By: Andrew Vaughn

Last week, British rock and roll singer-songwriter Elvis Costello graced the hallowed Ryman Auditorium stage. Costello has loves playing and recording in Nashville ever since he visited Music City in 1981, at the height of his rock career to make a traditional country album with George and Tammy producer, Billy Sherill.

 
Costello played a staggering set of old and new last week as his wheel of fortune act (he actually has a huge wheel on stage) let audience members pick songs from across his lengthy career.
 
Costello of course bursted out of the punk scene in England in the late ‘70s, being produced originally by another British songwriter with strong Nashville connections—Nick Lowe. Coincidentally, Lowe will be in Nashville, playing a show with an indie fave, Wilco, at the end of this week.
 
Lowe began his career on Britain’s early ‘70s pub rock scene (the Brits answer to the LA scene that threw up Poco and The Eagles) playing bass, singing, and writing for cult band Brinsley Schwarz.
 
But by the mid ‘70s, Nick Lowe had moved into production and his and Elvis Costello's paths would cross for the fist time. First he produced for Stiff Records, a single that’s hailed as the first punk single, "New Rose for The Damned", and then he set to work on a bespectacled former computer operator, Declan McManus (real name), who would flower into Elvis Costello and become one of the greats of post Beatles, British rock and roll.

Lowe produced Elvis Costello's first five albums, including My Aim Is True, This Year's Model, and Armed Forces. He also had a stint with Rockpile alongside Dave Edmunds, who had a healthy solo career that potentially had a hit or two, notably "Cruel To Be Kind," and a time in a roots-rock super group, Little Village alongside Jim Keltner, John Hiatt, and Ry Cooder.
Oh, and he also married Johnny Cash’s stepdaughter, Carlene Carter, and became part of the Cash clan for quite a while.
 
Lately, Lowe has opted for a more mellow musical persona, more folksy and jazzy than the bristling power pop of his youth. He said recently, in typically eloquent fashion, that he hoped to grow old tastefully since he “didn’t want to become one of those thinning-haired, jowly old geezers who still does the same shtick they did when they were young, slim, and beautiful. That’s revolting and rather tragic.”
 
Costello and Lowe played a major role in rock and roll history in the late ‘70s, and now, in their veteran years, they remain two of the most fascinating, country music-friendly rock and rollers of the past 25 years. Treasures indeed.