Elvis (solo), Santa Barbara (CA), April 13, 2010

[sweetest punch]

Mail from Elvis Costello:

Elvis is playing solo dates on the West Coast! The following dates has just been confirmed:
4/09/10 - Cultural Center for the Arts (Scottsdale, AZ)
4/11/10 - Balboa Theatre (San Diego, CA)
4/12/10 - Christopher Cohan Performing Arts Center (San Luis Obispo, CA)
4/13/10 - Arlington Theatre (Santa Barbara, CA)
Because you have been such loyal fans to Elvis, we would like to offer you early access to tickets for these shows via the presale links below.
For the Arizona show, please visit the following site to purchase presale tickets now:
http://www.scottsdaleperformingarts.org ... php?id=648
For the California shows, the presale will start today, 1/05/10 at 5pm - local time via the link below.
Presale Link: http://tixx1.artistarena.com/elviscostello

Username: elvis
Password: costello

See you at shows!

[johnfoyle]

Anyone here going ?

https://artsandlectures.sa.ucsb.edu/Det ... rfNum=1709

[And No Coffee Table]

I'll be there.

[woz]

I'll be there.

[johnfoyle]

http://www.independent.com/news/2010/ap ... arlington/

Elvis Costello Goes Solo at the Arlington

UCSB’s Arts & Lectures Bring the Iconic Songwriter to S.B.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
By Charles Donelan

Thursday, April 8, 2010

Sorry, Morrissey, no dice, Sting, and better luck next time, Bono — Elvis remains the King. Taken together, his 20-plus albums reveal a towering figure on a par with the best pop artists of the 1960s and early 1970s; people like Joni Mitchell, Elton John, and Neil Young. In addition to developing his cliché-blasting lyrical gift into a definitive voice for a crucial moment in time (à la Bob Dylan), Costello has created a vital sonic universe that’s proven prescient despite the changing mainstream and independent pop landscape of the last 30 years. Ever since the staggering opening bars of “Watching the Detectives” in 1977, Costello has lead the way toward a sophisticated amalgam of pub rock passion, dub reggae roots, American soul, and power pop punch. Married in recent years to jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall, Costello now has two small children (twin boys, Dexter Henry Lorcan and Frank Harlan James) and spends the bulk of his time in the United States and Canada. Restless in his search for new challenges, Costello continues to pump out great records, including 2009’s Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, recorded in Nashville with the likes of Jerry Douglas and T-Bone Burnett, and a popular television program, Spectacle, which just completed its second season on the Sundance Channel.

When I spoke with Costello recently by phone, he was buzzing with ideas and energy, clearly excited about the prospect of taking to the stage at the Arlington for his April 13 concert, one of the crown jewels in a stellar season of programming for UCSB’s Arts & Lectures.

How do you plan to approach the solo concert setting?

I haven’t played many solo shows in the United States recently, and it is a long time since I have played the Arlington, which is such a wonderful theater. I would like to help the people out there who are looking at the notice for an Elvis Costello solo show and wondering, “What’s that going to be like?” right now. I’m sure some folks are out there and they’re thinking, “Is this going to be an evening of madrigals? Does Costello do folk music now? What is it that Elvis has planned?” Well, I’m not really a folk singer, and I haven’t done any madrigals lately, so I will play lots and lots of songs, many that you already know and some new ones, as well. I can play quite loud on my own, so you can be sure that I will rock out from time to time.

Seriously, the point of these solo shows, from my perspective, is that they are the way I find out how my new songs are working. My experience has been that when you tour with a band and you go into the new material the audience often takes that moment to nip out for a drink or to go to the bathroom, but when you’re alone onstage, if you craft the setlist and control the dynamics just right, they will stay with you for the new ones and give them a fair shake. I feel like there’s an accumulated story when the new songs are interspersed with all the hits, and it’s then that the recent material gets more of a chance to take hold.

You’ve been writing a bit lately your website, mostly about the loss of some old friends like T-Bone Wolk, Charlie Gillette, and now John Ciambotti from the Clovers. How does the web fit into your day-to-day?

