Nick Lowe’s quality holiday revue

British power pop and new wave legend Nick Lowe is perhaps best known for penning Elvis Costello hit “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding.” Four decades later, Lowe’s message is “Peace on Earth” as he continues to tour each December on 2013’s Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection for All the Family (Yep Roc).

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Lowe was initially hesitant when Yep Roc co-founder Glenn Dicker pitched the idea of a Christmas album. “I thought it was a really terrible idea because in this country, we have sort of a snooty attitude toward this sort of thing,” Lowe says. “You guys over there really get into Christmas and you really enjoy it ... In this country, it is seen as a bit of a nuisance and people are rather grudging about the whole thing. Also, if you make a Christmas record, it’s seen as a cheap cash-in. I thought I was too highfalutin and fancy for something like this.”

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Once Lowe warmed up to the idea, though, he set out to make an album that avoided the predictability of contemporary holiday releases. “I thought I would find some songs people have not heard hundreds of times,” he adds. “When people do Christmas records, they seem to do the same 12 songs.”

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Among the lesser-known tunes among the lesser-known tunes Lowe unearthed are Roger Miller’s “Old Toy Trains” and “Christmas Can’t Be Far Away,” an Eddy Arnold hit culled from Georgia native Boudleaux Bryant’s songbook.

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Lowe also added an upbeat ska twist to one of the most obvious holiday songs imaginable, “Silent Night.” “If we were going to do a real low chestnut — pardon the pun — like that, we would make sure we would offer it up in a fresh way,” he says.

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As a cousin to the original U.K. punk scene (Lowe produced the Damned’s first single, “New Rose”), singing about the birth of Christ seems odd, despite the Dickies’ better-known take on “Silent Night.” To Lowe, singing both that and album’s opener “Children Go Where I Send Thee” rebels against most secular holiday albums’ lack of spirituality. “People nowadays when they do Christmas songs, they tend to leave that out,” he says. “Everyone gets a bit sensitive about it. They tend to focus more on the reindeer or chestnuts roasting on an open fire. They tend to steer away from the big picture.”

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Do reverent takes on the Nativity of Jesus make a Stiff Records original just another pious Pat Boone? “I would describe myself as a Christian, but not a very devout one,” Lowe says. “There’s a reason why they call it the ‘greatest story ever told’ ... But I don’t think I’m ramming something down someone’s throat. I don’t think I’m ever going to end up on some sort of Christian record label. As far as I’m concerned, I consider what I’ve done as Tin Pan Alley hackery.”

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Lowe’s trademark wit was still intact when it came time to write originals to fill out the album, including songs about Christ explaining his birth matter-of-factly (“I Was Born in Bethlehem”) and the horrors of holiday travel (“Christmas at the Airport”). The latter has become Lowe’s contribution to the seasonal canon. “I heard it playing in a Starbucks once in between George Michael and Johnny Mathis,” he says. “I was pathetically pleased.”

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For this year’s holiday tour of the U.S., Lowe is joined by opening act and backing band Los Straightjackets. The Nashville-based, luchador mask-wearing rockers are no strangers to adding a clever spin to holiday classics, as evidenced by ‘Tis the Season for Los Straitjackets! (2002) and Yuletide Beat (2009).

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Los Straightjackets’ upbeat sound and selections from Lowe’s huge catalog of infectious originals brings more than just Christmas cheer to the stage. “We play poppy tunes that are appropriate for a Christmas party,” Lowe says of the set list. “We try to keep it jumping. The show that we do is kind of a sock hop for adults.”

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Three tours on, Lowe’s fears of producing yet another novelty album has proved unfounded, as the power of holiday classics and viability of fresh Yuletide jams has remained constant. “I thought it would last for one Christmas and it would be forgotten,” Lowe says. “And I suppose that’s the nature of doing a Christmas album. It might go in and out fashion, but it never goes out of style.”

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Lowe’s pop message of peace is now wrapped in garland, drawing crowds with an album most diehards have likely owned for two or three years — just further proof that his music is almost as timeless as Father Christmas himself.