National Ransom - November 2010

[millaa]

Before everyone gets excited. Is there a company called Lupe-O-Tone? I couldn't find any reference to one. Also, if they were limited to 25 copies of each, what's the likelihood of anyone getting a copy?

I think this story is false.

[Ypsilanti]

Clearly Elvis is having a little fun with all the wolf references and so forth, but maybe there could be some truth to that announcement. The fact that he lists the tracks for each "78" and offers them as autographed gives the whole thing a sheen of reality. It will be interesting to see what happens.

And "Moon Conway"...I suppose the wolf howls at the moon, or something like that...

[cwr]

If the story were purely false, wouldn't it be funnier? What's the joke? "There are limited edition singles-- no, not really."? If EC just intended on goofing around, wouldn't he invent some ridiculous phony b-side titles or something?

I think the heightened language is just EC's way of having fun, very much in the style of the way he banters onstage in a similar fashion sometimes. But I think there is definitely some kind of vinyl giveaway/contest/or limited edition product for sale that involves hearing those four songs on actual records of some sort, which will be signed and numbered (by EC, or by Tony Millionaire? It only says "The Artist.")

And the likelihood for fifty lucky people is that they WILL get one, and the likelihood for everybody else on earth is that they will not.

[johnfoyle]

Hear the title track here in full, without having to do all that fiddly stuff on Elvis' site -

http://www.fromgotowhoa.com/elvis-coste ... se-new-lp/

[docinwestchester]

Hear the title track here in full, without having to do all that fiddly stuff on Elvis' site -

http://www.fromgotowhoa.com/elvis-coste ... se-new-lp/

Cool pic on that link:




The artist is Paul Normansell:
http://www.paulnormansell.com/page4.htm

[cwr]

Listening to the song again, it IS striking that Steve Nieve is essentially playing "You Belong To Me" all the way through it.

And I'm tremendously pleased to hear Costello self-harmonizing with himself again. No slight to Davey Faragher or Jim Lauderdale, but no one sings with Costello quite like Costello himself. There's just special vocal energy that the self-harmonies bring (as heard on almost every record from MAIT to ATUB, but less so in the years since) that I'm very happy to hear again. Hope there's more of it on the rest of the album...

[johnfoyle]

The Odile 'interviews' on Elvis' site have been summarised -

http://www.soundspike.com/news/article/ ... ansom.html

Elvis Costello dishes on "National Ransom"

Story by Phil Gallo

SoundSpike Editor at Large

Published September 10, 2010 05:32 AM


To promote his new album "National Ransom," which will be released Nov. 2, Elvis Costello has posted two interviews with one "Odile W. Husband" on his website.

In the meandering chats, filled with discussions of Catholicism, songwriting and Walter Mitty, Costello delivers a few revelations about the new album. Among them:

# The band had barely finished writing out charts for the song "All These Strangers" when recording began in Nashville. "This is the kind of high wire act that doesn't always come off, but on this occasion, everyone was simply listening to a story and responding. It is one of my favorite ensemble performances on the record."

# The combination of Mark Ribot, Jerry Douglas and Steve Nieve provides three contrasting instrumental voices, much like Moby Grape's three contrasting lead guitarists. Ribot has a "beautiful and elegant dialogue" with Stuart Duncan on "Jimmie Standing In The Rain." Douglas predominantly plays lap-steel rather than the dobro.

# The song "The Stations of the Cross" pulls imagery from Tom Piazza's book "City of Refuge."

# Hank Cochran came to the studio during the sessions with a film crew that was making a documentary on the country music legend.

# Of his use of rain and water imagery, Costello notes, "As to whether the weather is approaching or departing, I'd have to say that depends on your disposition to melancholy or optimism. I find fine rain very invigorating. To lie in the dark with rain beating on the window is thrilling, not threatening."

Other salient facts:

* By the end of his 2009 tour with the Sugarcanes promoting "Secret, Profane and Sugarcane," four new, unrecorded songs were appearing in the setlists. During the ride between Dallas and the final stop in Tulsa, OK, Jim Lauderdale and Costello wrote "I Lost You" and debuted the song that night. The next day Costello called T Bone Burnett to tell him the Sugarcanes had to record again, but between that conversation and the sessions, Costello wrote a number of songs that called for different musicians.