That’s true, it’s an outlet that I use, and I’ve been on there lately primarily because of these unfortunate losses, as you say. We’re actually in the process of launching a much more detailed website at elviscostello.com. Look for that very soon, within a few weeks of the Arlington show. It will have a lot more things to do and hear and read. It’s been a struggle for me, accepting that this medium would become the new reality for distributing music. For someone who [didn’t] began his career working with computers, I’m afraid I’ve been slow to adapt to the digital revolution, and I still believe that the digital distribution model should be in proportion to all the other ways that an artist’s work reaches the fans. We’ve seen the dissolution of the album format over the last decade, and now its up to us to tell a coherent story through digital media such as the web, but it still has to be done by the artist to some extent, because a third party may be good at the technical aspects, and yet miss the point of the artist’s expression. It’s also a challenge to compose an experience that hangs together in a medium that is inherently fragmented. For me, going online feels a bit like I’m Alice down the rabbit hole—you don’t know where you’ll end up. I start out looking for country, and the next thing I know I’m deep in Django Reinhardt. It’s so easy to be drowned by your own curiosity.

As for my own writing on the web, I do appreciate that I can put my thoughts out there as they occur, although I am sorry that so many recently have been memorial posts. There’s one thing I won’t be doing, which is to tweet about every little detail of my life. You won’t be hearing what flavor of coffee I’m having, so don’t look for it.

Are you spending any time in England these days?

I’m not particularly close to anyone in England anymore, except for my family. I’ve lived in this country for most of the last 19 years, and of course now that I’ve married Diana we spend a fair amount of time in Canada, which is wonderful.

You started out on Stiff Records and, at least in England, your rise to fame is often associated with the independent record label. How do you see the relationship between the indies and the so-called majors?

Well, the glory days of the independent record labels were in fact a mixed bag, and even some of the majors, like Atlantic Records, actually began as independents. The true independents — the ones like Sun and Specialty — I have conflicted views toward them due to the way they treated their artists, so I don’t idealize independent labels for their own sake, but I do see the importance of them to the music, historically. Once the large companies saw a pound note in them, most of them got bought up. At least the owners were usually music people. Today, it’s unusual to have someone who is in charge of a record company be someone from the traditional music business. People who have come to their roles from other things run contemporary labels. “The opportunity business” is probably a better name for it than “the music business” with the way it is run now.

Even as late as the 1970s and 1980s, when I was coming up, there were still some major labels that supported genuine artist development. Think of the albums Warner Brothers let Prince release before he finally connected with a mass audience — five albums worth of soul searching, including 1999, a double record, all of them released before Purple Rain became a huge hit. But that’s partly because Warner had Van Halen to pay the bills while they took their time with Prince. But that’s all gone now — no one can afford to operate in that way today, with the top acts subsidizing the developing artists.

Did you feel like an outsider when you were starting your career?

Every niche in the music world has a different history. For me, access to the scene in the late 1970s required some adjustments. For one thing, it was not the right time for one-man, one-guitar efforts. If I had come along five years earlier, it might have been different, because there were so many singer/songwriters on the charts at the beginning of the 1970s; people like Jackson Browne and James Taylor. But by 1977, it was glam and all that, and I didn’t wear lipstick, and I didn’t do shows in drag, or whatever. I found my way into the scene; it just took a bit of doing. And as soon as I arrived, there seemed to be others who had come up kind of the same way — putting out their own records and playing lots of shows — and who had some of the same do-it-yourself sound about them, groups like The Smiths and R.E.M. Of course that doesn’t mean that there was anything really ragged or unprofessional about them, just that they sounded like maybe you could do it, too. I also had that gritty DIY sound at first, but soon I wanted to go beyond it. And it wasn’t long before the whole thing got co-opted, and there were slicker, more heavily produced versions of the so-called new wave sound.

Whatever kind of music you are talking about, there are generally cycles, including earlier periods where the ideas are first getting worked out in a somewhat primitive form, and then later periods when it’s the same things, but in grander versions. Now that I say it though, I am reminded of the exceptions. Motown was certainly fully evolved from the get go, and there was never anything wishy-washy about the Beatles. They had it all there right from the start.




