ANDY FAIRWEATHER LOW
Sweet Soulful Music
Proper American

A quarter-century on, established sideman does things his own way--again

Strange but true: In Andy Fairweather Low's 28 years of guitar service to the superstars, none of his famous bosses--the Who, Roger Waters, Eric Clapton, George Harrison--has fielded an album as good as any of the three waggish folk-rock gems the Welshman dropped between 1974 and 1976 (check out the juicy reissue Wide-Eyed & Legless: The A&M Recordings). Low's first solo album since 1980 retains his knack for recombinant colloquialism--"If and when I go crazy/To my own self I'll be true/Ain't nobody's business what I do." Even on the jumpy "One More Rocket," which folds in a Schopenhauer reference, he's dried up a tad. But as ever, the tunes are sly and laconic, and lyrics jaunty and laconic, the POV stubborn, thoughtful and true.

Blender, Nov. 2006