page_title: Jez Lowe
section_title: Songwriting
hierarchical_section_title: Jez Lowe / Songwriting
caption_attribution_description: English: Jez Lowe, UK folk singer-songwriter on stage in Hobart, Australia, April 1997 (Tony Rees photograph)
context_page_description: John Gerard "Jez" Lowe is an English folk singer-songwriter. Lowe was born and raised in County Durham, in a family with Irish roots. He is known primarily for his compositions dealing with daily life in North-East England, particularly in his hometown of Easington Colliery. He attended St Francis RC Grammar School in nearby Hartlepool and later studied languages at Sunderland Polytechnic. He performs both as a solo artist and with his backing band, The Bad Pennies. In addition to singing his songs, Lowe accompanies himself and The Bad Pennies on guitar, harmonica, cittern, and piano.
context_section_description: John Gerard Lowe grew up witnessing the decline of the coal-mining industry that had defined the region's economic profile for generations.  A great many of Lowe's compositions address the economic distress that the North Country has suffered as a result of this industrial decline, and the social repercussions thereof.  "Galloways," "Nearer to Nettles," and "These Coal Town Days" are among the songs that directly address economic conditions.  In the much larger category of social impact songs, well known Lowe compositions are "Big Meeting Day," "Greek Lightning," and "Last of the Widows." (His song, "Last of the Widows", was written in 1991 to mark the fortieth anniversary of the pit disaster at Easington Colliery.) Numerous other songs by Lowe deal with the general issues of poverty and limited social opportunity in the region.
  The song "A Lass to Want Me" was written after meeting David Miedzianik, an autistic man from Rotherham, in 1993. It was first released in 1997 on A Season of Changes: The Autistic Awareness Album, a compilation of songs about autism released as a benefit for an autism centre in Doncaster, and then in 2003 on an expanded reissue of his 1998 album The Parish Notices.
caption: Lowe on stage in Hobart, Australia in 1997
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