CostelloNews.com

Elvis Costello: musical chameleon

Elvis Costello: ''He means so many things to so many
different people, and if he weren't so good at it,
he'd be a dilettante. He's bloody talented in just
about every facet of music,'' says singer-songwriter
Bill Lloyd.

By LUCAS HENDRICKSON
For The Tennessean

Esteemed rocker reinvents himself time and again

There are artists who decry the public's need to place
labels on music. They claim the music should stand by
itself.

And then there are artists who defy labels, not merely
refusing to be classified, but trying their hands, and
succeeding frequently, at every possible form.

Welcome to the conundrum that is Elvis Costello.

His driver's license may or may not read Declan
McManus, but his tax returns should read ''musical
chameleon'' in the box next to occupation. The man was
a first ballot Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Famer, yet his
career has been steeped in pop, punk, country,
classical, a dash of opera and now, thanks to his
recent Oscar nomination for The Scarlet Tide from the
Cold Mountain soundtrack, American Civil War
influences.

And he's got the divergent audiences to prove it.

''There were a bunch of people who didn't listen to
country music at all until they heard him embrace
it,'' says veteran singer-songwriter Bill Lloyd, whose
post-Foster & Lloyd solo output has been heavily
influenced by Costello.

''Anybody from another format embracing other music,
be it The Beatles loving soul music or Carl Perkins,
anytime that happens, that's when it gets interesting.
He means so many things to so many different people,
and if he weren't so good at it, he'd be a dilettante.
He's bloody talented in just about every facet of
music.''

Costello's Music City ties can be found primarily on
1981's Almost Blue album, recorded here with longtime
band The Attractions and under the guidance of veteran
producer Billy Sherrill. Costello covered hits
recorded by Patsy Cline, Merle Haggard, Charlie Rich
and Johnny Mathis, but some of the writers of those
hits had no clue who the young Brit punk popster was
at the time.

''I had no earthly idea who he was, but I started
getting these telegrams talking about him. I thought
he was just another Elvis (Presley) impersonator,''
says Jerry Chestnut, writer of Good Year for the
Roses, originally a hit for George Jones. ''When I
found out who he was and found out about how big an
international artist he was, it was exciting.''

Chestnut never met Costello during the recording of
Almost Blue, but was introduced more than two decades
later at Costello's gig at Ryman Auditorium in 2002.

Longtime devotees have admired Costello's fantastic
slew of output for more than 25 years, even if they
sometimes find it hard to keep up with all his musical
personas.

''I used to collect everything he did, but I stopped
because I wasn't interested about a quarter of the
time,'' Lloyd says. ''But he's remarkably prolific and
incredibly diverse; he's an artist for the
millennium.''

Getting there

Elvis Costello headlines a concert with Steve Nieve
and The Brodsky Quartet at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday at Ryman
Auditorium, 116 Fifth Avenue North. Tickets remaining
cost $27.50 and $35.50, and are available through
Ticketmaster (255-9600, www.ticketmaster.com) or the
box office (889-3060, www.ryman.com).

The many faces of Elvis Costello_____

Though it's difficult to encapsulate all of the facets
of Elvis Costello's creative life, you can attempt to
gather the touchstones under five different headings:

_____Attraction_____

• My Aim Is True, 1977
• This Year's Model, 1978
• Armed Forces, 1979
• Get Happy!!, 1980
• Trust, 1981
• Thanks to the snarling, satirical way in which
Costello burst onto the scene, the first five albums
compose the Pentateuch of punk pop. The San
Francisco-based rock outfit Clover backs Costello on
the first record, but The Attractions quickly come
together as not only Costello's touring band, but also
recording partners for the next nine years. These
first five records cover a lot of musical ground, from
sheer acceleration of the harder-edged material on
This Year's Model to the neo-soul experiments on Get
Happy!! to the matured yet eclectic nature of Trust.

