Thrifty Astronaut, February 17 at the Meadowlark

If Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds had been born in the '80s or '90s, they probably would have written their songs entirely in private and recorded them on their computers before unleashing them on the public. The music of Nick Jones (performing under the Thrifty Astronaut moniker this Thursday, February...

By Tom Murphy

February 15, 2011

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If Nick Lowe and Dave Edmunds had been born in the '80s or '90s, they probably would have written their songs entirely in private and recorded them on their computers before unleashing them on the public. The music of Nick Jones (performing under the Thrifty Astronaut moniker this Thursday, February 17, at the Meadowlark) has the same kind of unvarnished sincerity and wit. Jones himself lacks the annoyingly dire mawkishness that plagues many singer-songwriters: His irony-laden musings on the foibles of modern life and the people he sees around him are delivered with a curiously brittle warmth, as though he might be ever so slightly reluctant to share his insight with an audience. Jones probably didn't get his start as a bedroom pop artist, but his music is as fragile and as tender as all of that, even in his most frenetic moments.

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Tom Murphy is a writer, visual artist and musician from Aurora, Colorado. He was a prolific music writer for Westword and a documenter of the Denver music scene.

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