Secret, Profane and Sugarcane by Elvis Costello
Produced by T Bone Burnett
My lovely wife stopped by Starbucks yesterday, and as is her wont, she picked up a new CD along with her Venti Double-Shot Carmel Mackyottoslabotto Crappé.
Now, you have to forgive her, she’s a little old-fashioned and still buys her digital music on CD. (I know, isn’t she quaint?) I couldn’t cast aspersions (or anything else) on her impulse buying since it was the new Elvis Costello she snagged. Quite a deal, too. It was only half the price of her Venti Verdi Lotta Caffeine Aciderefluxor with low-fat and whipped cream Lap Spiller.
I was glad she brought it home before I downloaded it from the webernet, the digipak has the words to the songs and the art is pretty cool. I guess there’s something to be said for the Old Thyme Ways. Or, at least Elvis and his producer, T Bone Burnett, think so if the music contained in the recycled cardboard packaging is any indication.
Secret, Profane & Sugarcane is a nifty little song cycle that is the aural equivalent of a southern gothic novel. Sort of like Midnight in the Garden of Good & Evil meets scholarly Brit with an Americana Roots Complex. I don’t mean that as a bad thing. It’s a pretty good thing. Thanks to Costello’s always top-notch songwriting as well as T Bone’s steady hand. To be honest, as good as the songs are, I feel like it was the session players who sell this whole concept. If you get Jerry Douglas to play dobro on it, it’s gonna be OK with me. Douglas, the Elder Statesman of Stringed Things saves Elvis’s British bangers with his skillful slides and turns. The music starts to wander away into some far-off trail of ether (very much in the 19th Century popular song manner that Elvis emulates here) only to be brought back to its loose shoes and warm outhouse by the ace musicians who back every track.
T Bone has, of course, been down this road before and he keeps Elvis from plowing into a ditch. Their collaborations (remember the Coward Brothers?) have always brought forth tasty fruit and Sugarcane is no exception.
Final Judgment: In my humble opinion, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane is well worth the price of an Iced Vespi Colonic Mochosyllabic Tse-Tse Bean with Manila Vanilla Swirlies. But not a penny more.
Hey, thanks for hanging out. Tomorrow we’ll make origami cole slaw tongs. It’s summertime, you know.