_____Exploration_____

• Almost Blue, 1981
EC and The Attractions take up residence in Music City
to record a set of countrypolitan classics such as
Sweet Dreams, Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down and Good
Year for the Roses under the direction of veteran
producer Billy Sherrill. Some Costello fans love it,
others loathe it, but most all have an opinion.
• King of America, 1986
This is Costello's first record since his debut to not
feature The Attractions. He instead employs a slate of
A-list L.A. session folk to take his sound back to its
rootsy beginnings. This is Costello's (or Declan
McManus, whom many of the songs are credited to) real
country record, not his take on somebody else's songs.

• The Juliet Letters, 1993
Right smack dab in the middle of the grunge
revolution, Costello defies conventional (read: radio
and retail) wisdom to roll out an out-and-out
classical record. He and the Brodsky Quartet joined
for ''a song sequence for string quartet and voice''
based on a set of letters to Shakespeare's Juliet.
• All This Useless Beauty, 1996
It's Costello covering artists covering Costello; a
set of songs written for other artists but never
before recorded by the songwriter himself.

_____Collaboration_____

• Spike, 1989
After the artistic successes of King of America and
Blood and Chocolate, Costello pulled the first of his
semi-frequent disappearing acts, reemerging as ''the
Beloved Entertainer'' ‹ think Bono's The
Fly/Macphisto ZooTV era character, only more loungey
and without the satellites and stadiums. Costello
brings folks such as the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, Roger
McGuinn and Paul McCartney into the sandbox to play,
with he and McCartney cobbling together the jangily
excellent Veronica.
• Costello & Nieve, 1996
Costello and Attractions keyboardist Steve Nieve are
captured on one of their occasional piano/guitar tours
in this five-disc live set, recorded in Los Angeles,
San Francisco, Chicago, Boston and New York City.
Costello's masterful use of mike and voice are
highlighted on the track for My Funny Valentine from
the Boston show. You'll find yourself sitting up and
listening and not realizing why.
• Painted From Memory, 1998
Working with Burt Bacharach, and within the parameters
of Bacharach's output from the '60s, this record
becomes a love letter to the pop form, with limiters
attached, neither man giving in to the other's (or his
own) tendencies to overthink or overwrite.
• For the Stars: Anne Sofie von Otter Meets Elvis
Costello, 2001
And then there are those records you don't quite know
how to get a handle on. Yes, Costello sings and
contributes a few new songs, but this is clearly an
attempt to elevate opera singer von Otter in the
consciousness of Costello's devotees, then hopefully a
wider audience. Sometimes it works, sometimes not so
much.

_____Reclamation_____

• When I Was Cruel, 2002
With his first full original effort of the new
millennium, Costello clearly wanted to give the legion
of followers something substantial to chew on, as it
had been six years since they had been fed. Moments of
the old wit and snark flash forward, but shot through
the filter of age, wisdom and experience. Still, the
folks who glommed onto Costello when they were mere
lads and lasses recognize the transformation in their
own lives.
• North, 2003
Elvis in love. OK, he starts out not in love, but by
the end he's so in love you're a little jealous of
him. Putting away the trappings of rock 'n' roll for
the time being, Costello revisits the idea of a
classical-inspired song cycle (inviting the Brodskys
back for another go), but not taking the form so far
into WPLN territory that you expect to hear the intro
to All Things Considered at the tail end.

_____Television_____

• Saturday Night Live
Costello and The Attractions made their stateside TV
debut during the third season of SNL, with their
infamous startup and shutdown of Less Than Zero and
subsequent blistering version of Radio, Radio near the
end of the show. That deviation from plan kept
Costello off the influential show for a dozen years,
and the incident was parodied during SNL's 25th
anniversary show courtesy of Costello and the Beastie
Boys.
• At the Ryman
Costello's love affair with Ryman Auditorium began
with a 1996 appearance with the Fairfield Four,
followed the next night by an Attractions show in the
same building. The following year, he taped two
episodes of TNN's Ricky Skaggs-hosted series, one
appearing with Skaggs and George Jones (with whom he
had appeared in an HBO special more than 15 years
earlier) and the other with Marty Stuart and Brian
Setzer.
• Crossroads
Costello appeared in the very first episode of CMT's
series in 2001, teaming with Lucinda Williams for a
fan favorite, cross-career respect-fest. Costello
seized the opportunity to remind longtime fans how
much he loved country music, and to help showcase
Williams.