* All six members of The Sugarcanes did not play in the same room at the same time until rehearsals for the band's first tour.

* On meeting Doc Watson: "When I was first introduced to Doc, he took off into a testimonial or homily about his life and work, the things his father had taught him and lessons taken from scripture. He may tell a lot of people these things, but they rolled around my head for good while," Costello said.

* On songwriting: "I am a lyricist and storytelling songwriter, not a poet. I have my own sense of what works for me with the music, and that's a take it or leave it proposition. It is for others to labor and pour over the technical aspects. They do not concern me."

* On T Bone Burnett's work as producer: "T Bone's work was already done in setting up the circumstances and the surroundings that were so conducive to trust. ... T Bone and his team are now creating sound pictures of great nuance and resonance. You can hear that across all the records he is producing, regardless of the qualities the artists bring into the room."

* A supergroup in the works? "In the last couple of years Kris Kristofferson, Rosanne Cash and I have written a couple songs together. We actually plan an album together, but we are making slow progress because we live so far from each other. You can't get the pigeons, you know. "

* On not quite learning the guitar as a youth: "When I was a teenager I admired the Welsh master John James and all the people who recorded for Transatlantic Records, and tried to understand these printed transcriptions of Rev. Gary Davis and Mississippi John Hurt songs, but I never became that adept. "

* On "(What's So Funny 'bout) Peace, Love And Understanding?": "That song becomes more complex and more poignant the further we get from the ideal. Heaven preserve us from all these blasphemers who think they know what God is thinking."

Costello currently has two concert appearances on his schedule: An Oct. 1 show at San Francisco's Great American Music Hall with Nick Lowe, and an Oct. 3 appearance with the Sugarcanes at San Francisco's Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival.

[Ypsilanti]

Just mentioning..."Odile W. Husband"...obviously as fictitious as "Moon Conway". So...what? He interviewed himself? He had the wife do it? I don't know, but I'm really enjoying the approach Elvis is taking with the promotion of NR. All these these little mysteries--it's charming. Seems like he's having fun. And not putting this task in the hands of idiots and strangers.

"Odile" is an anagram for "oiled", in case that means anything. And Saint Odile is apparently the patron saint of people with bad eyesight, so maybe he's identifying himself as a husband with bad eyesight. Again, don't know, but he seems to have invited us to play with these "facts". It's amusing.

[cwr]

I agree. It's superfun. And it's healthy for Costello to adopt the approach that, for him, making and releasing records is a labor of love and that worrying about Record Company/Music Industry Shenanigans is a colossal waste of his energy.

Costello's self-promotion has always been more fun than anything a record company would come up with. (I still think he's missing countless opportunities to really utilize his website and the internet to promote his album in fun ways, but it may just be that the saying about old dogs and new tricks has some truth when it comes to the world of online self-promotion-- though I hope that one of these days I'm proven wrong on this count!)

Having had a pretty nice success with SP&SC on the Starbucks label, I think that Costello is poised for a similar, if not better, experience with NR. Having Tony Millionaire do such gorgeous album art also helps, I think. A friend of mine knows several people who hadn't bought a Costello album before, or not in a long time, whose eyes were drawn to the SP&SC art when they were getting a coffee and ended up buying the disc...

[Ypsilanti]

Can't stop thinking that "Odlile W. Husband" is an anagram, and since I don't seem to have enough things occupying my brain right now, I had a go at solving it--with only marginal success, if that. I can get...

Wild House Band

Bands howl, "Dieu"

Howl and Busied

Bad howlin' dues

Surely some of you smart people out there can do better...

[Jeremy Dylan]

Bullhead Disown
Abused Downhill
Husband Idle Owl
Bald Would Shine
Band Sullied Who
Bean Should Wild
Adds Nubile Howl

[Neil.]

Crocodile with a husband? ('Odile W Husband).

