Review from the Globe and Mail dated Aug. 12, 1995.

COSTELLO DELIVERS SPIRITED SOLO SET
Folk festival / While some might have been disappointed that Elvis Costello
made his first Edmonton appearance in 17 years without his baking band,
there were advantages.

By Chris Dafoe (Western Arts Correspondent Edmonton).
When he was 15 years old and still known to his friends and parents, if not
to the world, as Declan McManus, Elivis Costello gave his first public
performance. It was open-mike night at an English folk club and the young
McManus made his way through his song - "something about winter, in E
minor," he recalled wryly in an interview Thursday - with his eyes shut
tight to ward off stage fright. When he opened his them again at the end of
the song, he saw the evening's main attraction, English folk legend Ewan
MacColl, sitting in the front row. McColl was fast asleep.
Costello, who will be 40 later this month, returned to the folk stage
Thursday night at the Edmonton Folk Music Festival, playing an hour-long
set outdoors in front of a near-capacity crowd at Gallagher Park in the
river valley. This time nobody was napping.
Costello, accompanying himself on acousitic guitar, turned in a spirited
and delightfully unpredictable set that included early hists such as Alison
and Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes, songs he'd written for performers such
as June Tabor (Useless Beauty) and Johnny Cash (Complicated Shadows) as
well as oddities such as The ST. Steven's Day Murders, a blackly comic
Christmas song co-written with Paddy Moloney of the Chieftans.
While some might have been disappointed that Costello made his first
appearance in 17 years without his usual backing band, the Attrractions,
the solo set offered some real advantages. Costello's sharply turned lyrics
came across more clearly than they would have with a full band, and the
solo spot allowed him fingertip control over the pace and tempo of the
show. He took full advantage, livening up the set with a series of quick
changes, adding a few verses of John Lennon's You've Got to Hide Your Love
Away to the end of his own New Amsterdam, dropping a verse from the
Monkees' Last Train to Clarksville into God's Comic and capping off the
remarkable set by sliding from his first single, Radio Sweatheart, into a
sing-along version of Van Morrison's sprightly Jackie Wilson Says.
If Costello's set erased any doubts about the wisdom of inviting pop
performers to an ostensibly "folk" celebration, the rest of the evening
showed the diversity of talent that festival artistic director Terry
Wickham has assembled for this year's event......

The remainder of the article circles around other acts attending the festival.
The festival was near essentially sold out.

Marc Bernardin
288 Renfrew Street
Winnipeg, Manitoba
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