Guest : Jez Lowe

22 January 2010

I always look forward to Jez Lowe appearing at clubs in the Nottingham area as he is one of my favourite singers. I tend to prefer Jez performing solo, rather than with the Bad Pennies – doubtless others will disagree. As always, Jez sang a superb variety of his own material, both old and new - indeed a few of the songs on his latest CD are revamped versions of material he first recorded on vinyl 25 – 30 years ago.

The thing that intrigues me most about Jez is the amount of different guitar tunings that he uses. Each one appears to be tailor made to the particular song that he is singing. The sound that he can produce from a single instrument is quite staggering, and totally impossible to emulate using standard tuning. For sure, there are flashier, more clinically correct guitarists, but for me, not too many that can accompany a song as well as Jez does.

I overheard someone at the club say that they didn’t know how Jez remembers the words to all the songs. I think one reason is that it’s probably much easier when you’ve written them all yourself, but speaking as one with the memory of an amnesic goldfish, he is impressive! In all the times I’ve seen him, I don’t ever recall him forgetting his words. As always, this was another top notch performance from a great artist, one of the nicest guys on the folk scene. Thanks again Jez, come back soon, you’re welcome anytime at Bingham.

Review by : Steve Fox
Photograph : Marian Coupe