[johnfoyle]

http://www.americansongwriter.com/2010/ ... auderdale/

September 13th, 2010

Jim Lauderdale debuted new songs at Friday’s Americana Music Conference. On stage in the Davidson Ballroom, Lauderdale sang a new song with the refrain “Don’t keep a good man down,” which he said he’d recently co-written with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter. Lauderdale and Hunter collaborated on the recent Patchwork River album. The new song, which Lauderdale said he just finished recording in Nashville for a new album of bluegrass tunes co-written with Hunter, mined the traditional lyric “cruel wind and driving rain,” which some might also identify from Dead territory. Later on, Lauderdale played a song he had co-written with Elvis Costello, which he said would appear on Costello’s next record.

[Jeremy Dylan]

http://www.americansongwriter.com/2010/ ... auderdale/

September 13th, 2010

Jim Lauderdale debuted new songs at Friday’s Americana Music Conference. On stage in the Davidson Ballroom, Lauderdale sang a new song with the refrain “Don’t keep a good man down,” which he said he’d recently co-written with Grateful Dead lyricist Robert Hunter.

He played this on Music City Roots the other night - great tune. Can't wait for the bluegrass record.

And I think we can assume the other song mentioned is I Lost You.

[johnfoyle]

It's out there !


From Facebook -

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id= ... 1971513776

14 Sept. 10

Terry Staunton has just laid in to an appalling album of classic soul covers by Phil Collins, and now feels suitably invigorated.

I've actually got the new Costello album to review as well, but I'm saving that for later on, when I've finally washed the sonic dregs of the afternoon out of my ears.

[wardo68]

This might be considered off-topic, but...

Is anyone else a little miffed that we have to wait another six weeks for the new EC, whereas the next Neil Young album is out in less than two weeks? Is there any particular reason that explains why Elvis's album, which has been complete for some time now, isn't coming out any sooner? Anyone?

[Jeremy Dylan]

Because that's the release date. The record company, presumably in consultation with Costello and his management and possibly T-Bone Burnett, decided a release date that would give it the best chance of cutting through in the market place and have a strong first week of sales. They would've weighed up what else was being released in that time period, marketing opportunities that were available at different points in the calender, Costello's touring schedule in the US market across the year, when the best time to release this kind of album is (which would've involved hearing it first) and various other factors. A similar process would've been involved with deciding the release date for Neil Young's album, but with different variables.

[krm]

I was in Tokyo on business trip last week, and I got a flyer in a record store (yes - they still exist there!!!) It stated release date first week in October. -

[pophead2k]

In this day and age, EC's release date is probably less tied to whether the market is ripe and more tied to any tour plans Elvis has.

[cwr]

Also, I think the big gap between the US and international release date HAS to have something to do with Elvis wanting this one out on Election Day. Otherwise, why not just put it out in early October everywhere?

I can't remember an EC album since I've been buying them where someplace else got the record a month early, unless we're talking about promotional or review copies circulating in advance...

[And No Coffee Table]

The Japanese sites all have October 20 as the release date now.

http://www.universal-music.co.jp/u-pop/ ... o3022.html
http://www.cdjapan.co.jp/detailview.html?KEY=UCCO-3022
http://www.hmv.co.jp/en/product/detail/3884155
http://tower.jp/item/2759741/ナショナル・ランソム
http://www.amazon.co.jp/ナショナル・ランソム-エルヴィ ... 224&sr=8-2

[queenofthefleapit]

From Elvis' facebook page;

"Old Moon Conway says see the premiere of the 'National Ransom' EPK on the homepage of www.rollingstone.com live on Friday, 9/17 at 10am EDT"

[Jackson Monk]

Listening to the song again, it IS striking that Steve Nieve is essentially playing "You Belong To Me" all the way through it.

And I'm tremendously pleased to hear Costello self-harmonizing with himself again...

Can you self-harmonise with anyone else?

[sulky lad]

Will Self, author, journalist and one time alleged cocaine snorter can self harmonise with himself, his wife and his children (and other relatives no doubt but I think I might be labouring the point here !)

[Jackson Monk]