Nick Lowe keeps his cool flowing

The much-loved “Basher” — who was so named for his ability to bash out top-notch songs with what looked like no effort — is back with his latest release, “That Old Magic.” Not that the guy whose album “Jesus of Cool” set the path for New Wave’s birth has ever been off heavy rotation on many music lovers’ playlists.

“I suppose I have been planning for this,” said Lowe when asked how he keeps his music so vital at age 62. “I thought, ‘I am going to get older in this business, I should figure out a good way of presenting myself and use it as an advantage as opposed to something I contend with.”

Whatever he did, it worked. The New York Times wrote of his “remarkable second wind” after “That Old Magic” gave him career-high sales and chart placement and he was invited on tour with Wilco.

“It was a very bold move on their part,” said Lowe of the opening slot Wilco offered him. “I didn’t quite know how I’d come across with their people although their audience was one I was keen to make myself known to.”

And that quest for new listeners may well explain how Lowe is thriving while many of his contemporaries are resting on their past successes. Lowe has made a career of moving ahead, working with everyone from Elvis Costello to Johnny Cash to Graham Parker and the Pretenders. Rather than taking bows for his innovation, though, Lowe considers such partnerships just part of his own musical journey.

“I am always looking for opportunities to play with great musicians,” he said, recounting the musician’s creed that one should never be the most talented person in a band. “I’m really not interested in taking on Nashville or taking on others. I [create music] with a slight European-centric aspect to it.”

That sort of slant is one Lowe has developed to include the elements his longtime fans enjoy while prodding new audiences to listen to his sound.

“If I get it right and make it hip enough, the youngsters will like it as well as my old fans,” he said. “I sort of wanted to avoid preaching to the converted … I wanted to develop a new audience and keep it swinging.”

And when he’s asked about “Shame on the Rain,” which he recorded for his new album, he said he always tries to cover songs as well as write originals for his recordings.

“I didn’t write that one. That was written by Tom T. Hall,” he said, adding that the questioner shouldn’t be embarrassed to talk about a song he didn’t pen. “I always like to cover songs; it shows you’re not too self-absorbed.”

He really is the King of Cool.