Raleigh News & Observer, June 15, 2009

Bibliography   72 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 UK & Ireland weeklies UK & Ireland magazines UK & Ireland newspapers US newspapers US rock magazines US music magazines US magazines US alternative weeklies European magazines European newspapers Canada  •  Mexico  •  Asia Australia  •  New Zealand South America  •  Africa Blogs  •  Fanzines  •  Books Online publications Raleigh News & Observer   1981 January 27 1987 April 17 1987 April 23 1994 June 20 1996 June 2 2002 May 12 2004 October 17 2009 June 12 2009 June 15 2012 May 1 2015 August 7 North Carolina publications  Asheville Citizen-Times Burlington Times-News Charlotte News Charlotte Observer Duke University Chronicle Durham Herald-Sun Durham Morning Herald Fayetteville Observer Elon University Pendulum Greensboro News & Record Guilford College Guilfordian Indy Week Kinston Free Press NC State Univ. Technician Raleigh News & Observer Richmond Daily Journal UNC Asheville Kaleidoscope UNC Daily Tar Heel UNC Greensboro Carolinian UNC Wilmington Seahawk UNC Yackety Yack Wake Forest Old Gold & Black Wilmington Morning Star Winston-Salem Journal Yes! Weekly US publications by state  AL  •  AK  •  AR  •  AZ  •  CA CO  •  CT  •  DC  •  DE  •  FL GA  •  HI  •   IA   •   ID   •   IL   IN   •  KS  •  KY  •  LA   •  MA MD  •  ME  •   MI  •  MN  •  MO MS  •  MT  •  NC  •  ND  •  NE NH  •  NJ  •  NM  •  NV  •  NY OH  •  OK  •  OR  •  PA  •  RI SC  •  SD  •  TN  •  TX  •  UT  VA  •  VT  •  WA  •  WI  •  WY — Elvis Costello channels his inner Bruce Springsteen David Menconi Elvis Costello seemingly has next to nothing in common with Bruce Springsteen. And yet New Jersey's favorite son is exactly who Costello's Sunday night performance at Koka Booth Amphitheatre brought to mind. Admittedly, Springsteen fronts a bombastic bar band that plays arenas while Costello's latest incarnation is country stringband leader playing in bucolic outdoor settings — but bear with me here. Costello's show was almost Springsteen-ian in its sheer length, a marathon that lasted almost two-and-a-half hours. Among the many between-song anecdotes Costello related was one in which his father featured prominently (giving the cryptic piece of advice, "Never look up to a note, always look down at it."). And the 30-song show was a wonder of multi-genre crossbreeding, in which Costello rendered a half-century of popular music as a seamless whole. Costello is touring these days with the Sugarcanes, a killer six-piece ensemble featuring some of Nashville's best players, most notably dobroist Jerry Douglas and Statesville native Jim Lauderdale on backup vocals and guitar. Despite the collection of world-class chops onstage, the players indulged in virtually no instrumental showboating and kept everything in service to the songs. Costello was in quite fine voice, and these players were good enough to create arrangements that actually sort of implied the sounds of horns and keyboards. Despite Sunday night's heat, Costello came onstage in a dark suit jacket he did not remove (although he did take off his hat after a few songs). He and the band entered with no fanfare and began with a rather cheeky first selection, "Mystery Train" by Costello's namesake Elvis Presley. That was one of a half-dozen covers, along with most of the new album Secret, Profane & Sugarcane (Hear Music) — which debuted on the Billboard album chart at No. 13 this week, Costello's highest placement in 30 years. The show also had a handful of songs from 1986's King of America, Costello's other major foray into American roots music, very skillfully rendered. Really, though, the most fun interludes were the covers and Costello's own oldies, which had a name-that-tune aspect. "Blame It on Cain," "Everyday I Write the Book" and "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" were originally recorded in vastly different electric-rock-band versions. Yet they worked beautifully in an acoustic format, transposing to country stringband tunes so well you'd have sworn they were written that way. "Everyday I Write the Book" was particularly effective, a piece of bouncy pure pop slowed to a mournful dirge that made the melancholia of the lyrics a lot more evident. Some of the covers were obvious enough, given the show's country leanings, including Merle Haggard's "Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down," the Grateful Dead's "Friend of the Devil" (featuring Lauderdale's best and most prominent vocal of the night) and George Jones' "The Race Is On." But the masterstroke was the Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale," in a cool percussive arrangement that barreled along like a steam train. Predictably, perhaps, Costello saved a couple of his signatures for the extended encore, "Allison" and "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding." Of course, they were both fantastic, especially "Allison" — a song Costello made feel as if it still means something to him even after more than three decades. It was a beautiful thing. The News & Observer, June 15, 2009 David Menconi reviews Elvis Costello & The Sugarcanes, Sunday, June 14, 2009, Koka Booth Amphitheatre, Cary, North Carolina. Images Photo by John Rottet.

External links

• The News & Observer
• Wikipedia: The News & Observer