Describe the process you went through in recording your first album, My Aim Is True.

I was surprised to find myself in the studio with a group of professionals, Clovers, and delighted with the fact that they could execute my songwriting ideas. I suppose the indifferent technique that I brought to the session myself gave it that roughness that we all seemed to find so appealing at the time. In the end, it was a very good thing that I had those musicians there to make My Aim Is True work.

Was there a moment when you knew that you had something special, a track for instance that stands out because of how you felt when you first heard it?

Yes, sure, there was a moment like that. We were listening to the playback of “Watching the Detectives,” and I thought, “This is it. This is the sound that’s been in my head. This is what I have been aiming for.” So that was an important breakthrough. But then putting together The Attractions, and having the experience of playing together every day and testing things in live setting, that also gave me a new set of criteria for judging success and failure.

You are a veteran of much successful and disparate collaboration. What is it about working with other musicians from other branches of music that keeps you coming back to it?

At a certain point, I felt it was time to branch out and start making records with other people, but the impulse came primarily from my own artistic temperament. It wasn’t like there was a demand. It’s actually the opposite. Even people who like your music aren’t necessarily out there thinking, “I wish he would collaborate with a string quartet, or make a record with a really good mezzo-soprano.” For the fans, this is all somewhat suspicious, like I’m somehow just doing it to make myself look clever. But the proof is in the music, which I like to think is quite good.

So the collaborations are labors of love, is that it?

Yes and no. Just because I try something once doesn’t mean I want to stay doing it forever. A lot of what I have done by way of collaboration stays with me in subtle ways that someone on the outside would never notice. The great experiences of collaboration, for me, go on to become these invisible influences. I certainly don’t expect people to listen to the songs I’m doing now for evidence of my interest in string quartet music, or in Burt Bacharach. If I’m known for anything these days, I would have to say it’s for not doing the same thing twice. But the experience of working with great people is so rich that it is bound to affect you. I had the pleasure of recording with an outstanding string band recently in Nashville, and the thing that I came away with was the feeling that this was actually not bluegrass, it was rock ‘n’ roll, but with no drummer. It’s not better or worse than the supposed “real thing” of rock, it’s just different.

You recently wrapped the second season of your artist profile T.V. show, Spectacle. What has that experience been like?

Spectacle has been a really interesting project. Although it often confirmed things that I suspected about the guests I had, as far as musical influences and so on, we did whatever we could to make sure that for the songs we did together, for instance, nothing’s the arrangement that they ordinarily play. We felt that creating unusual combinations and unexpected juxtapositions would make for a richer picture of the artist.

The Sundance Channel has done a great job with the series in New York and Los Angeles, but they don’t have the penetration elsewhere in the States that you would get on a network, or even on basic cable. In Canada, where CBC carries Spectacle, it gets a much broader exposure. The reality is that the Sundance Channel doesn’t get as many casual viewers, so your grandmother doesn’t necessarily see the show the way she might in Vancouver or Toronto. But still, the quality of the listening is always the most important thing, so I’m grateful for the targeted Sundance Channel audience, because they really do love the show.

How’s the family?

The twins are three years and two months old now, so they really are full of beans. We try to do something as a family every day, and we mostly succeed, even though we’re out on the road a lot. Diana and the children will be with me for 10 days, around the time when I play Santa Barbara, and that will be great for me because I will get to be with them even though I am on tour. When I was recording in Nashville last spring, we spent quite a lot of time together, but otherwise it has been a very busy year for these working parents. We both took on something extra this year. I did the television show, and Diana toured and did a lot of producing. Fortunately, now we’re a little more focused and can be together more.

What can people expect from your April 13 show in S.B.?

These solo shows are an opportunity I’ve been looking for because of all these new songs I’ve got. When you’re traveling with a band and you start in playing new material, for some reason, people often take it as their cue to leave for a moment. What I’m working on with this solo act is making the new ones so shockingly vivid in the way I have of playing them and positioning them in the set that people will fall for them the way they once did for all the old ones. That’s what I’m out there for — to make these new songs into the next crop of good old ones.

