Elvis Costello – Secret, Profane & Sugarcane (Hear Music)

Hardly a day goes by that we hear about another performer leaving their chosen career trajectory and taking a swing at country music.Some of these travelers deeply feel the need to honor the history, the tradition, of the genre. They also bring something new and interesting to the sound. Then there are the carpetbaggers. The ones who’s career have a justly stalled and are looking to find a new audience in a genre they mistakenly see as an easy get. They carry with them the foul stench of mediocrity they cultivated from whence they came.

The latter category is too painful to detail here but a prime example of the former is Elvis Costello. A singer/songwriter so accustomed to straddling, hopping and distorting genres that people are surprised when he returns to his earlier literate pop-punk roots. Costello’s love of American Southern music is well documented. The established Angry Young (British) Man takes a sharp turn from edgy punk-pop to head to Nashville and cut 1981’s Almost Blue which featured songs by Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, George Jones and Gram Parsons. The post-divorce roots-folk of 1986’s T. Bone Burnett produced King of America. 2004’s The Delivery Man featuring duets with  Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams – who he also performed with in a CMT Crossroads. There is the Costello T. Bone Burnett penned Scarlet Tide was used in the film Cold Mountain, nominated for a 2004 Academy Award and performed by Costello it at the awards ceremony with Alison Krauss, who also sang the song on the official soundtrack. Point being his newest Americana release Secret, Profane & Sugarcane is not a hard diversion nor a lark for Mr. MacManus.

It doesn’t help that you’re sound is so distinctive that people start to harp on it like it’s a curse. Secret, Profane & Sugarcane like it’s spiritual cousins Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline, Neil Young’s Harvest and the Rolling Stones’ Exile on Main Street seems to lose points some detractors because the work reflects the unique characteristics the artists brings with them when they cross the Americana tracks. If you prefer your music by outsiders to be cleansed of all traces of the performers unique earlier style, well, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane is not for you.

The album took three days to create in a Nashville studio (March 31 to April 2, 2008)  thus beating out the usually fleet Bob Dylan’s Nashville Skyline, which took 9 days (February 12, 1969 – February 21, 1969) is with producer T Bone Burnett- whos is becoming the go-to-guy when you want to do Americana – and focuses on Costello’s own work rearranged for a crack band featuring Stuart Duncan on banjo and fiddle, Jerry Douglas on Dobro, , Dennis Crouch on bass, Mike Compton on mandolin and Mr. Americana himself Jim Lauderdale lending honey harmony vocals to counter Costello’s (in)famous keen.

Things get off to a nice starts with Down Among The Wines And Spirits, originally written for Ms. Loretta Lynn, is a lolling down-and-out drinking song featuring the kind of wordplay Costello has become famous for (there’s that uniqueness again!) Complicated Shadows, first recorded for 1996’s All This Useless Beauty and originally written for Johnny Cash, gets the amped-up greasy blues treatment that would make Tony Joe White smile.

The beautifully sad I Felt the Chill Before the Winter Came was penned by Costello and aforementioned Loretta Lynn is lovely but brings to mind the coldness suggested in the title. My All Time Doll is a hillbilly cabaret number featuring the excellent accordion work by Jeff Taylor and a demo from All This Useless Beauty Rhino reissue Hidden Shame gets a great rousing makeover.

How Deep Is the Red?, She Was No Good,”She Handed Me a Mirror, and Red Cotton
are  from Costello’s unfinished Hans Christian Andersen chamber opera The Secret Songs (did I mention that man was eclectic?) As prolific as Costello is, he is known to rework his own songs for different occasions, and although these songs do carry trace elements of their classical origins they sound right at home here.

