An Intro by John Bardwell
San Diego, CA April 2008

“There’s only 2 kinds of music: good music, and bad music” (Steve Earle, live in London, 1988).

“The Last Call” is a perfectly good slice of music that needs no further categorization. I was at that gig, Ed Abbiati wasn’t. However, we attended a good few gigs together in the late 90s / early 00s. Those days, some grey, some sad, some of the happiest times we ever had, were the genesis of “The Last Call”, the debut album from Ed’s band, Lowlands. A personal journey through elation, despair, loneliness, love lost and found, and hope, one I shared in part and watched in part from a distance.
As road warriors and partners in crime, we shared a lot. Bound by a mutual love for Springsteen and Earle, Waits, Young, the Replacements, Cash and The Clash, Ed educated me about many classics that I’d unfairly ignored (Dylan, Ani Di Franco, Todd Snider, You Am I) and new Americana like Wilco, Son Volt, Whiskeytown and many others. In return, I indoctrinated him with my twisted take on good music – Steve Wynn and the Dream Syndicate, Dan Stuart, Chuck Prophet and Green on Red, Husker Du, the Gin Blossoms, the Black Crowes. This gloriously eclectic mix sustained and inspired us through good times and bad, and most show up in some shape or form on the album.
Back to the music. The band (Simone Fratti, Simone “john” Prunetti, Paolo Maggi, Stefano Speroni, Chiara Giacobbe, Francesco “lebowski” Verrastro) frame the warm, often fragile, always emotion-laden vocals perfectly – this is the sound of friends complementing each other perfectly, with an instinctive knowledge and sense of each other. Even the guest musicians are friends, and it shows. Richard Hunter’s world-class blues harp, Slo-Mo’s achingly gorgeous slide on “In Between”, Chris Cavacas’s keyboard artistry on Friday Night, all blend perfectly with the core values of the album.
“The Last Call” is full of songs about love found and lost (Like a rose, What can I do?), promises made and broken (You can never go back), finding solace and absolution in the bottom of a glass (the heady concoction that is the Cavacas-mixed “Friday Night”, as potent as a pitcher full of Long Island Ice Teas), places visited that were memorable for the best and worst of reasons (Leaving NYC, with Sandy’s ghost to the fore). As Ed says, “There is a bit of everything I think, love, death, traveling, some damage, desperation, hope, friends, ghosts, cemeteries and pubs... Hopefully the music will take you to some of these places...and back again.”
Ed writes a lot of songs about ghosts. The album is guided and haunted by the ghosts, Ed laying his soul bare, recounting the mistakes of the past and the hope that is the new day rising. “The album is about the sensations one has in those moments,” Ed concludes. “There can be rage, loneliness, incredible hope and even strange happiness. But you have to value the things that sustain you. My music and my friends have sustained me. I’m happy to have them both here on this album.”
About halfway between the fabled Jersey shoreline and the West Coast I now call home you’ll find those flatlands, inhabited by the last of the hardcore troubadours we know and love, like Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Joe Ely, Dave Alvin and Butch Hancock. The spirit of the Lowlands is alive and kicking in the flatlands of Northern Italy.

Lowlands current line up: Edward Abbiati Lead Vocals, Acoustic Guitar Simone Fratti Bass Chiara Giacobbe Violin Phil Ariens Drums Roberto Diana Electric Guitar Stefano Speroni Acoustic & Electric Guitar Ste Brandinali Piano & Keyboards Francesco “lebowski” Verrastro Acoustic & Electric Guitar