Once upon a time, Nick Lowe was Mutt Lange. The world’s most famous, most revered, record producer. But their styles were completely different. Mutt is a micro-manager, Nick put everybody in a room, pushed up the faders and tried to capture the magic. And that he did, on Elvis Costello’s game-changing debut, "My Aim Is True".

You’d think that someone involved in a record so deadly serious would be grave and intimidating himself. But, Nick Lowe was nothing of the sort, he was IRREVERENT!

He went on to produce other Stiff acts, marry Carlene Carter, play with Rockpile and make his own records. His solo debut, entitled " Jesus Of Cool" in the U.K. but "Pure Pop For Now People" in the U.S., was the one that garnered all the attention in America, with its clever lyrics, but I liked the follow-up, "Labour Of Lust" better.

I loved "Big Kick, Plain Scrap!", but "Cracking Up" was even better… With an infectious, circular groove. People practice drums forever, trying to be as good as Neil Peart, yet it’s not about technique, but FEEL! The drums are so rudimentary on "Cracking Up", but so RIGHT! Simple, yet perfect. Nothing extra played. Just hits in all the right places. But that’s just the underpinning. Listen to "Cracking Up", perfection is in the conception, not in the endless polishing.

But my absolute favorite track off "Labour Of Lust" is "Switchboard Susan". This is the essence of Nick Lowe, an absolute tear, with no self-consciousness. The music plays and you jump up and dance, INSTANTANEOUSLY! Composed by Stiff charge Mickey Jupp, "Switchboard Susan" is the only non-original on the album, but Nick makes it his own.

Now when I look at you girl I get an extension
And I don’t mean Alexander Graham Bell’s invention

Not sung for laughs, just part of the verse, you hear the above lyrics and smile.

But then the MTV era dawned. How you looked was more important than how you played. Polish was revered. And Nick Lowe went from amazing to anonymous. Completely disappeared. Until today.

I know, he tried to make a comeback recently. That’s too scary for me. When the acts catch you up, tell you their latest music is the best they’ve ever cut and that really, 1979 was just yesterday… Ewww… The hype scares me away. If only I could stumble on these acts, ease into them, then I might be open to them, like on "Live From Daryl’s House".

If there was a mainstream campaign about this, I missed it. In a world of carpet bomb publicity, when you’re banged over the head, told to pay attention, I didn’t read a single story about Daryl Hall’s new Website/show. Maybe that’s why I’ve been bombarded with e-mail about it. Not from people involved, but FANS!

You don’t understand. When you hype me directly, tell me to listen to your album, tell me to pay attention, I’m bizarred. I’d never do the same to you. I would never wave my arms, set myself on fire to get your attention. Rather, I’d build a campfire, off in the distance, out in the landscape, that I’d hope you’d ultimately see and be drawn to.

I’ve seen too many of these homemade YouTube shows. That you have to watch in their entirety for the few nuggets. I never checked Daryl’s site out. Until tonight. When I got e-mail that Nick Lowe was on, and he played "Cruel To Be Kind".

Go to: Live from Daryl’s House Episode 8. You’ll see the show with Nick Lowe is chopped up. You can go DIRECTLY to "Cruel To Be Kind", the big "hit" off "Labour Of Lust".

And that being so easy, I dialed in the archive. Turns out you’ve got to enter your e-mail address. This is WRONG! If I want to be notified, I’ll VOLUNTEER my e-mail address. Hasn’t Daryl Hall heard of SPAM? But, after finding a false user name and password online, I logged in. And I saw that in Episode Five, Daryl had played with KT Tunstall.

Now knowing I didn’t have to watch the whole show for the nuggets, I clicked through. I watched "Kiss On My List", since that’s one of my favorite Hall & Oates tracks. But, listening to Daryl vocalize, I saw a clip for "Something To Talk About"…THE BONNIE RAITT TRACK?

YES!

Who knew KT had this much SOUL? Oh, she’s no threat to Bonnie… But all previous KT performances have been missing a certain SEXUALITY! Here she lets loose, lets out a certain guttural edge, you see a whole new dimension of her.

Now, despite being done on the down low, this series is not done on the cheap. Production values are astoundingly good.

But the music is not slick.

Watching these clips your greatest desire is to JOIN IN! Come on, you know three or four chords. You can sit on a stool and play along, sing background, right?

Yes, there’s just that level of informality, this is not stars talking down to you, it doesn’t even have that backstage, inner sanctum vibe, hell, it’s DAYTIME! This looks like the greatest job in the world! Not being a star, not being rich and famous, but playing music, singing your favorite songs.

How many times did KT sing "Something To Talk About" before she made it with "Black Horse and the Cherry Tree"? All musicians have to start somewhere…with covers, of the CLASSICS! You know the classics, don’t you?

They say that if people keep stealing music, there won’t be any music around. HORSESHIT! There just won’t be any fat cat music executives around. Musicians have to play. Technology allows people to notice. Ten, fifteen years ago, Daryl Hall would have had to pitch this show to VH1. Provide a budget, convince the station it would get ratings. With the new technology he can fuck all that and just DO IT!

Sure, H&O were the beneficiaries of all that major label hype. But, never forget, Clive Davis put them out of business. They were put out into the wilderness, alone. Now, they own their own record company and do it their way. Musicians in control… How great is that?

Even better is the elimination of the middle man between us and them, between the fans and the artists, no lame filter saying what can and cannot be done. The performances from Daryl Hall’s house breathe, they’ve got an electricity absent from the Top Forty, they draw you in, you want to check out more. Isn’t that fascinating, when you want to push your wares upon us, we want to pull MORE from someone else!

Don’t do it to be rich, don’t do it to be famous, do it because you love to play music. Know that that might be the only reward you ever get. Daryl Hall’s show is not going to go network and eclipse "Dancing With The Stars", never mind "American Idol", but an ever-growing coterie will become aware of it, allowing his flame to burn ever brighter, allowing him to continue to play music for a living.