Sulphur to Sugarcane was written by Costello & T Bone Burnett for (but not used)  in the Sean Penn 2006 film All The King’s Men. The song sounds like a bawdy ragtime-jazz response to Johnny Cash’s I’ve Been Everywhere as imagined by Leon Redbone. The Crooked line is rumored to have been an unused song for the Johnny Cash biopic Walk The Line and Costello is reported to have said that it’s “…the only song I’ve ever written about fidelity that is without any irony.” Here the song is a Cajun-flavored duet with Emmylou Harris with Emmylou way too far down in the mix, or just right, depending on your feeling about Ms. Emmylou’s disctinctive style. Changing Partners is a more-or-less faithful rendition of a the ubber-crooner Bing Crosby’ classic  number of lost love.

Is Secret, Profane & Sugarcane a great country or Americana album as you might expect from a seasoned vet? No. Is it a great Elvis Costello record? No, it hits just about in the mid-range of his canon. But with the likes of Jewel, Miley Cyrus and Kid Rock paraded as examples of roots and country music’s future Costello has given us a lovely, lively work to brace us out of that nightmare.

Official Site | Buy

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GbAHi3AegMI[/youtube]

Elvis Costello on David Letterman

Anyone catch Elvis Costello on David Letterman last night? He played the title cut from his new Americana album Secret, Profane & Sugarcane Costello was joined onstage by Americana legend Jim Lauderdale.

This isn’t the performance (I will post it when I find it) but it is Letterman from ’96 and pretty sweet rendition of Emmylou and Gram Parsons’ Love Hurts.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ojsVB7idTLw[/youtube]

Steve Earle Interview on Canada’s The Hour

The Canadian late night talk show the Hour has a great interview with Steve Earle.  Earle talks abut making his career and his newest release Townes, a tribute to his mentor Townes Van Zandt and recounts some great stories with his time with Townes. The snake wrangler story is worth the watch!

Jim Fusilli at the Wall Street Journal (wsj.com) reviews the Steve Martin Concert at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York City. Martin, Supported by the Steep Canyon Rangers, performed work from his latest bluegrass release “The Crow—New Songs for the Five-String Banjo” (Rounder)

John Jurgensen, also of the Wall Street Journal,  covers the upcoming Elvis Costello twang-tinged release Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, Costello’s varied career and his thoughts on the current state of the record industry. The album was cut in three day in Nashville and is produced by Americana-roots journeyman T-Bone Burnett (who Costello collaberted with on 1986’s King of America) and featured Grammy-winning singer/songwriter Jim Lauderdale.

Whitney Self  at the CMT.com blog reviews the recent Jamey Johnson show at Nashville’s legendary Ryman Auditorium and and states is the rowdiest (and drunkest)  he’s ever seen at the venue.

AamericanaRoots.com give sa listeds to the new Scott H. Biram Bloodshot release Something’s Wrong/Lost Forever.

Kevin Ransom at Ann Arbor’s Mlive.com interviews Austin’s guit-steel master Junior Brown.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VRMNeoaosQw[/youtube]

Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett Ready Release

Elvis lives! Elvis Costello, that is. Costello will again join with T Bone Burnett as producer for “Secret, Profane & Sugarcane,” (Hear Music, June 2nd) his first acoustic American roots album since 1986’s “King of America” (also a Costello/ Burnett collaberation.) The album was recorded during a three-day session at Nashville’s Sound Emporium Studio.

The band arranged for Sugarcane includes such Bluegrass and traditional country musicians as Jerry Douglas (dobro), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Mike Compton (mandolin), Jeff Taylor (accordion) and Dennis Crouch (double bass).  Emmylou Harris sings on one song, and Burnett adds his Kay electric guitar sound to several songs, which is the only amplified instrument on the album.

Ten of the album’s 13 tracks are new Costello compositions, including two written in collaboration with Burnett.  One song, ” I Felt The Chill,” was written by Costello and Loretta Lynn, while two of the album’s tracks — “Hidden Same” and “Boom Chicka Boom — were originally written by Costello for Johnny Cash.

The vinyl version of the album will feature two additional songs:  an acoustic arrangement of Lou Reed’s “Femme Fatale” and Costello’s sequel to an old Appalachian murder ballad entitled, “What Lewis Did Last”.

Costello will do select tour dates with “The Sugarcanes,” a band featuring musicians who played on the album, in June and August.

