Nick Lowe played a handful of songs from his home in London for Rolling Stone‘s “In My Room,” an IGTV series in which musicians perform while in quarantine in wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Accompanied by his son, Roy, Lowe kicked off with the somber “Trombone,” a song he dropped last year off his EP, Starvation/Trombone. “I’ve been told time’s a healer,” he sings, strumming his acoustic guitar. “Still I can’t shake the love I lost.”
He then tears through his brand new song “Lay It On Me Baby,” from his upcoming EP Lay It On Me, out June 5th. The collection of songs mark his third EP with the Nashville outfit Los Straitjackets.
Lowe then performed the classic “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding,” a song he wrote that became one of Elvis Costello’s most beloved songs (he also recently performed it at his own isolated session). Lowe produced Costello’s first five records, with a style that Costello noted “was to exhibit massive enthusiasm for the moment,” he told Rolling Stone in 2018, “and seem possessed with the conviction that whatever we had just played was absolutely ‘IT.”
For the last song, Lowe shifted positions to his couch, where he dove into “I Read a Lot,” the title track to his 2011 album. “I read a lot, not just magazines/But other more serious things, to get me through the day,” he sings wistfully. “Nighttime too/Whilst wondering how in the world to go on without you.”
Lowe’s ‘In My Room’ session follows Waxahatchee, Nathaniel Rateliff‘s, Steve Earle‘s Graham Nash‘s, Yola‘s, John Fogerty‘s and more. To support musicians undergoing financial hardship, please consider giving to the Sweet Relief Musicians Fund or MusiCares’ COVID-19 Relief Fund — of which TikTok pledged $2 million to on Thursday.
