Elvis has gone country on us before. But he's never ventured as far afield as he does here. Secret, Profane & Sugarcane finds the singer-songwriter venturing deep into rustic Americana, accompanied by a stripped-down ensemble of fiddle, mandolin, accordion, double bass and dobro, with returning King of America producer T Bone Burnett supplying the occasional electric guitar lick. Cut on the fly in three days, this unvarnished outing moseys between boom-chicka-boom country, gypsy blues, gospel and zydeco, slow sad waltzes, an old Bing Crosby hit and even retooled tunes from Costello's unfinished Secret Songs opera about Hans Christian Andersen. A backwoods beauty.
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