On - Tasmin Archer
Released:
September 18th 2006

Vocals - Tasmin Archer
Bass - Bruce Thomas
Other instrumentation - John Hughes
Recorded and mixed by John Hughes
Produced by John Hughes

His latest book appears in Jan. 07 -

Immortal Combat: Portrait of a True Warrior
by Bruce Thomas

Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint med 8-manna band

Elvis Costello är en världsartist som funnits med på Dalhallas favoritlista i flera år.
Sommaren 2007 gör Costello en Europaturné med endast ett framträdande i Sverige – i Dalhalla!

A fan translates -
It has been one of Dalhallas desire to have the world famous musician Elvis Costello on our stage. In 2007 it finally happens! During the summer of 2007 Elvis Costello is on tour in Europe and makes only one concert in Sweden - in Dalhalla!

Billboard reports -
(extract)
Bjork, Prince, James Taylor and Elvis Costello are among the artists who have recorded covers for "A Tribute to Joni Mitchell," due in the spring via Nonesuch. The 11-track set also boasts contributions from Sarah McLachlan, k.d. lang, Emmylou Harris and Sufjan Stevens.

"Edith and the Kingpin," Elvis Costello

And -

(extract)

On January 23, 2007, Blue Note Records will release the companion soundtrack to Billy Strayhorn: Lush Life, a 90-minute documentary film about the pioneering African-American composer, arranger and pianist.

Lovano and Charlap also lend support to special guest vocalist Elvis Costello on one of the most striking performances on the album, a haunting version of Strayhorn's final composition "Blood Count, " which was written from a hospital bed shortly before he died in 1967. Here the tune is given lyrics penned by Costello and retitled "My Flame Burns Blue."

Similarly -

(extract)

Wilco's Jeff Tweedy, Elvis Costello and George Jones are among the artists pitching in on country legend Charlie Louvin's first new album in more than a decade. The self-titled 12-track set will arrive Feb. 20 via Tompkins Square Records and be supported with an extensive tour.

"When I Stop Dreaming," featuring Elvis Costello, Mac McCaughan and Pete Cummings

Diana Krall and Elvis Costello announce the Dec 6th birth of two beautiful baby boys, Dexter Henry Lorcan and Frank Harlan James, in New York City. Krall and Costello said "we are ecstatic!". Mother and sons are doing splendidly.

Features Elvis Costello, Allen Toussaint, The Imposters, Anthony "AB"
Brown and the Crescent City Horns

Recorded live in Montreal in 2006, during his month long tour in
support of "The River in Reverse," a collaboration with New Orleans
musician Allen Toussaint and featuring his regular backing group, The
Imposters, along with Toussaint and his New Orleans Horn Section, The
Crescent City Horns.

Presented in 5.1 surround sound, this amazing DVD includes incredible
live performances of Elvis songs spanning the last four decades.

TRACKLIST: (*tentative*)

Monkey To Man
A Certain Girl
Clownstrike
Tears, Tears And More Tears
Tears Before Bedtime
Poisoned Rose
(I Don't Want To Go To) Chelsea
Broken Promise Land
Freedom For The Stallion
The River In Reverse
Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?
Deep Dark Truthful Mirror
Play Something Sweet (Brickyard Blues)
Bedlam
Watching The Detectives
Episode of Blonde
Pump It Up
Yes We Can Can
Fortune Teller
Big Chief Medley: (Big Chief/Tipitina/The Olde Professor)
Internation Echo
Clubland
Six-Fingered Man
The Sharpest Thorn
TOTAL RUNNING TIME: 1:53:49

DVD EXTRAS:

Band Introductions
Alison
Who's Gonna Help Brother - An excerpt from the film "Putting The
River In Reverse" by Matthew Buzzel
Interview with Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint
Photo Gallery
Tour Journal by Elvis Costello

# Audio CD (October 24, 2006)
# Original Release Date: October 24, 2006
# Number of Discs: 2
# Label: Shout Factory

Features -

"The Butcher's Boy," Elvis Costello
"Ommie Wise Part 1 & 2 (What Lewis Did Last...)," Kate and Anna McGarrigle with Elvis Costello

Appearances By Jack Black, Steve Carell, Kristin Chenoweth, Sacha Baron Cohen, Stephen Colbert, Elvis Costello, Jimmy Fallon, Will Ferrell, Ricky Gervais, Norm Macdonald, Christopher Meloni, Moby, Mike Myers, Bob Odenkirk and David Cross, Amy Poehler, Paul Rudd, Adam Sandler, Martin Short, Tony Sirico, Ben Stiller, Triumph The Insult Comic Dog, Brian Williams and More .'

