Nick Lowe

So welcome back, baby, to the poor side of town

Poor Side of Town has had a lot of covers by some well-known artists like The Fifth Dimension, Al Wilson, Nick Lowe, and even Bruce Springsteen in 1995.

But none of them charted the way that Johnny Rivers' version.

The best song of his career, Poor Side of Town, song number 1505 on Billboard's Top 3000 Songs of All Time.

Collins has performed with

Beyonce, Michael Bolton, Jill Scott, Nick Lowe, Gloria Gaynor, Train, and more.

She's performed on the Today Show, Oprah Winfrey, Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, at the White House for President Obama twice, the Rachael Ray Show, The View, the World Music Awards, the Black Girls Rock Awards on BET many times, Ellen DeGeneres, the Grammys, and many others.

Collins continues to keep a busy schedule as a performer and clinician for Getzen and Edwards musical instruments and spends much of her time creating new music in her recording studio.

I wanted to write something like I was talking.

It was right around the time, like when I was touring with Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe.

And I was asking Elvis, like, why aren't there any new songs in the in the Great American Songbook? And he's like, I think because a lot of, you know, modern songs reference modern things like technology and then they go out of date.

And so that was like the first song I ever did that was like not just a song that came to me.

We don't get budgets to make records anymore.

So I just felt like I should figure it out so that kind of music won't die.

And I was like, my dude, you know, like, and I think that, you know, Nick Lowe upholds that as really, you know, in the age he is now, I feel like his music's never been better.

And same with Robin Hitchcock, like his new records, like one of the best things I think he's ever made.

And as I say, I think they were country influences, but I didn't particularly realize that.

what it was you know that to me it was all kind of a rock and roll soul music uh country music kind of all you know blends and the cross pollinates and um so i as i say i love the beatles and um i think when i really kind of started to get into it was when um I was in a band with a guy called Nick Lowe for a number of years.

And Nick was a great friend.

And I also did lots of touring back in the days with different bands.

And Clover, of course, I think they went on to record on the first Elvis Costello album when they came to London.

Really? That's right.

Which Nick Lowe was producing.

Yeah, yeah.

I guess, you know, the commercial potential for that one maybe wasn't as high.

So maybe it had... other things against it besides being released on september 11 2001 but uh yeah it was it was indeed as was the convincer from nick lowe we heard lately i've seen things slide robert earl keen released a great record that day called gravitational forces featuring one of my favorite robert earl songs of all time not a drop of rain uh ben folds i guess that one did okay i guess uh being released that day didn't hurt ben too much but uh rock in the suburbs his uh solo that was his solo debut i guess after the five i guess right uh losing lisa still some great songs on that i always thought that john hyatt one though uh It probably should have done.

It's got some great songs on it.

I played you my favorite there.

... doing the kind of Squeeze, Mike and the Mechanics at that time was a bit more of a diversion, to be honest with you.

Yeah, 'cause Nick, N- with, with Nick, your work with Nick Lowe, obviously-

Exactly

... has that element of country in there as well, doesn't it? You know.

But they were American guys, funnily enough.

Um-

Of course this is where Nick Lowe's beginning, isn't it, you know, and-

Yeah