“Secret, Profane Sugarcane” track list:

1. Down Among the Wine and Spirits
2. Complicated Shadows
3. I Felt the Chill
4. My All Time Doll
5. Hidden Shame
6. She Handed Me a Mirror
7. I Dreamed of My Old Lover
8. How Deep is the Red
9. She Was No Good
10. Sulfur to Sugarcane
11. Red Cotton
12. The Crooked Line
13. Changing Partners

Americana Music Festival Chooses Artists

The Americana Music Association, working in partnership with Sonicbids, has selected the first two showcase artists for the upcoming Americana Music Festival (which will be held September 16-19, 2009 in Nashville, TN).

Brigid Kaelin made the front page of The Tennessean on her very first day playing Nashville, daring to play the accordion to country music during the 2007 Nashville Star finals. Last May, she wrote Elvis Costello a note offering her services as an Imposter, and he invited her to play live with his band without rehearsal. Dueling head-to-head accordion solos with keyboardist Steve Nieve, she later received several standing ovations during her musical saw solo.

Kaelin is a trained jazz pianist who played show tunes at West Village cabarets while a student at New York University. She released a country Chanukah record “Mazel Tonk!”

Jacob Simpson (vocals, guitar), Chase McGill (vocals, guitar, banjo, piano) and Dustin Hedrick (violin) initially formed Come On Go With Us while studying at Mississippi State University.  With their strong Southern roots in mind, they embraced the idea of sweet tea, hot weather, family and friends, soon began the writing process and later took to the road. The band’s first full length album drops in March.

Applications for the 2009 Americana Music Festival will be accepted through Thursday, April 30, 2009.  You may submit your materials directly to the AMA office via mail. All submissions must include the application form. Information on the submission process and access to the application form may be found at the AMA Website.

Conference registrations currently at the early bird discount rate of $250 for members and $350 for non-members are available at the Americana Music Online Store.

Loretta Lynn Plays the Opry this Weekend

Country Music legend and Country Music Hall of Famer Loretta Lynn takes time off her busy touring schedule and -  recording new songs with Elvis Costello, Todd Snider and others, for a possible 2009 release – to spend this weekend performing on the Grand Ole Opry, where she has been a member since 1962.  (The Tennessean)

And speaking of Country Music legends, Dolly Parton has been slated to be inducted into the Gospel Music Association Hall Of Fame. The ceremony will take place at Nashville’s Richland Country Club on Feb. 2.  Dolly has most recently been involved in a three-CD project titled This Is America that features her among 56 artists and songwriters who’ve recorded songs that tell the story of the United States. (GAC)

Alison Bonaguro over at the CMT bog asks “When Is It Too Soon to Cover a Country Song?”

No Depression’s Kurt B. Reighley reviews a book on classic country photos Pure Country: The Leon Kagarise Archives, 1961-1971 which conatins candid shots of June Carter, Kitty Wells, Skeeter Davis, Bill Monroe, the Louvin Brothers, Porter and Dolly, Jim Reeves, Jeannie C. Riley, Ray Price and many more as they stppoed by to play in Rising Sun, Maryland, and West Grove, Pennsylvania. Looks like a must have to me!

Colbert Christmas to Feature Willie Nelson and Toby Keith

That bastion of righteous irony, Stephen Colbert, will celebrate the impending consumer slump this Sunday with A Colbert Christmas: The Greatest Gift Of All.

Colbert fights the “war on Christmas” with this surreal bit of spiked nog that sxews Christmas specials of the past. Think Andy Williams in a cabin in rural Michigan and the town nearby has a gas leak that’s making eveyone act strangley. The strangeness is offered by the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart, Elvis Costello, Willie Nelson, John Legend, Toby Keith, and Feist.

I have to say, I’m not a big fan of Toby Keith, but after seeing him do a send up of, well, himself singing a song about Santa dropping nukes from his sleigh on heretics who don’t believe in Jesus or Santa, who Keith explains are actually the same person, Keith might have a new fan.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uTzbm5E_qq4[/youtube]