This may appear to be a contradiction because Andy Fairweather Low has managed to have a music career that lasted nearly 60 years, and in different ways at different times, he has enjoyed significant success. However, this plea is for listeners to give his songwriting a serious listen and recognise that he brings his own quirky view to a whole range of roots-inspired music. The shout-out is particularly for his songwriting since the 2000s when he reactivated his solo career and made the music that he wanted to make with no consideration of the overall commercial viability of his songs.
While Andy’s career has followed its unique path, it is as if it was designed to deliver the mature songwriter with an encyclopaedic knowledge of roots music and artists. He started in the mid-sixties with the Welsh band Amen Corner, who, for a few years in the late sixties, managed several hit singles, none of them written by Andy. While the band enjoyed the day-to-day trappings of success, as was often the case in the early record industry, the money stayed with the band’s management and didn’t filter down to band members. After failing to establish the progressive Fair Weather, Andy landed a three-record deal with A&M in the mid-seventies. While he worked with a mix of the cream of the then Nashville players and British musicians like Geraint Watkins and the Welsh pub rock mafia, B J Cole, the odd Eagle and member of the Band, and Gerry Rafferty and managed a reasonable amount of singles success he was unable to sell any significant number of albums because the music was too English, quirky and rootsy to compete with the then prevailing sounds of the seventies, despite him establishing a cult following in America that he has maintained to this day.
Andy changed direction when A&M dropped him, and his only Warner Brothers album sank without a trace and he became a guitarist for hire for various megastars, including Clapton, Roger Waters, Bill Wyman and George Harrison, as well as playing innumerable sessions, all of which allowed him to hone his skills on guitars and all things stringed before reactivating his solo career in 2006 with “Sweet Soulful Music” .. Anyone who had heard his seventies albums would hear a sense of continuity but with a better feeling of looseness that also managed to be as tight as a drum at the same time. This time around, Andy forsook the guest star approach he took in the seventies and worked with his touring band and brought Glyn Johns back as producer with his hands-off production style. The songs invoked various roots music influences but also had a pop sensibility that means no matter how poignant they were or how idiosyncratic the concepts, they always managed to be memorable. While “Sweet Soulful Music” gained plaudits from UK and American critics, it didn’t do any better commercially than Andy’s seventies albums, but this time he had a business model in place that enabled him to record and play the music he wanted to his cult but fanatical audience. His tours are more at the 200 or so capacity venues rather than the arenas and stadiums of his guitar-for-hire days.
2013 saw Andy release “Zone-O-Tone”, which kept his core band, the Lowriders, together, and it was his best album to date. The band managed to provide perfect accompaniment, which maintained, and even improved, that loose but tight feel. Listening to Andy Fairweather Low you can’t help but think of artists like Nick Lowe and Richard Thompson, who have that knowledge of rock and roll from before the Beatles, who have honed their songwriting skills to perfection over the years while retaining their Britishness despite being heavily indebted to American and Americana Music. Tracks on “Zone-O-Tone” echo the early rock and roll of Duane Eddy, the swing of Les Paul and Mary Ford, and the funky groove of New Orleans. Throughout, his guitar is not a virtuoso showcase but rather a perfect accompaniment to the songs, which does nothing to diminish his technical skills.
Andy’s last album of new songs is 2023’s “Flang Dang”, which he recorded during lockdown at Rockfield Studios in Wales and played all the instruments himself with just the help of drummer Paul Beavis, and this is probably his best album to date. The eleven tracks on the album are crammed full of hooks, riffs and melodies that take time to fully appreciate. He is a baby boomer who has led a full life and had to make calls on his artistic integrity over the years, and this means that while his lyrics can be idiosyncratic, they are also full of lived experience, which is perfect for a mature audience, and can give young listeners a glimpse of what the future may hold.
Andy’s is part of the Last Record Company stable, and this has proved to be a perfect home for him, giving him the freedom and support to create the music he wants. As an addendum, they have just released a compilation of his largely live tracks focusing on his bluesier and rock and roll offerings called “The Invisible Bluesman”. While this record is designed to highlight one aspect of Andy’s sound, it does a great job filling in some of the blanks on this aspect of his career and features a good dose of his guitar playing.
So, there we have it. While you may very well be familiar with Andy Fairweather Low as a longstanding artist, the number of listeners who have chosen to take a deep dive into his songwriting and solo performances is a lot less than you may think. If you like your americana songwriting to mix American influences while maintaining a particular British take on the music, then Andy Fairweather Low may just be what you are looking for, and remember, he is at the point in his career where he can prioritise his musical integrity above all other considerations.