[johnfoyle]

http://www.dailynexus.com/article.php?a=20611

State Street Hall Hosts Elvis Costello

By Rebecca Lehrmann / Reporter

Published Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Issue 105 / Volume 90


World-renowned musician Elvis Costello will grace the stage of Santa Barbara’s Arlington Theatre tonight at 8 p.m.

Promoting his critically acclaimed album Secret, Profane and Sugarcane, Costello will take the stage to perform his latest songs as well as the old favorites. Tickets cost $28 for UCSB students who present a valid student ID and prices range from $42 to $89 for the general public.

According to Arts & Lectures marketing director Colleen Debler, it took great effort on behalf of the program to add UCSB to Costello’s North American tour sites.

“Our executive director, Celesta Billeci, has been trying for about four years to bring him to Santa Barbara,” Debler said. “It is an achievement not only for the community, but also for UCSB students to host such a musical icon.”

Costello, who will be greeted by a nearly sold-out crowd of 2,000 people, has recently been nominated for the 2010 Songwriters Hall of Fame. His success began in the late 1970s with the release of his debut album My Aim Is True, which landed on the Billboard Charts the following year.

“He really appeals to such a wide range of people,” Debler said. “He has been around quite a while and is still relevant today. Younger bands take influence from him even now.”

Costello has sold over 12 million albums worldwide and has yielded numerous hits since the start of his career. He currently hosts his own show on the Sundance Channel called “Spectacle: Elvis Costello with…” where he has interviewed renowned musicians such as U2’s Bono and Bruce Springsteen.

Heather Silva, Arts & Lectures assistant to the director, said the fact that Costello is not performing in Los Angeles or San Francisco speaks volumes about the amount of work it took for the university to book his performance at the Arlington Theatre.

“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Silva said. “It’s a really special event for him to be solo and have an entire evening dedicated to his work. We are all very excited to have him here.”

For more information, call (805) 893-3535 or visit http://www.artsandlectures.ucsb.edu/.

[wordnat]

Nice interview. He seems excited about the new songs, which is great -- but will we really have to wait until September for the new LP? What the hell am I supposed to do with myself until then? Take up gardening or something? Arrgghh!

[sweetest punch]

http://www.dailynexus.com/article.php?a=20611

Costello has sold over 12 million albums worldwide and has yielded numerous hits since the start of his career.

Only 12 million? Seems a little more to me.

[Jack of All Parades]

Mr. Foyle, thank you for sharing that interview prior to the Arlington concert. A nicely informative read:

Fun to see how he views solo performing as a chance to "find out how my new songs are working". Stripped of the studio gimmickry.

I love his statement that digital is only one way of distribution and that it should be in proportion to all other means of traditional distribution. Distrust of the medium.

Love the 'no tweeting' dictum.

Would seem he has really put England behind him and gives it little thought these days.

Pleasantly surprised to read him associate himself in development with bands like The Smiths and Rem, as they all shared a "do-it-youself sound".

Sheer joy in spending time with the family.

Finally the sense that the current run of shows is a performing lab where he is 'making the new ones[songs]so shockingly vivid in the way I have of playing them and positioning them in the set that people will fall for them the way they once did for the old ones. That's what I'm out there for to make these new songs into the next crop of good ones." Like seeing that pride of ownership in the new 'new' material-makes me think we are in store for something special in the months to come. [Also just like the farming metaphor-casting the seeds and seeing what comes up of value in the 'crop'.]

[And No Coffee Table]

Setlist:

01. 45
02. Either Side Of The Same Town
03. Veronica
04. Down Among The Wines And Spirits
05. Brilliant Mistake
06. Bullets For The New-Born King
07. Everyday I Write The Book
08. Bedlam
09. Jimmie Standing In The Rain
10. Slow Drag With Josephine
11. Watching The Detectives
12. Radio Sweetheart / Jackie Wilson Said
13. God's Comic
14. The River In Reverse
15. Alison
16. In Another Room
Encore 1
17. Sulphur To Sugarcane
18. Lucky Dog
19. Man Out Of Time
20. All Or Nothing At All
21. The Spell That You Cast
22. One Bell Ringing
23. So Like Candy
24. Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood

Diana Krall was there. "Sleep Of The Just" was on the stage setlist, but it wasn't played.

