Nick Lowe’s artisanal, hand-crafted rock and roll plus a well-crafted set list went on despite the death of Ian McLagan. It’s been a rough year for a lot of us and in spite of not feeling well physically or mentally I managed to get myself out of the house for Nick and his Quality Holiday Revue. rtb and I were guests of Kenny and he set us up in a nice table upstairs. Thank you once again, Kenny!

New opening act was The Cactus Blossoms, a brother duo, who sing beautiful harmonies. When they played the opening notes for “This Boy” I was in love. Jack Torrey’s and Page Burkum’s originals are lovely country acoustic songs that take you back to the old days.

I noticed Unsteady Freddie sitting right up at the stage and you can find videos on his YouTube page. He also posted the set list for The Cactus Blossoms and Nick Lowe, so those photos belong to Freddie.

Nick Lowe came out first and went right into his solo set. Then he talked a bit and was very funny. Los Straitjackets joined him for some more of Nick’s originals including songs from his Christmas album. Hearing Nick’s songs played by a surf-rock band may seem wrong but it was so right. Los Straitjackets played a solo set that included Christmas music (“Sleigh Ride” “Linus and Lucy”) and ended their set with Nick’s “(I Love the Sound of) Breaking Glass” and Nick joined them on guitar at the very end. Then Nick played another set with Los Straitjackets and included songs like “Cruel to be Kind” and “I Knew the Bride (When She Used to Rock and Roll)”. I knew “Bride” was coming up by his spoken intro (I can’t remember now what Nick said) – it’s always been one of my favorite songs and for years I considered having it play whenever I decided to walk up the aisle.

The encore was brilliant including songs like “Itchycoo Park”, “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding?” and “Children, Go Where I Send Thee”.

By Carene Lydia Lopez