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As though he needed to highlight the oddity of a British millionaire playing American roots music, Costello arrived onstage wearing a purple fedora and a bespoke suit. To plant the sonic mood firmly in Tennessee, he began with the Sun Studios staple "Mystery Train," then proceeded to move from Memphis to Nashville with "Down Among The Wines and Spirits," a song he described to the audience as "showing how far one can fall, from the top of the Playbill to the spot just above the liquor license permits." His band was anchored by both Austin favorite Jim Lauderdale and Alison Krauss' dobro wizard Jerry Douglas, a testament less to Costello's fame than the fact that the guy knows his music and the experts in the field want to help him realize his vision.
The biggest surprise of the evening was that Mr. Costello found some time to work some deep album cuts from his debut My Aim Is True into the folk format. The ACL audience held a collective grin as the band took passes at "Blame It On Cain," "Mystery Dance," and "(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes" over the course of the evening. The results didn't fundamentally change the tunes, but it was quite a lot of fun to see these great pop gems dusted off and re-imagined. Fairly conventional rock versions (sans drums) of newer tune "The Delivery Man" and Nick Lowe's "(What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love, and Understanding" also found their way to the ACL stage, lightening the mood between some of the darker folk pieces about condemned men and hidden shame.
A few other highlights from the evening were two raucous readings of the ribald "Sulphur To Sugarcane," a lewd, barroom stomp of a number, and a series of duets with Patty Griffin including "Poisoned Rose" and "The Crooked Line." Overall, the crowd seemed to leave dazzled by Costello's warm demeanor and his showmanship, which is accentuated on a stage as small as ACL's. Even when working on an ostensible side project like this, it's easy to see why Costello is still producing vital and interesting work after 30+ years. How many others can say the same?
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