Review of concert from 2001-05-11: Vicar Street, Dublin; guest duing Roger McGuinn concert
Event Guide (Ireland), 2001-05-21
- Dave Roberts

 

Elvis Costello with Roger McGuinn

....

McGuinn walks off stage, we know he hasn't touched yet on their [the Byrds] country rock period, we're hoping the encore will seem at least make a reference to it [sic]. And then quietly and almost unnoticed Elvis Costello walks out. Now we have it all. McGuinn from the West Coast of America, Costello a second generation Irishman who changed the course of British music, the man who produced the Pogues Rum Sodomy and the Lash and who fought the wars for country rock through Almost Blue when nobody cared or wanted to know. What did we do to deserve this?

First of all they drive through the Byrds "Hey Mr. Spaceman". Then from the very same spot that Bob Dylan sang it a few months ago they strike up the chords to his "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere" from Sweetheart of the Rodeo. The ghost of Parsons walks on the stage to join them, [as] they do the McGuinn/Parsons composition "Drug Store Truck Drivin' Man". And the peak of the show is undoubtedly "Hickory Wind", the Parsons song that stepped across Sweetheart Of The Rodeo and Grevious Angel. It's an awesome moment and one unlikely to be repeated on a Dublin stage. They walk off and come back and do "So You Wanna Be A Rock And Roll Star" and "Knockin' On Heaven's Door". Costello and McGuinn leave with their arms round each other.