We’ve all heard the lout in the back of the crowd, yelling “Freebird!” or some such annoying thing. On this tour, Elvis Costello brings those guys right on stage. You May Also Like: Elvis Costello’s ‘The Delivery Man’ Once Again Resisted the Urge to Look Back

by Mark Saleski In a review of this artist, one writer said, “Oh … my … gawd. I was transfixed. Mesmerized. Jaw aslack. A pop music deer caught in Lewis’s headlights. It’s just one of those things.” Yeah, I wrote that. You May Also Like: No related posts.

Growing older has made Nick Lowe grayer, a little quieter, but no less clever, no less relevant, and certainly no less off-handedly absorbing. He is the living, breathing, guitar-playing, Buddy Holly shade-wearing embodiment of the old saw about getting better with age. You May Also Like: East Axis [Matthew Shipp,Read More

by Mark Saleski One of my favorite guitar players, Ribot defines ‘angular.’ While some of his finest stuff has happened as a sideman (good gawd, he’s all over the fricken place on Tom Waits’ Rain Dogs … and now that I think of it, he applies extra twangosity on ElvisRead More

by Tom Johnson Elvis Costello makes yet another shift in his career, this time to take on the persona of a jazz crooner backed by an orchestra arranged and conducted by his own bad self. Does it work? Depends on your view of Elvis: If, in your world, he’s theRead More

by Mark Saleski This is not about politics. Though I do try to keep a safe distance from it, the volume level of that particular circus has risen to something beyond deafening. You May Also Like: No related posts.

By Mark Saleski When writing on or near the Thanksgiving Day holiday, it has become the custom to either enumerate the things we’re thankful for or to go the consumerist route and talk about Black Friday. Black Friday? C’mon, when me and TheWife™ got up this morning, the temperatures wereRead More

This Costello disc followed up the simple, organic country-folk of 2009’s Secret, Profane And Sugarcane. The personnel (the Sugarcanes), including red-hot producer T Bone Burnett, carries over but only a little of the music does. National Ransom, which also includes the Imposters as well as Vince Gill, Marc Ribot, BuddyRead More