Elvis and Lucinda [VLJC] [Long]

[Scott and Jody]

Hi Everyone!

I'm very far behind these days, so please forgive me if this has already
been posted.

jody

Costello, Williams Tape Crossroads Session
for CMT
Michael Gray
12/06/2001

View the CMT Crossroads flipbook.

bAll I can say is, look out Conway and Loretta.b?

Elvis Costello issued that humorous warning during a recent television
taping
with Lucinda Williams. The two songwriting icons achieved their own
Conway-and-Loretta-style chemistry, singing together, backing each
other,
swapping stories and talking about their country influences for what
will
become the first installment of a new series, CMT Crossroads, airing
Jan. 13

on CMT. Stan Lynch, former drummer for Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers,
will
host.

Taped Nov. 5 in New York, the hour-long show is in post-production now.
Editing decisions will determine the song sequence and final contents of
the

show, but by all accounts Costello and Williams gave producers plenty to

choose from.

The CMT Crossroads series seeks to demonstrate the intersection of
country
music and other genres such as rock, rap and pop, by bringing together
artists who come from diverse musical backgrounds. Hank Williams Jr. and

rap-rock star Kid Rock will collaborate in mid-December in Nashville for
a
future episode.

Lucinda Williams is best known to mainstream country fans for writing
Mary
Chapin Carpenterbs bPassionate Kisses,b? which earned Williams a
Grammy for
best country song in 1993. She also has penned songs for Patty Loveless
(bThe
Nightbs Too Longb?), Emmylou Harris (bSweet Old World,b?
bCrescent Cityb?)
and Tom Petty (bChanged the Locksb?). As a recording artist, Williams
won the

Grammy for best contemporary folk album for her breakthrough 1998 CD,
Car
Wheels on a Gravel Road.

Highly respected in roots and rock music circles, Williams mostly has
been a

Music Row outsider. Her sound is too raw and edgy for todaybs refined
country
airwaves.

bI do write country songs,b? she insisted at the taping, following a
performance of bBlue,b? a quiet weeper from her current album,
Essence. bI
just donbt write country songs that get played on country radio.b?

Costello jumped in with his own assessment of contemporary country
radio:
bYeah, they sort of have forgotten what they are.b?

bSee, thatbs the whole point of [this show],b? Williams replied,
bhow you
define country music. In my mind itbs Hank Williams [Sr.] and Loretta
Lynn.b?

During the shoot, Williams cited Bobbie Gentry as an early influence.
Gentry

is the writer and performer of the 1967 country-pop smash bOde to
Billie
Joe,b? which features vivid, haunting Southern imagery, a
characteristic that

also has become a trademark of Williamsb work.

bIt was really original stuff, the stuff she was doing,b? Williams
said of
Gentry. bShe was writing her own songs. She was one of the first
female
singers I was influenced by who sang in a lower register. I felt real
comfortable with that, because before that I was listening to singers
like
Judy Collins, Joni Mitchell and Joan Baez. They all had these beautiful
high

voices. Then here comes Bobbie Gentry, and she had this lower, kind of
smoky

voice. It was kind of country, but it wasnbt typical country. It was a

blend.
I just really identified with it.b?

Costello, a native of Liverpool, England, lives in Ireland and is hardly
a
country artist. The singer-songwriter long has had an affinity with
Nashville, however. He recorded his 1981 country covers album, Almost
Blue,
there with legendary country producer Billy Sherrill.

During the taping, Costello also recalled meeting and working with
Johnny
Cash and George Jones, who have recorded his songs, and he talked about
his
own admiration for Hank Willams Sr., praising bthe economy of
expression in
his songs and the true, soulful feeling that comes in them.b?

Costello covered bWild Horses,b? a country-flavored Rolling Stones
number,
for possible inclusion in the show. He also treated the New York
audience to

a pair of his own songs -- bIndoor Fireworksb? and bPoisoned
Roseb? -- from
his rootsy 1986 album, King of America, and he debuted a new, unfinished

song
that he said he is writing for Lucinda Williams to sing someday.

Inevitably, however, not all performances will make it into the showbs
final

cut. More details about the actual contents of CMT Crossroadsb first
installment will be available closer to air date.


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