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A year after tearing it up with the reckless abandon of his most explosive work, Elvis Costello revisits the roots he first explored at length on Almost Blue, a collection of country standards released at the height of his reign as the thinking-person's New Wave star.
But it's actually closer in spirit to King of America, an acoustic-guitar-driven, roots-rocking gem released in 1986. He even recorded in Nashville with T Bone Burnett, his producer on King of America, and sent out for Emmylou Harris to bring some extra country to "The Crooked Line," one of two songs he wrote with Burnett.
Like many highlights here, "The Crooked Line" is straight-up bluegrass, with Costello at his most romantic ("If you were my life's companion as it seems you may turn out to be") while an accordion and fiddle share the instrumental spotlight. On "Sulphur to Sugarcane," the other song he co-wrote with Burnett, Costello puts the blues in bluegrass, playing the wandering cad with a wink and a smile.
How many country artists would have thought to write a line as devilishly inspired as "Now, if you catch my eye and you find that it runs down your leg," much less "The women in Poughkeepsie take their clothes off when they're tipsy"?
Not every song is as playful as that.
"I Felt the Chill Before the Winter Came," a co-write with the great Loretta Lynn, is devastating country gold, from the opening line, "Well, there's a difference in the way that you kiss me." And Costello knows enough to undersell the pathos in his vocal where a lesser singer would have poured it on too strong.
Another highlight, "Hidden Shame," has been gathering dust for years. It was written with Johnny Cash in mind and you can definitely hear that in the slapping double bass, although it's doubtful Cash's version would have been this rollicking.
The album starts off with a drinking-man's lament, the aching "Down Among the Wines and Spirits," where "a man gets what he merits." It may be Costello's most powerful vocal here, but then, he's always made the most of lines as poignant as "Walking around with a pain that never ceases, he starts to speak and then he falls to pieces."
While most tracks pick up where that leadoff song leaves off in terms of tone and tempo, he changes it up on occasion to keep all those ballads from blending together. He's resurrected "Complicated Shadows" with a swampy blues-punk swagger, and "My All Time Doll," a tortured blues in the twisted tradition of "I Want You," finds him addressing the object of his unrequited love in a series of creepy confessions. "I flick off the switch and stare in the dark," he seethes, "and wait for you to appear" before admitting, "I'm out of control." It's the sort of song that's sure to be a highlight of the live show years from now, and it's amazing that a man in his position is still adding staples to the live set after all these years of classic albums.
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