Red Cotton

Red Cotton Written by Elvis Costello Performed by Elvis Costello Produced by T Bone Burnett Recorded March 31-April 2, 2008, Sound Emporium Studio, Nashville Released June 2, 2009 Albums Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, 2009 Background:  Written for Elvis' unfinished chamber opera The Secret Songs. First known performance:  October 8, 2005, Copenhagen, Denmark      (30 known performances) “‘Red Cotton’ imagines [P.T. Barnum] reading an Abolitionist pamphlet while sewing red-dyed scraps of Lind's garment, even as he confronts the burden of guilt attached to its very threads.” — elviscostello.com, March 23, 2009.