[johnfoyle]

18. Lucky Dog

The Nick Lowe song from The Rose Of England (1985)?

[And No Coffee Table]

No... This was the song described in a San Diego review as "a folk song I didn't know about a dog" and on the San Luis Obispo setlist as a "'folksong' about a dog and Vietnam (cover of a b-side from the 70's by I didn't catch who. Elvis sang it after joking that this evening had everything but an animal act."

Elvis gave the song a similar intro in Santa Barbara, but he said he found it on a single from the 1870s. I assume he was joking about it being a folk song, and he actually wrote it himself.

I had guessed the title as "Who Was That Lucky Dog?" but it was just "Lucky Dog" on the stage setlist.

[johnfoyle]

This one ?

http://www.rocky-52.net/son/son_w/walker_bil/song_1.mp3


http://www.rocky-52.net/son/son_w/walke ... _bil_1.htm


YOU LUCKY DOG
(Harlan Howard)
« © '70 Tree Publishing »

Yes you took her off my hands you lucky dog
You took over all my plans you lucky dog
Now she'll break your heart in two turn it every shade of blue
But I'm a wishing I was you you lucky dog
You look up to No 1 you lucky dog and you're in for lots of fun you lucky dog
But the future you must face when she's gone without a trace
But I'd love to take your place you lucky dog
As you hold her in your arms you're so blinded by her charms
I know my warning doesn't penetrate the fog
You're the king it's plain to see but your crown's in jeopardy
For another soon to be the lucky dog
[ whistle ]
As you hold her in your arms...
Oh but I'm a wishing I was you you lucky dog

[And No Coffee Table]

Nope!

[waterloosunset94]

I hope somebody figures this one out! I got nowhere on google.

It is definitely a war song. The dog is by the soldier's side on the battlefield. In San Luis Obispo Elvis said it came from the songwriter's experience in Southeast Asia. It didn't seem like he was telling a story and it was really he who wrote it, but who knows...

Maybe he'll sing it tomorrow night in NY and someone will get more details.

[woz]

Elvis also mentioned at this show (as well as the one in San Diego) that the dog ended up on the cover of Life Magazine which was more than he could say for the dog's owner whose name escapes me.

Hope that helps.

[johnfoyle]

http://www.smacksy.com/2010/04/elvis-an ... d-now.html

Friday, April 16, 2010

(extract)

Last Tuesday I saw Elvis Costello at the Arlington Theater in Santa Barbara. He played alone on the stage with his guitar. I am 45 years old and my hair has been dyed to cover the gray. I wore a vaguely business casual ensemble with a colorful scarf to keep off the chill. I sat in my assigned seat and clapped appreciatively between songs. The crowd looked like the population of a 30 year high school class reunion. More than one of the men resembled Mr. Belvedere with a ponytail. Someone got kicked out for taking a picture with his i-phone.

Elvis wore a suit and a tie and his signature black framed glasses. His temples were graying and under his hat, a receding hairline. It was a grand performance. He played my favorite song, “Alison.”

[And No Coffee Table]

Elvis Costello Brings Something for Everybody
The singer-songwriter plays a diverse set in a solo show at The Arlington Theatre

By Jeff Moehlis, Noozhawk Contributor | Published on 04.16.2010

Elvis Costello has always been hard to classify. His debut album, My Aim Is True, was released in 1977 during the height of punk rock’s ascendance.

He certainly had some punk attitude in those days. For example, against the wishes of Columbia Records, he famously cut short his performance of “Less Than Zero” on Saturday Night Live and launched into “Radio Radio,” a move that kept him off the show for more than a decade. But he clearly was not punk in the same way that the Sex Pistols, The Clash or The Ramones were punk.

