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Elvis Costello - Secret, Profane and Sugarcane
You've heard Elvis Costello sing country music before, but not like this. The lad who gave us Almost Blue is quite mature and worldly wise now. On the opening track, when he sings, "Down among the wines and spirits where a man gets what he merits...once it was written in letters 'bout nine feet tall, now he sees how far he's fallen," he sounds like he truly has been sobered by life's hangovers. The song "Down Among The Wine And Spirits," plus a few others featured on Costello's new album, Secret, Profane And Sugarcane, premiered in 2007 on The Bob Dylan Show tour, and fans have been jawin' 'til the cows come home from Harvard about what direction Mr. Prolific's new album would take. Well, it's country, sort of, smart enough for the overly-educated, toe-tappin' enough for the Cracker Barrel crowd, and mesmerizing enough to keep everyone in-between fascinated.
The behind the scenes lowdown is dizzying, but here's the quick recap: Produced by former Costello cohort and legendary roots reviver, T Bone Burnett (yes, de-hyphenated), this mixed topical bag contains an unfinished storyline commissioned by The Royal Danish Opera involving Hans Christian Andersen, Jenny Lind, and P.T. Barnum ("She Handed Me A Mirror," "How Deep Is The Red," "She Was No Good," and "Red Cotton"); a Loretta Lynn co-write ("I Felt The Chill"); two songs co-authored with T-Bone Burnett ("Sulphur To Sugarcane," "The Crooked Line"); "Hidden Shame" (previously recorded by Johnny Cash on his Boom Chicka Boom album); and a Bing Crosby waltz, the Lawrence Coleman/Joseph Darion composition, "Changing Partners." Musicians include Dennis Crouch (double bass), Mike Compton (mandolin), Jerry Douglas (dobro), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Jeff Taylor (accordion), Jim Lauderdale (harmonies), and Emmylou Harris (harmony on "The Crooked Line"). The project was recorded in Nashville by engineer Mike Piersante at Sound Emporium Studios in just three days, and the only amplified instrument is T Bone's Kay electric guitar. Even the cover carries a pedigree being a pen and ink drawing by famed cartoonist/author, Tony Millionaire.
When Costello sings the backwoods-flavored "Complicated Shadows," he emotes its challenging intervals like John Hiatt, an important singer-songwriter who has committed fully to roots music over his last few albums. Loretta Lynn's lyrical and musical contribution to "I Felt The Chill" gives Costello authenticity when he sings heartbreaking lines such as the first chorus' "I felt the chill before the winter came, suffered the guilt and then accepted the blame, I wanted you before you ever spoke my name." Though the next track, "My All Time Doll," initially seems too much like old school Costello to fit with its Depression-era tempo and chord changes, its biting, bluesy lyrics uniquely are swept along by an accordion and more than a couple closing time fakeout fades. "Hidden Shame" borrows very little from Johnny Cash's version though the Man In Black's presence is felt, and the first of the Hans Christian Andersen tracks comes off like progressive gypsy folk. Costello's somber "I Dreamed Of My Old Lover" is reverse-sexed, and from the woman's perspective, "Would our kids grow stubborn or grow strong, would there limbs bronze insult to the sun," particularly is touching.
"How Deep Is The Red" comes off especially country, despite its Andersen-Lind connection, and Costello's youthful stretch for high notes evokes his Attractions recordings. "She Was No Good" makes a 2009 sense out of its 1850s Lindcentric storyline, and the flirty "Sulphur To Sugar Cane" shuffles its western swing into the beautiful, complicated "Red Cotton" that deals with abolition and souvenirs from Barnum's perspective. "The Crooked Line" is all hillbilly, and the old-timey "Changing Partners" closes the project with optimism, like a lesson learned from all that's come before. "There are undeniable threads and themes of rivers and oceans traveled," informs Costello about the album. "Of bondage and guilt, of shame and retribution, of piety, profanity, lust and love, though only the last of these is absolute. There are always contradictions. The music offers the way out. It offers the way home."
Elvis Costello's disparate material snaps together as easily as a third grader's map of America thanks to T Bone Burnett's sonic guidance that raises the album's state of country consciousness. Or maybe it's bluegrass consciousness. Where the pair's previous outings together included the rare, collaborative '85 single "The People's Limousine" (as The Coward Brothers), and T Bone's co-production of The Costello Show's King Of America and Elvis' Spike, this album is the brightest yet folksiest of their works together or anything Costello's ever touched. Its Americana, bluegrass, and folk elements breed a hybrid to hang a genre on. Because of this, maybe Costello's latest isn't exactly for those salivating for that next American Idol-styled, assembly line country album. But it is intelligent country music that's been looking for its moment to shine from beneath a Wal-Mart (via Korea) cowboy hat. Given the stagnant state of country music, maybe Secret, Profane And Sugarcane is just what Doc Watson ordered.
Tracks:
- 1. Down Among The Wine And Spirits
- 2. Complicated Shadows
- 3. I Felt The Chill
- 4. My All Time Doll
- 5. Hidden Shame
- 6. She Handed Me A Mirror
- 7. I Dreamed Of My Old Lover
- 8. How Deep Is The Red
- 9. She Was No Good
- 10. Sulphur To Sugarcane
- 11. Red Cotton
- 12. The Crooked Line
- 13. Changing Partners
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