Fort Worth Star-Telegram, September 4, 2009: Difference between revisions
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But Elvis Costello fans should expect risk by now: He has spent a good deal of his 30-year-plus career exploring different genres, whether it be classical, late-night crooning, Burt Bacharach pop or the bluegrass-inflected material on his latest album, ''Secret, Profane & Sugarcane''. | But Elvis Costello fans should expect risk by now: He has spent a good deal of his 30-year-plus career exploring different genres, whether it be classical, late-night crooning, Burt Bacharach pop or the bluegrass-inflected material on his latest album, ''Secret, Profane & Sugarcane''. | ||
That album's sound — which borrows from bluegrass via Jerry Douglas' dobro, Mike Compton's mandolin and Stuart Duncan's fiddle, but isn't really bluegrass — dominated Costello's performance Wednesday night at Nokia Theatre. But the show branched out well beyond that album. | |||
Costello and the Sugarcanes (the above musicians along with guitarist/vocalist Jim Lauderdale, bassist Dennis Crouch and accordion player Jeff Taylor) played a few songs from the new CD, leaning hard on its best cuts, such as "Hidden Shame," which Costello wrote for Johnny Cash; the ribald "Sulphur to Sugarcane"; and the lovely "Changing Partners." | |||
But it was clear from the opening number, a rollicking version of the other Elvis' "Mystery Train," that Costello was going to mix things up. He quickly got around to a reworking of "Mystery Dance," off his debut album, ''My Aim is True'', and the countrified version added irony and detracted sting from what was originally an angry song about sexual confusion. | |||
There were other rearrangements of old material, and although they were all intriguing, the new instrumentation served some songs better than others. "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding," which closed the show, worked especially well, but the redone versions of "Blame It On Cain" and "Everyday I Write the Book," came off more as curios than revelations. | |||
The small, mostly appreciative crowd seemed to get into it, though, especially when Costello threw in wild cards such as covers of the Rolling Stones' "Happy." And those who stuck it out through the encore were treated to the cute if surreal sight of Costello serenading a guitar-wielding toddler named laden, who was brought on stage during "Alison." | |||
But this was part of Costello's relaxed, jovial mood throughout the night, during which he cracked wise several times about playing in Grand Prairie, about the frigid temperatures in the theater and about advice from his father. Anyone who has watched his Sundance Channel show ''Spectacle'' knows how the former "angry young man" has become more like an amusing, intellectually curious uncle. | |||
If he wants to gather a bunch of friends for front-porch versions of his and others' songs, well, it might not be for everyone, but it's hard to hold it against him. | |||
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People who stayed through the encore of Elvis Costello's show Wednesday night (reviewed on this page) might be wondering about Jaden, the guitar-wielding little boy Costello brought up onstage and serenaded with Alison during the encore. Well, we were wondering, and here's what we found out, courtesy of Jaden's mom, Shauna Butterfield of Arlington: | People who stayed through the encore of Elvis Costello's show Wednesday night (reviewed on this page) might be wondering about Jaden, the guitar-wielding little boy Costello brought up onstage and serenaded with "Alison" during the encore. Well, we were wondering, and here's what we found out, courtesy of Jaden's mom, Shauna Butterfield of Arlington: | ||
" | "Jaden turned 2 in May and has loved Elvis since he was a year [old]," Butterfield said in an e-mail. "He started watching [Costello's Sundance Channel show] ''Spectacle'' and that was it!! He sits for hours, sets up his microphone, gets his hat, guitar and even his drum set and sits and teaches himself to play, watching everything he does!! It's crazy. I try to get him to watch anything else but he won't have it! He knows the words to his songs and everything, it really is amazing how into it he is for being so young!!" Some people are just born with good taste. | ||
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Revision as of 06:45, 6 May 2020
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