NORTH Yorkshire-based singer songwriter Jez Lowe was midway through a concert tour of Canada when lockdown restrictions brought everything to a sudden halt.

Once back to the UK, Jez decided to use his newly-acquired free time to record a new album. Playing all the instruments himself, and recorded on to his laptop in the backroom of his cottage near York, Jez has now released the new album on CD, with 12 new songs, all very much reflecting his Geordie roots and love of acoustic folk music.

For the past 40 years, since the release of his first album in 1980, Jez has travelled the world singing his songs of the North Country, many of which have been picked up and recorded by other folk music luminaries such as Fairport Convention, The Dubliners, and more recently The Unthanks and The Young Uns.

Jez has also worked extensively in radio, notably as a principal writer on the award-winning BBC series The Radio Ballads, and as a presenter on Radio Four’s Open Country series. Last year a suite of his songs was featured as part of Radio Two’s Armistice Day celebrations, in a live broadcast featuring the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

The new album, is entitled Crazy Pagan, a phrase taken for one of the catchy choruses that feature on the album. The songs themselves deal with everything from sporting heroes, Shaking Monty, social protest, (This is Not My Tribe), musical heroes, Louisa’s Choosing, and a healthy dose of Jez’s trademark humour (Talk to me Dirty in Geordie.

The new album is currently Album of The Week on Canada’s Blues and Roots Radio channel and getting heavy airplay on music stations across the UK and abroad. And to think it all began life in a cottage in the North Yorkshire countryside amid the strange solitude of lockdown and the uncertainties of these strange times. The result is an antidote to it all, and an album that Jez considers to be among his best ever work.

The CD was launched online on Facebook on November 8 and is available via YouTube. For more details, see www.jezlowe.com.