Review: Pickin’ and grinnin’ with Elvis
by Beck
Even though one fan wanted her money back when she realized she just couldn’t stomach bluegrass, most of the crowd knew what they were getting into as Elvis Costello picked and plucked and hollered his way though a hoedown of a set Friday night at the Wells Fargo Center.
Backed by an extremely intuitive Nashville sextet of seasoned bluegrass and country players, the encyclopedic Brit singer stretched out nearly every song from his new Americana roots country album “Secret, Profane and Sugarcane.”
Flipping through the atlas, “Sulphur to Sugarcane” name-dropped every town from Poughkeepsie to Santa Rosa. “Red Cotton” charted the global scourge of slavery, going all the way back to his mother’s hometown of Liverpool. One of several historical narrative ballads, “She Handed Me a Mirror” recounted author Hans Christian Andersen’s doomed infatuation with Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind.
A song he co-wrote with Loretta Lynn yielded one of the best lines of the night: “I felt the chill before the winter came.”
And when’s the last time you heard a fiddle solo in a cover of the Velvet Underground’s “Femme Fatale”? (Other covers included “Happy” by The Rolling Stones, “Mystery Train” made famous by Elvis, “Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down” by Merle Haggard and “Friend of the Devil” by the Grateful Dead).
But eventually, even the hardcore fans started yelling out for an Elvis Costello chorus they could sing along to – one woman couldn’t stop begging for “(What’s So Funny Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding.”
“We’ll play that on our comeback tour,” he quipped, quickly getting back to “the historical part of the show” – a convoluted story of Jenny Lind (and a quick dis of Celine Dion) and P.T. Barnum.
The response: polite laughter mixed with groans.
By the end of the night, he obliged, rolling out several of the classics – “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes,” “Allison” and you guessed it “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding” (sealing his comeback tour) – totally reinvented with mandolin, fiddle, accordion and lap slide guitar. Turned inside out and twangy, “Every Day I Write the Book” sounded better than the original, especially layered with Jim Lauderdale’s harmonizing vocals.
But for my money, it was the haunting spell of “The Delivery Man,” falling midway through the set, that made time stand still. Starting and stopping, over and over, with an echo that reverberated through the room, he kept coming back to the irony of “In a certain light he looked like Elvis/In a certain way he felt like Jesus.”
At this point in his unpredictable career, the bespectacled Buddy Holly look-alike (who segued into “Not Fade Away” at one point) still finds that loveable hoarse rasp at the back of his throat when he stretches out a note. And these days, he doesn’t have much use for amplification. When he wants to show off his pipes, he just walks away from the microphone and belts it out.
As his father, also a singer, once told him: “Never look up to a note, always look down.”
When he mentioned it to the crowd, they fell silent.
“I have no idea what that means either.”
Photos by Crista Jeremiason
Your Daily Dose. Whenever. Whatever. Wherever. Trolling Sonoma County and beyond, John Beck looks for cracks in the pop facade.
Reading your great account only helps increase the disappointment that I can’t see this show over here in Europe. I did see Elvis in April. In shows with The Brodsky Quartet Elvis also had a audience member, in Glasgow, looking for a refund because it wasn’t a ‘rock’ show. Elvis gladly gave it, joking that he also associates the words ‘death metal’ with ‘Brodsky Quartet’.
John – Dublin, Ireland
by John Foyle
Elvis put on more than a show.. it was a true musical event. I’ve liked Elvis since his appearance on SNL, but last night he certainly moved up a notch on my list as one of the best. A great backing band only made better by the genius of Costello.
This one will stay in my head for long time. I woke up this morning singing… I write the book.. and he certainly does!!!
Ron Stewart, Santa Rosa, USA
by Ron Stewart
Can hardly wait till next Friday’s show in Toronto. It’s at a most beautiful old venue – Massey Hall
by Michael Elie, London Ontario CANADA
Elvis’s show was a musical tour de force, the arrangements worked with great dynamics, from quiet, haunting moods and rousing emotional crescendos; the musicianship of this ensemble is outstanding, which goes without saying. With no lead guitar, Jerry Douglas and Stuart Duncan take up the soloing chores admirably. Douglas used an array of slide guitars that added greatly to the mood of the darker tunes, on which Elvis played a 4-string guitar with a raspy, bluesy tone. His voice sounded great. He didn’t overdo the vibrato, which he can do; he worked the mic with a real polished technique, pulling away to fade his voice out, inching closer for more punch. The tasteful second vocals from Jim Lauderdale were perfect and sparse, coming in only at certain points. I found this hommage to Nashville wonderfully charming and respectful. And Elvis rocked out, too! Even with no drum kit or lead electric guitar. Bravo!
by Reed Maidenberg
I was blown away by the show in Santa Rosa despite some trepidation heading in. I’ve seen Elvis only about four times and I knew this was going to be unlike those other shows. Although a few old Elvis tunes didn’t translate all that well to country twang (a few times I really missed having some drums), overall the musicianship, songwriting craft and killer vocals won out. Jim Lauderdale has a great voice. He didn’t play guitar very heartily — looking a little unsteady at times — he was an awesome vocal complement to Mr. MacManus. From where I sat, I barely heard the accordion all night and wondered what it was bringing to the table that I was missing. And I kept waiting for the mandolin player to have a solo of some sort, but that wasn’t in the cards. I left the show thinking it was an 8.5 out of 10.
by Brent Ainsworth
i somehow feel that this performance lacked something , i dont know its hard to say , i am a big fan of elvis and tried to attend every single one of his shows whever i can , maybe it’s the venue , maybe it was the light , the atmothpere or maybe it was just the fans that did not react greatly enough when elvis wanted them to participate , this concert feels shallow , it’s not very solid as if he did not want to be there , i hope the next show that i attend will be better than this , it’s never a location , its the performers that i care about but this time i gotta say it’s a bit of both 6 out of 10 for this one , sorry guys
by jason