2001-06-13: Carnegie Hall, NYC; MC of 'O Brother Where Art Thou?' - as Presenter
- Craig Danuloff [craig@elvis-costello.com]

 

'O Brother Where Art Thou?'

Elvis did MC the O'Brother show tonight at Carnegie Hall, pleasantly introducing each artist as they rotated on stage, and make nice little Elvis Comments ('for all you music lovers, don't worry I'm not going to sing'); he did a great job. He sat behind a lecturn on stage during each performance. He joined the enormous cast for the final tune (a Stanley Brother number I couldn't name right now) but he stood way in the back with T-Bone so it was essentially impossible to hear him (drown out by Ralph Stanley, EmmyLou Harris, Gillian Welsh, Allison Krause, and a dozen others). His name did appear in the printed program so this was planned at least a bit in advance.

The show, for what it's worth, was spectacular. Given the cast and quality, really a once in a lifetime event. Elvis made repeated comments, quite sincerely, of being awed by individual performances. They could play this every night and sell out for months. Apparently there's a live LP coming out of the Nashville show some months back - that's gonna be some record.