Jez Lowe & the Bad Pennies - Northern Echoes: Live on the Tyne

This new album, celebrating the people and music of a very special part of England, comes hot on the heels of Jez's recent nomination as Folksinger Of The Year in the prestigious BBC Folk Awards, and his last CD 'Jack Common's Anthem' nominated as album of the year in the US-based indie-Acoustic Project awards. Having written some of the most widely-sung new folk songs of the last 20 years, recorded by the likes of Fairport Convention, Gordon Bok, The Tannahill Weavers, Cherish The Ladies, The Dubliners and scores more, Jez has chosen to delve deeply into his back catalogue of compositions for this new collection, revisiting many songs from his early albums, many of which have been unavailable for some time. The 20-plus new songs he wrote for the Sony-Radio Award-winning BBC Radio Ballads series in 2006 remain untouched, as Jez and the band move through 17 earlier favourites. The Song For Geordie repertoire delved even deeper, in an attempt to put a bunch of Jez's songs into context with a long tradition of North Eastern Geordie songwriters, stretching from historical figures like Joe Wilson and Tommy Armstrong (the latter called by Ewan MacColl the father of modern protest song), to more recent local heroes like MarK Knopfler, Alan Hull and Ed Pickford. The DVD included with the new album visits all of these writers, along with stunning footage shot by local people and communities who have known their fair share of good times and bad times, and yet have always had plenty to sing about. The music of Jez Lowe has now taken its place alongside these stalwarts of song, as the region looks forward to the future.