Indeed, over the years, Costello has displayed an impressive musical range, including pop, rock, country, classical and, yes, some punk (check out his 1978 album This Year’s Model). Costello’s range and clever lyrics were on display Tuesday night in his solo show in front of an appreciative audience at The Arlington Theatre. His performance will no doubt be remembered as one of the highlights of the 50th season of the UCSB Arts & Lectures series.

Costello kicked off the concert with his song “45,” played on acoustic guitar but enriched by a distorted sound added to the mix. After “Either Side of the Same Town” came an early highlight, “Veronica,” a 1989 pop song co-written with Paul McCartney that became Top 20 hit in the United States.

Unfortunately, these first few songs were marred by latecomers and a full-blown dispute over who was supposed to be sitting in a particular seat. There wasn’t much peace love, and understanding in that section of the theater.

Costello told the audience that he wrote the next song, “Down Among the Wine and Spirits” from his 2009 album Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, after receiving the following advice from his father about singing: “Never, ever look up to a note; always look down.” Costello chuckled and confessed that he was as bewildered by that as the people in the audience.

It was followed by another highlight, “Brilliant Mistake,” with its memorable opening line, “He thought he was the King of America.” Next up was the first of several new songs for the evening — the engaging, delicately fingerpicked “Bullets for the New Born King.”

Somewhat surprisingly, Costello introduced the next tune, “Everyday I Write the Book,” as a song he used to hate “until my friend Ron Sexsmith taught me how to sing it.” He then dropped the tuning of his guitar’s low-E string for the spirited acoustic-funk of “Bedlam.”

Costello then said, “I’d like to introduce you to my very special guest.” He sat down and amusingly declared, “It’s me.” He played two new songs in vintage style, “Jimmie Standing in the Rain” about a cowboy singer hitting English music halls in the 1930s and the amusing “Slow Drag with Josephine.” For the latter song, which he proclaimed was what rock-and-roll sounded like in 1921, he sat on the edge of the stage, and played, sang and whistled unmiked to the rapt audience.

The proceedings returned to more modern times with the wildly received “Watching the Detectives” from his debut album, which featured a guitar solo that grew to a swell of distortion and feedback. This was followed by another song from 1977 — “Radio Sweetheart,” a B-side to Costello’s first single and, he claimed, his first-ever recording. This included a call-and-response with the audience, eventually segueing into Van Morrison’s “Jackie Wilson Said.”

After “God’s Comic” and “River In Reverse” came a heartfelt version of his beloved song “Alison,” which transitioned into “In Another Room.” This wrapped up Costello’s main set, but there was much more to come.

Costello’s encore began with the wildly amusing “Sulphur to Sugercane,” featuring such lyrical gems as “The women in Poughkeepsie / Take their clothes off when they’re tipsy / But I hear in Ypsilanti / They don’t wear any panties.” The next song was introduced as a cover of an obscure folk song from the 1970s about war, with lyrics that started with “I sucked in my final breath, stared into the eyes of death” and ponders “Who was a lucky dog, was it you or me?” (A challenge to readers: Who sang the original version? Contact me if you know.)

The remainder of the encore included the Costello classic “Man Out of Time,” a cover of jazz standard “All or Nothing At All” best known from Frank Sinatra’s version, several new songs and “So Like Candy,” and concluded with “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood,” which was originally recorded by The Animals and later covered on Costello’s album King of America.

It’s pretty amazing how much musical territory Costello covered with just himself and a forest of guitars. It wasn’t a rock concert, it wasn’t a pop concert and it certainly wasn’t a punk concert. What was it? It was an Elvis Costello concert. Enough said.


Elvis Costello’s Aim Remains True
The Legendary Musician Rocks the Arlington

by MARKO DESANTIS

Famously bespectacled, suited up, and quirky voiced music icon Elvis Costello took the Arlington stage accompanied by his vintage guitar collection and a yellow tea cup. Santa Barbara was the last stop of a rare weeklong string of solo performances in select West Coast cities. He spent the night switching guitars and encouraging crowd participation. Tossing and turning through an over two-hour set of old faves, deep gems, and recent work.

