ROYAL DANISH OPERA?!? (g) Maybe this is "Sir" Tater's chance for
official knighthood.

BC-US--Music Review-Elvis Costello/300
Music Review: Elvis Costello mines Americana on CD
SOLVEJ SCHOU
Associated Press Writer

Elvis Costello, "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane" (Hear Music)

Elvis Costello's newest album, "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane," jumps on
the Americana bus, with mandolin, accordion and fiddle the instruments
of choice.

Recorded in Nashville in three days and produced by T Bone Burnett,
who helmed Costello's country-tinged album "King of America" in 1986,
and also 1989's "Spike," ''Secret" ambles and warbles with rootsy
aplomb.

It's a 180-degree turn from last year's "Momofuku," Costello's rock-
based outing with band the Imposters.

This time, songs such as "I Felt the Chill," co-written by country
queen Loretta Lynn, wind through acoustic territory, with harmony
wafting throughout. Costello wrote or co-wrote all but one track on
the album.

"There's a difference in the way that you kiss me/ There's a sadness
in your eyes that you can't hide," he sings in his wavering vibrato on
"Chill," about a fallen relationship.

Though steeped in Americana twang, four songs on the album were
originally commissioned in 2005 by the Royal Danish Opera for a piece
about author Hans Christian Andersen. The tunes focus on Anderson's
love for Swedish songbird Jenny Lind, and "She Was No Good" recalls
Lind's tour across the U.S. in 1850, organized by P.T. Barnum.

It's a dense, detailed tune - full of references to daggers drawn and
pistols pulled, with bursts of howling - and shows just how talented a
storyteller Costello continues to be, regardless of genre.

CHECK THIS TRACK OUT: "The Crooked Line," co-written by Burnett, is
pure sweet country, a lovely old-time melding of Costello's soaring
voice and harmony by the sublime Emmylou Harris.
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