'FilmAid invites you to attend our 1st Annual Power of Film Gala on Monday, October 16, 2006 at the Time Warner Café in New York City. The Benefit will honor Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and Jane Rosenthal and will feature a special musical performance by Elvis Costello! '

Free Elvis Costello. That's an offer, incidentally, not a call to arms. The renowned British singer will be performing in Golden Gate Park for free -- to the chagrin of touts and delight of those who couldn't find/afford tickets to his other two Bay Area performances this year, with Allen Toussaint and the San Francisco Symphony.

It's an afternoon show, starting at 3 p.m. Friday with an opening set from country greats Jimmie Dale Gilmore and Butch Hancock. Elvis plays solo and with the Hammer of the Honky-Tonk Gods, an ad-hoc band he describes as "very much in the spirit of the event." The event being Hardly Strictly Bluegrass. The festival , now in its sixth year, has expanded from two free days of music to three, featuring more than 60 acts on five stages.

"All I know about the festival is what I've been told by friends and all of them sing its praises," Costello says by phone from Toronto, where he's playing with Toussaint. "In fact, a lot of my pals are playing -- T Bone (Burnett), Emmylou (Harris), Billy Bragg -- so I'm going to be sticking around for the whole weekend to see all the great people on the bill. All I can say is that whoever this gent is who's paying for it, I take my hat off to him."

That gent is Warren Hellman, a San Francisco financier whose outside obsessions include extreme sports, philanthropy and playing banjo. The first festival, in 2001 (eight bands on two stages; sounds a bit paltry now) gave him an excuse to present some of his favorite performers, like Hazel Dickens and Harris. They've returned every year since, along with others who've become almost regulars -- Steve Earle, Del McCoury, Gillian Welch -- plus new additions from across the spectrum of folk, country, Americana and singer-songwriters. Numbering among them this time are Richard Thompson, North Mississippi Allstars and Alejandro Escovedo, men not best known for their banjo licks.

Getting Costello to headline the inaugural Day 3 was quite a coup. With one date left to go on his U.S. tour, he was looking forward to going home with his wife, Diana Krall, to get ready for the twins she's expecting in December.

"There's a lot to do, and my plan was to take a break from touring for a long time, at least a year, because I want to be around for that. Actually, I was thinking I might never go back. I might just stay at home writing songs, or even maybe open a tobacconist's," he says, laughing.

What persuaded him to come back to the Bay Area was a close relationship with the place that "goes back 30 years. It was the first place I ever played in America -- in fact, the first night I ever spent in America was in a HoJo in Mill Valley, because though we were playing in San Francisco we couldn't afford a hotel there," he says. "And it was the first place in America where they played me on the radio. I remember doing long free-form shows with Bonnie Simmons on KSAN, a great station, in the last few years of its existence. Since then there've been so many shows in the Bay Area and I've made so many friends there" -- four of whom are in the Hammer of the Honky-Tonk Gods: Austin DeLone, Pete Thomas, Davey Faragher and Bill Kirchen, whose new album was borrowed for the band's name.

"The name gives a real indication of what kind of show this will be. It's very different. There's going to be a lot of spontaneity and a lot of different people. At one point I think there'll be a string band and around seven vocalists. Barring delayed planes and flat tires, I hope there'll be some very special guests."

There's warmth in his voice when he says, "I'm really looking forward to this festival. It sounds like a ball. And a great way for me to sign off from playing concerts for a long time."

Friday night’s 5th Annual Americana Honors & Awards show at the Ryman Auditorium opened with funk and moved through folk, soul, bluegrass, jazz and country and lots of places in between.

British rock icon Elvis Costello, New Orleans soulster Allen Toussaint, Nashville songwriting great Rodney Crowell, singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash, virtuoso acoustic instrumentalist Sam Bush and deep funk band The Dynamites all took the Ryman Auditorium stage on an awards night that was every bit as diverse as a typical Grammy evening.