He fluffed the crowd with a few cuts off his 1977 arrival My Aim Is True, tucked in his popular Paul McCartney collaboration “Veronica” (from 1989’s Spike), and then dug into “Down Among the Wines and Spirits” from 2009’s Secret, Profane & Sugarcane album.!

The intimate setting succeeded both in celebrating the songwriter’s depth as a lyricist and, more surprisingly, illuminating his adept skill as a guitarist.

For example, on his hit, “Watching the Detectives,” he tuned-down and used his delay effect-pedal to create a rhythm guitar loop over which he played the lead part. Then he detoured from a fairly safe sing-through into an unexpected sonic barrage of dissonant notes, feedback and wall of noise. It was a definitive Elvis Costello moment.

Throughout his vast 33+ year career Costello has kept people guessing. He’s followed his moody muse through such diverse terrain that by now he is bound to possibly enthrall and disappoint a portion of his fans (or business associates!) at any given time.

There’s always going to be the ones that want the radio hits; the ones who selfishly wish he would sniff some blow and return to his salad days, and those who fancy his genre-jumping musicologist forays into jazz, country and classical. But Costello doesn’t pander and the audience didn’t seem to mind.

Before going into a newly inspired take on “Everyday I Write the Book” he explained “my friend (Ron Sexsmith) taught me how to no longer hate this song!”

Then he tested out a few brand new songs: “Josephine” introduced as, “a song that sounds like rock ’n’ roll sounded in 1921.” And, “Jimmy Standing in the Rain,” which he explained, “…is the story of a cowboy singer making his way through the English music scene of 1937.”

He received multiple standing ovations and delivered what seemed like a bonus set’s worth of encore material including a sultry take on Sinatra’s “All or Nothing at All.” It was an apropos sentiment, as if to say “you want EC? Then you get the whole EC, not just the version of me you like best.”

The crowd loved his “So Like Candy,” which he cheekily mashed up with the chorus of The Animals “Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood.” Misunderstood? Probably. Paradoxical even, but, make no mistake, Elvis Costello’s aim remains true; music still matters to him.


Elvis Costello | 04.13

Words & Images by: L. Paul Mann

Elvis Costello, in his trademark geeky, large rim glasses and stylish hat, played a solo show in front of an enthusiastic crowd, as part of the U.C. Santa Barbara's Arts and Lectures concert series. Costello is riding a huge new wave of success, due to his popular television series Spectacle, now in its second year. The elegant and intimate Arlington Theatre was the perfect venue for this morphing musical magician to showcase over three decades of songwriting genius. The set, lasting a little over two hours, included 24 songs, ranging from his first American hit from 1977, "Watching The Detectives," to songs from his most recent album, Secret, Profane and Sugarcane. This newest work is a co-production with T Bone Burnett, who Costello has collaborated with since the 80s.

Costello is one of the most prolific songwriters in modern pop music, in the company of legends such as Bob Dylan and Paul McCartney (the latter of which he has also collaborated with). But even more impressive is this master musician's chameleon ability to reinvent his music time and again. His catalog of at least 44 albums includes forays into punk rock, pop, jazz-fusion, acoustic folk, country, and even classical music. Each new tour reveals a new take on his older songs.

The solo show at the Arlington was no exception, reworking older material into new masterpieces, while blending it with his newer work. Armed with an army of no less than ten guitars, each with a unique sound, he covered the gamut of his musical library. As satirical as ever, the older but ever feisty icon bantered with the adoring crowd. At one point, he introduced his guest star, which was himself sitting at a separate acoustic set up with yet another guitar, creating a sound reminiscent of a bygone era. Songs like "Sulphur to Sugarcane" from his new album sounded like they could have been played by an early 20th century minstrel show. Later, Costello completely unplugged his guitar and sat on the edge of the stage billowing, sans microphone into the crowd. The eerie, quiet notes created yet another new layer of sound as they bounced off the theatre walls. Then, in an instant, Costello switched to an electric guitar back on the main stage. He commenced a rock fusion version of "Watching The Detectives," complete with digital sound loops so that he could play lead over his own rhythm. It was a sound more reminiscent of Joe Satriani than the angry young man of 70s punk-pop fame.

