Elvis Costello was raised in Liverpool and has lived everywhere from Dublin to New York, but a good chunk of his heart belongs to Nashville. That much would be obvious even if Sacred, Profane & Sugarcane hadn't been recorded in that city's Sound Emporium Studio in three days and produced by Americana doyen T-Bone Burnett with a crack band of Nashville session all-stars including Jerry Douglas, best known for his dobro playing for Alison Krauss's Union Station. All you need to do is pay attention to the album's regret-soaked selections to figure it out.
None of this is especially surprising: Costello has been writing convincing country music since his career began. The year he began recording, 1977, saw both "Radio Sweetheart" and "Stranger in the House" issued as B-sides, and from 1981's Almost Blue, a country-covers album, to 2004's The Delivery Man, featuring co-vocalists Emmylou Harris and Lucinda Williams, he's recorded extensively in Nashville.
The songs on Secret, Profane & Sugarcane come from a wide assortment of places. A few are Costello collaborations with other writers, including Burnett ("The Crooked Line" and "Sulphur to Sugarcane") and Loretta Lynn ("I Felt The Chill Before The Winter Came"). A handful of others, notably the slave-era narrative "Red Cotton," originated with an incomplete project based on Hans Christian Andersen's visit to the U.S. with his beloved, the singer Jenny Lind. There are a couple of older Costello songs, "Complicated Shadows" and "Hidden Shame," written for (and the latter recorded by) Johnny Cash, and the album finishes with an old Bing Crosby tune, the doleful slow waltz "Changing Partners," which Elvis sings as though deep into his cups.
The band's relaxed arrangements help make everything run smoothly. Not too smoothly, as is generally the case with Costello even in studio-pro mode: these tracks have a lived-in roughness that suits the material and singer equally nicely. And the mood of the songs is as variable as their points of origin, from the reflective honky-tonk of "Down Among the Wine and Spirits" to the semi-title track, "Sulphur to Sugarcane." The latter is the album's truest delight, a randy lover-man-on-the-road boast that sounds like Costello and Burnett were trying to top each other while writing it: "Up in Syracuse, I was falsely accused," Costello croons, "but I'm not here to hurt you/I'm here to steal your virtue." It's an idle sentiment: Secret Profane isn't about stealing virtues. It's about reaffirming them.
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Avg: 3.5 (625 ratings)
- Date Released: June 9, 2009
- Genre: Rock/Pop
- Label: Hear Music
Elvis Costello reaffirms his love for Nashville
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We Say...
Elvis Costello was raised in Liverpool and has lived everywhere from Dublin to New York, but a good chunk of his heart belongs to Nashville. That much would be obvious even if Sacred, Profane & Sugarcane hadn't been recorded in that city's Sound Emporium Studio in three days and produced by Americana doyen T-Bone Burnett with a crack band of Nas... -
They Say...
Elvis Costello has spent the back half of his career flitting from style to style, recording everything from opera to R&B, but he avoided the country-folk of 1986's King of America until 2009, when he teamed up with America producer (and fellow Coward Brother) T Bone Burnett for Secret, Profane & Sugarcane. By its very definition, country-folk s...Elvis Costello has spent the back half of his career flitting from style to style, recording everything from opera to R&B, but he avoided the country-folk of 1986's King of America until 2009, when he teamed up with America producer (and fellow Coward Brother) T Bone Burnett for Secret, Profane & Sugarcane. By its very definition, country-folk seems straightforward, but the only thing simple about Secret is the speed of its recording. Costello and Burnett assembled an all-star acoustic string band -- featuring Jerry Douglas on Dobro, Dennis Crouch on bass, Stuart Duncan on fiddle and banjo, and Jim Lauderdale on vocal harmonies -- and cut the album in just three days, its swiftness similar to its knocked-out predecessor Momofuku. Secret, Profane & Sugarcane often bears its quick conception fetchingly, feeling loose-limbed and intimate, a record made simply because it's fun to play, a sentiment that can't quite be said of its songs. Surely, there are times where the humor is as riotous as those old Coward Brothers singles -- Costello and Burnett have a ball on the bawdy travelogue "Sulphur to Sugarcane" and sweetly harmonize with Emmylou Harris on "The Crooked Line" -- but Secret is frequently fussy, particularly on the songs Costello has carried over from his unfinished Hans Christian Andersen opera. The very presence of these songs ("How Deep Is the Red?," "She Was No Good," "She Handed Me a Mirror," "Red Cotton") suggests just how muddled Secret, Profane & Sugarcane is conceptually: it bounces all over the place, threading these stagebound tunes between a collaboration with Loretta Lynn and his take on "Down Among the Wine and Spirits," which he originally wrote for Ms. Loretta, a rollicking leftover from The Delivery Man ("Hidden Shame"), a cover of Bing Crosby's "Changing Partners," the Burnett co-writes, a few new songs, and a reworking of Elvis' old "Complicated Shadows." Despite the occasional stuffiness, there's a lot of good material here and it's all executed well, but it's hard not to shake the feeling that this is a collection of leftovers masquerading as a main course. -
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| 01. |  |
Down Among the Wines and Spirits |
3:12 |
|
| 02. | |
Complicated Shadows |
2:53 |
|
| 03. | |
I Felt the Chill Before the Winter Came
|
4:00 |
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| 04. | |
My All Time Doll |
4:09 |
|
| 05. | |
Hidden Shame |
4:15 |
|
| 06. | |
She Handed Me a Mirror |
4:05 |
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| 07. | |
I Dreamed of My Old Lover |
2:36 |
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| 08. | |
How Deep Is the Red |
3:48 |
|
| 09. | |
She Was No Good |
3:47 |
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| 10. | |
Sulphur to Sugarcane
|
6:00 |
|
| 11. | |
Red Cotton |
5:44 |
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| 12. | |
The Crooked Line
|
3:49 |
|
| 13. | |
Changing Partners
|
2:40 |
|
13 Total Tracks, 50:58 Total Length
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