Musically, 2007 had been a strong year for the established artists. Some that come to mind are The Shins, The White Stripes and the very established Nick Lowe. In fact his career dates back to the '60s when he fronted the english popsters Kippington Lodge. In 1970 they became Brinsley Scwarz, a more Grateful Dead inspired pub rock act known for a failed debut in America and for turning out three members of Graham Parkers band, The
Rumour. Lowe then became the in-house producer for the newly launched Stiff Records, producing such legends as Elvis Costello, the Damned and the Pretenders, not to mention his own classic 45 "So It Goes b/w Heart Of the City".

Despite his power pop beginnings, Lowe proved to be less a punker but a harbinger of the classic rockabilly and R&B style along with lineups like Rockpile,(with fellow old school rocker Dave Edmunds), His Cowboy Outfit, (with a little help from Huey Lewis) and to a lesser extent Little Village. After an early nineties slump Lowe returns with the strong Impossible Bird album which found him in the role of the balladeer who sings in earnest about his personal trials. This continued over the course of his next two albums to certain degrees although a sense of mellowness prevailed.

That brings us to At My Age the not so ironic title of his newest effort which has a definite mellow style but settles into some irresistible grooves on tracks like "Long Legged Woman" and an excellent cover of "Rome Wasn't Built in a Day." He sings "I've Done Things I'm Not Proud of" in the opening track and it comes to mind once that after meeting Lowe, Eric Clapton recommended him for alcoholism treatment. You can see looking at the man that he has definitely lived hard a bit and on tracks like " I Trained Her
To Love Me" that he bears scars from relationships as well.

Aside from what you would call a surefire single the disc stands up to repeated listens and reminds the listener of what soul music is all about. Hopefully he will make it to Vegas on his new tour.