark as a producer, performer, and sideman, Lowe's skills as a singer-songwriter have been taken for granted, but, as this tribute confirms, Nick has long possessed a knack for mating blissful hooks with pithy couplets. Here an assortment of players and singers from a range of genres tackle Lowe gems dating from his new wave heyday up through his brilliant late-'90s comeback. Proving the adaptability of Lowe's material is half the fun here, as Joe Louis Walker turns the '70s anthem ("What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" into a midtempo soul lament, "Half a Boy and Half a Man" is transformed by Sleepy LaBeef and C.J. Chenier into a zydeco workout, and "Soulful Wind" is given the deep blues treatment by Guy Davis. With Elvis Costello, Tom Petty, and Dar Williams along for the ride, the 13-song set deftly mixes and matches stars, commendable journeymen, and crack players into a tribute worthy of one of contemporary music's unsung heroes. --Steven Stolder

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the most solid tribute albums that I have heard..., April 30, 2005

By	Stephen Cabral (New England) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This is one of the most solid tribute albums that I have heard. The first half is 5 star territory leading off with Dar Williams singing "All Men Are Liars" into an authentic New Orleans feel with Graham Parker doing "The Rose of England" with T-Bone Walk on mandolin and accordion. Next up is Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers doing a superb version of "Cracking Up" and then back to New Orleans with Sleepy LaBeef teaming up with C.J. Chenier on "Half a Boy and Half a Man".



Other strong cuts are a couple of songs by Marshall Crenshaw, especially his version of "Television", a very somber Charlie Musselwhite with some heartfelt vocals and harmonica on "Faithless Lover" that you just don't want to end, and Elvis Costello singing and playing every instrument very nicely on "Egypt". The rest of the album is pretty solid with not one bad song to be found among these tracks. There's also a very talented backing band led by G.E. Smith throughout much of this CD as well.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great covers of greater songs, February 24, 2002

By	Carl Johnson "living the non-urban life" (Rensselaer, NY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

On the first couple of listens, I thought this was a fairly run-of-the-mill tribute album. A tribute album should generally show you new things in songs you already know and love, and should highlight a couple of songs you may never have heard. The covers here were mostly note-for-note, with only a couple of twists on old material. But with more and more listening, the wonder of Nick Lowe's songwriting shines through, and some of the covers became revelatory. Marshall Crenshaw's contributions are fantastic (and if you don't know it, Marshall Crenshaw is at the top of his form these days - check out his live album). Tom Petty was a natural for "Cracking Up." Rockabilly star and hardest working man in rock Sleepy LaBeef teams up with CJ Chenier to put the fun into "Half a Boy and Half a Man" (my five-year-old reasons "that makes him a teenager, right?"). Dar Williams is fine, but does anyone remember Ric Astley anymore? Elvis Costello is revelatory, but he's ALWAYS revelatory these days, the only true singer left on the planet. Listen, if you have even half a love for Nick Lowe, check this out.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A nice addition to all the great Nick Lowe CD's out there, October 19, 2001

By A Customer

Coming on the heels of Nicks new album this is a very timely release. I'm surprised to see no one else had reviewed this CD since it's a fine album of interesting artists covering a truly great songwriter. And thankfully, most of it works well. For originality I'd run with Costello's "Egypt," The combination of Sleepy labeef and CJ Chenier rocking country cajun version of Half a Boy, " and I like turning "Cruel to be Kind" into a song for two singers. After that there are real solid interpretations by Dar Williams, Graham Parker (his voice just gets better and better), Tom Petty, Marshall Crenshaw and Greg Brown . I was amazed by Charlie Musselwhites vocals on one of Nicks new masterpieces. And that's my only gripe; I wish there had been more songs from his last recordings. Still I guess a tribute record has to cover songs everyone knows. Still there's easily a volume two, especially Now that we've just got more classic songs from This Year's "Convincer." Bottom-line; buy Nicks if you don't own all these songs. If you do then you'll surely enjoy this Labour Of Love