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After a return to rocking on his last couple of albums, the ever-restless Costello turns to acoustic string band music, no drums at all.
Working with past collaborator T Bone Burnett as producer and a band of country's finest (including Jerry Douglas on dobro, Stuart Duncan on banjo and fiddles, Jim Lauderdale on harmony vocals), Costello sounds right at home in Nashville — singing 12 originals (among them one co-written with Loretta Lynn, one written for her, and a pair intended for Johnny Cash) and a Bing Crosby cover.
Even in this down-home setting, his arty side emerges with four songs from his unfinished opera about Hans Christian Andersen. But only haters will resist the humor of "Sulphur to Sugarcane" (which contains a shout-out to Worcester!) and a remake of his own "Complicated Shadows." Download: "My All Time Doll."
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