Other lifetime achievement awards went to Sugar Hill Records founder Barry Poss, producer/engineer Allen Toussaint (presented by Costello), performer and famed singer-songwriter Alejandro Esco-vedo and Nashvillians Mickey Newbury (the songwriter received the posthumous President’s Award) and Rodney Crowell.

Toussaint, a fixture in the Crescent City who has made significant marks as a songwriter, producer, piano player, arranger and recording artist, performed with Costello, who remarked on the oddity of an Americana category that’s wide enough to reach across oceans.

“I don’t know how it is an English guy got up here at the Americana awards,” he said, before talking of his love for American-born music and of the impact that Toussaint has made on American popular music.

( extract)

Throughout her career, Emmylou Harris has always been a true friend and champion to songwriters, but on Tuesday night (Sept. 19) in Nashville, it was the songwriters who honored her with a tribute concert at the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center in
downtown Nashville.

The guest list included Elvis Costello, Rodney Crowell, Steve Earle, Patty Griffin, Dave Matthews, Allison Moorer and Gillian Welch -- all of whom performed at least one song that was connected to Harris' career. As a result, words seemed almost unnecessary to convey her sterling reputation in the music world.

Costello began the evening with an eloquent speech, then led the first-rate band -- Brady Blade, Sam Bush, Chris Donohue, Steve Fishell, Phil Madeira and Buddy Miller -- into "Sweet Dreams," which Harris took to No. 1 on the country charts in 1976. After that, Bush and Miller stepped forward for the Louvin Brothers' classic duet, "If I Could Only Win Your Love," which Harris brought back to the country Top 10 in 1975.

With Moorer at his side, Earle approached the microphone and reminisced about how Harris recorded "Guitar Town" for her 1992 album Live at the Ryman when his life was in ruins from a heroin addiction. He also noted she also sang with him on one of his most heartbreaking compositions, "Goodbye," for his comeback album, Train a Comin'. She later covered the song on her 1995 Daniel Lanois-produced rock album, Wrecking Ball.

In a spirit of camaraderie that Harris is known for, Earle and Moorer traded verses on "Goodbye" and then turned over the stage to Rodney Crowell. Harris and Crowell have been friends for more than 30 years, ever since she gave him a job in her Hot Band. With a big grin, Crowell told the audience about his former wife once bailing him out of a Los Angeles jail with the money he made from singing with Harris. Then he teamed with new artist Chris Janson to perform the barnburner he partially wrote during that brief stint behind bars -- "I Ain't Living Long Like This." And for a moment, it seemed that the sparkling new symphony hall, which has been open for less than two weeks, was the most luxurious honky-tonk you've ever seen.

The music turned more introspective as Griffin delivered a pristine version of "Boulder to Birmingham," one of Harris' earliest solo offerings and writing credits. (Harris' admirers can breathe a sigh of relief that she ultimately had a change of heart after penning the lyric, "I don't want to hear a sad story.") After the band exited the stage, Welch and partner David Rawlings praised Harris as "our friend and inspiration" and then offered a haunting rendition of "Hickory Wind." Afterward, Costello returned for a lively roll through "Mystery Train" with the couple.

Curiously, the affable Matthews chose to sing one of his own hits, "Grave Digger," and then invited Griffin to harmonize with him on "O Sister," a song from Bob Dylan's 1976 album, Desire. (Harris served as the primary harmony vocalist on the project. As her astonished houseguests will tell you, she has a gold plaque from Dylan's album hanging in her bathroom.) Finally, Costello joined Griffin at the microphone for the first time ever to sing the timeless "Love Hurts," which Harris initially recorded with her mentor, Gram Parsons.

Elvis Costello and Dave Matthews are among those who will provide musical salutes to Emmylou Harris when she is presented the third annual Leadership Music Dale Franklin Award in Nashville. The invitation-only dinner and concert takes place Sept. 19 at the new Schermerhorn Symphony Center. Other performers will include Patty Griffin, Steve Earle, Rodney Crowell, Sam Bush and Buddy Miller. Leadership Music is a nonprofit organization offering educational programs for those in the music business. The award recognizes "a music industry leader who exemplifies the highest quality of leadership and leading by example."