Nick Lowe here on unlikely holiday tour

For a pop act like Mariah Carey or One Direction, a Christmas album comes as no surprise. But some of the best holiday music often comes from the least likely sources.

Nick Lowe is a revered (if still relatively underground in the U.S.) U.K. songwriter, performer and producer. He’s best known stateside for his hit “Cruel to Be Kind,” producing early Elvis Costello albums and writing “What’s So Funny (About Peace, Love and Understanding).”

Lowe’s had a prolific, eclectic career collaborating and producing with all sorts of acts in all sorts of genres, but his latest – a live holiday follow-up to 2013’s “Quality Street: A Seasonal Selection For All the Family” with masked luchadore instrumentalists Los Straightjackets – may not be what fans expected. “The Quality Holiday Revue Live” tour with Lowe and Los Straitjackets hits Visulite Thursday.

“I actually had no desire to do a holiday record,” says Lowe, calling from his home in London. “We have a very funny attitude to this sort of thing over here in the U.K., very different to how you are in the United States. You get really into Christmas. You love it. It’s seen as a bit of a nuisance (in England), and if you do something like a Christmas record it’s seen as a bit cheesy, a bit vulgar, a sort of cashing in.”

When the head of Lowe’s longtime label, Haw River, N.C.’s Yep Roc Records, suggested it, Lowe thought “’I’m a little bit too highfalutin’, a bit too fancy.’ That lasted for about 40 seconds,” he says.

Instead of tackling the usual suspects, Lowe dug for lesser known holiday songs and penned a few of his own.

“The rule was if we did do something that was well known – for instance we do ‘Silent Night’ – we have to offer it up in a completely different treatment,” he explains.

He calls his original song “Christmas at the Airport” a “piece of Tin Pan Alley hackery” juxtaposed with a spiritual track about Christ’s birth.

“I’m not devout. I suppose I describe myself as Christian, but certainly nonpracticing. The religious aspect is all part of the language of Christmas. There’s a reason they call it ‘the greatest story ever told,’ whether you’re a believer or not. I was thrilled to be able to write a song like that, even though it’s a pop song,” he says.

He admits a holiday tour in the U.S. does make things more festive, not to mention having a young son at home.

“When I was on holiday in Italy last summer, I was lying by the pool, and took a contemplative sip of my cocktail, and thought, ‘Perhaps the joke’s got a bit thin?’ Now, I’m really looking forward to it,” he says with a laugh.

“It’s very infectious over there. I start off being a bit embarrassed by it, but it doesn’t take too long to get into it,” he says of the tour, which isn’t just caroling. As the live album indicates, it’s more of a festive concert than a strict Christmas show.

“Although the show features a lot of Christmas music, especially from the record we made, we do a lot of other stuff too. It’s not very introspective or deep. It’s all toe tappers,” he explains. “I would describe the evening as a sock hop for grownups. Although there is quite a lot of younger people who come.”

This story was originally published November 25, 2015 at 2:17 PM with the headline "Nick Lowe here on unlikely holiday tour."