With each new song Costello bounced about the stage, cajoling the crowd to sing, clap or dance along to classic old songs or quirky new material. The enthusiastic response included a standing ovation after nearly every song. Both the exhausted crowd and beloved performer seemed content as the marathon show came to an end, dripping with mutual admiration. Elvis Costello may have been making hits for several decades, but in no way does he appear to be "A Man Out of Time."

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Some photos from the article from The Santa Barbara Independent:

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More photos: http://www.jambase.com/Photos/Gallery.aspx?galleryID=23

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http://www.dailynexus.com/article.php?a=20704

Elvis Costello Plays the Arlington
The Rock Legend Brings Down the House at his Arts & Lectures-Sponsored Acoustic Appearance
By Hunter M. Daniels / Staff Writer

When Elvis Costello took the stage for his sold-out show at the Arlington Theatre last Wednesday, he found himself surrounded by nearly a dozen artfully placed guitars.

“Is he going to play all of those?” whispered a nearby concertgoer. Indeed he would. The stage, decorated only by those shapely, shiny, six-string, hollow-bodied beauties, acted as a sort of metaphor for Costello’s 30-plus-year career.

Costello is one of the world’s preeminent musical artists with a career spanning from the post-punk of The Imposters that produced works like “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love And Understanding,” through a long and vital solo career, on into acting in art films, all the way up to his recent bluegrass efforts. He nimbly jumps from one genre to the next, always experimenting, always innovating.

And just because a song has been recorded doesn’t mean that Costello is done with it, as this show amply displayed. Instead of playing stripped-down variants of his greatest hits, Costello reinvented them, often warping them into unrecognizable shapes. This type of inventiveness was especially highlighted by a show-stopping, extra long rendition of “Watching the Detectives” that evolved into a psychedelic cacophony with the aid of ingenious loop pedal work.

At his core, Costello is a bit of a ham, clearly taking great joy in his plethora of knowingly gimmicky stage gags. He was shameless in his claptraps, inciting stomp-a-longs, sing-a-longs, name-dropping Santa Barbara half a dozen times and even working the venue name into a song title.

Instead of hiding the looping pedals, he highlights them, pantomiming the chords, but not actually playing them. Instead of staying on the well-lit stage, he perched on the edge and played a song without so much as the aid of a microphone. The man puts on a show. His stage presence is stellar, and he holds the audience in the palm of his hand, toying and teasing with tongue-in-cheek song intros like, “I used to hate this song, until someone taught me how to sing it.”

One can almost hear the arc of his career in the various voices that Costello chooses for different songs. He still employs the slurred almost southern twang that was his signature on early songs but reveals this affectation as a choice by performing new works in a crisp, clean English accent. He is so versatile an artist that it almost feels like the show was performed by two or three entirely different singers.

And about those new songs: Costello is a real outlier. Whereas most performers of his generation have either died, retired or simply fallen into pathetic self-parody with their more recent lyrics, Costello still seems vital and young. Perhaps it is because his work was always anachronistic and atypical, but the recent selections were not low points or mediocre in any way. Instead they represented some of the show’s highlights. Very few artists in any medium enjoy a second act worth a damn, but if Costello only had the second half of his career, or even only the last third, he might still have reached the same level of popularity and reverence.

Over the course of 110 minutes, broken up by no less than seven standing ovations, Costello demonstrated that just because you have wrinkles, doesn’t mean you ever have to grow old. Even without “Radio, Radio” and “What’s So Funny,” Costello is a rock star. Even when he plays acoustic.

[johnfoyle]

Loads of photos -

http://music-illuminati.com/photos-elvis-costello/

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Lucky Dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01GnnGFR0zM
In Another Room: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hD1d6Hpc ... er&list=UL
So Like Candy / Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VEi0PSy1 ... er&list=UL