Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Pretty self-explanatory
sweetest punch
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Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by sweetest punch »

Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by BlueChair »

My dad is a "friend of Massey Hall" and managed to order us tickets for the show. Can't wait. Also hoping to catch Fleet Foxes at Massey Hall earlier in the month of August.
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by scielle »

This show is being recorded by CBC Radio 2 for future broadcast on Canada Live (and will likely end up in their online concert archive).
http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/cod/calendar/2009/week/35/
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Post by kilyuradeo »

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Last edited by kilyuradeo on Fri Aug 28, 2009 11:02 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by bronxapostle »

scielle wrote:This show is being recorded by CBC Radio 2 for future broadcast on Canada Live (and will likely end up in their online concert archive).
http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/cod/calendar/2009/week/35/

THAT will be real cool. hope the WHOLE show!!!
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by sweetest punch »

Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by johnfoyle »

http://www.torontosun.com/entertainment ... 1-sun.html

Costello's country awes Massey Hall crowd

By JANE STEVENSON, SUN MEDIA

29th August 2009

Elvis had gone country and it sure suits him.

That would be the “aging punk rocker” - as acclaimed British singer-songwriter Elvis Costello jokingly referred to himself - on Friday night at Massey Hall.

Costello, who experimented with country music before on his 1981 album of country music covers, Almost Blue, wisely brought six crackerjack Nashville acoustic musicans (the so-called Sugarcanes whose ranks include bluegrass legend Jerry Douglas of Alison Krauss and Union Station fame) with him in support of his latest album, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane.

The end result was downright awe inspiring.

Weilding mainly an acoustic guitar - although he did go electric on a few occasions - the 55-year-old Costello, who celebrated that benchmark birthday earlier this week, proved to be a consumate performer as he dramatically moved around the stage with flourish (not to mention in a bright purple hat) while sounding rich in voice - letting some major hoots and hollers rip - and telling a bunch of funny stories too.

We all knew Costello was charismatic, smart and witty but he’s sexy too.

Certainly, Costello seemed to be enjoying himself as he played no fewer than 30 tunes - including a couple of new songs, one that he claimed to have written on Friday afternoon - over the course of a two-hour-and-20 minute show that included two encores.

While the twang of Secret, Profane & Sugarcane material was best exemplified on such standout new songs as the moody My All Time Doll, Down Among The Wines, Spirits, the rollicking Hidden Shame, Complicated Shadows, The Crooked Line, and Sulpher To Sugarcane, Costello also countrified many of his older tunes and paid homage to those who came before him including Elvis Presley (Mystery Train), Merle Haggard (The Bottle Let Me Down), Chuck Berry (Don’t You Lie To Me), Buddy Holly (Not Fade Away), The Rolling Stones (Happy), and George Jones (The Race Is On).

He also pulled a gem out of The Velvet Underground back catalogue with a staggeringly good version of Femme Fatale, and successfully reinvented his own early hits like Blame It On Cain, Indoor Fireworks, Mystery Dance, Everyday I Write The Book, Brilliant Mistake, Red Shoes, Alison, (What’s So Funny’ Bout) Peace Love And Understanding, and more recent tunes like The Delivery Man.

His generosity was also on display as Costello often let his talented musicians take long turns in the solo spotlight.

All in all, he wears his country reinvention well even if he did take a lighthearted jab at a certain Canadian diva - no, not his Nanaimo-born wife Diana Krall! - while explaining who 19th century Swedish opera singer Jenny Lind was via story about her performing in front of 7,000 people without a microphone as she arrived in New York City.

“Kind of like a Celine Dion concert,” Costello cracked. “You can’t back up far enough.”
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by johnfoyle »

http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/cod/calendar/2009/day/240

August 28, 2009
Elvis Costello & the Sugarcanes at Massey Hall

Broadcast: Oct 8, 2009 on Canada Live

Elvis Costello is one of those artists who keeps re-inventing himself. Elvis returns to mine the music of roots & country with his latest release called "Secret, Profane & Sugarcane".

Elvis performs songs from the new CD at Massey Hall, along with his backing band - the Sugarcanes - and Canada Live will be there to capture the sparkle and twang!
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by BlueChair »

Great show, as always. Elvis really comes alive in Massey Hall, stepping away from the microphone occasionally to let the acoustics of the theatre do its magic.

Setlist is pretty much identical to those of previous nights this week, though Elvis inserted two new songs. One he claimed, "I wrote it this afternoon - I'm not kidding!" The other, "This is a new song. I'm not talking Secret, Profane & Sugarcane new. I'm talking so new we had to go to the recording studio after a show and put it on wax!"

I'll wait for a confirmed setlist... all I'll observe is that he did not play "Poisoned Rose," but he did play "The Race is On", "Red Cotton," "Alison" and "PLU", all of which appeared missing from the previous night's show.

Like Mr. Foyle said, the show is being recorded for broadcast by CBC Radio, so I'm looking forward to having my own burned copy to enjoy (assuming they broadcast the whole show... I hope they do).

Great band - Stuart Duncan and Jerry Douglas in particular. Jim Lauderdale's mic was turned down way too low for the first few songs, but eventually they got the mixing right. Red and I took my parents who are only casual Elvis fans. My dad in particular was quite taken with the performance.
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by johnfoyle »

http://www.blogto.com/music/2009/08/elv ... ssey_hall/

Image

Image
Photos by Roger Cullman

Elvis Costello Goes Country at Massey Hall

Roger Cullman

August 29, 2009


Elvis Costello is one of those singer-songwriters who doesn't need to constantly reinvent himself. But when he does, it suits him.

Last night's Elvis Costello and the Sugarcanes concert at Massey Hall proved to me that "the other Elvis" is a versatile musician, even backed by a six-piece country band. His songs didn't all translate that well to this genre, but his consummate musicianship won out and won over the packed audience, treating them to a two-and-a-quarter-hour show.

It's no coincidence that Costello was named one of Rolling Stone Magazine's 100 Greatest Artists of All Time. Husband to Diana Krall and host of Spectacle TV show, Costello took the stage in his trademark thick, black glasses and dark suit and tie.

Elvis Costello at Massey Hall in TorontoThe stage set was all dark with a velvety curtain covering the entire back of the stage. No fancy set design this time. Just some awesome songs.

Costello's band included a fiddle, steel slide guitar, mandolin, stand-up bass, acoustic guitar and accordion. Note the absence of a drummer. Had he not been so famous already, this ensemble wouldn't be out of place at The Dakota. With a subtle flick of his shoulder or shake of his head, he conducted his band, almost always facing the audience.

Costello has worked with many other talented musicians, including Paul McCartney, Tony Bennett, Lucinda Williams and Brian Eno. One of my favourite songs of his, I Want You, has been covered by Fiona Apple as well as Barenaked Ladies' Steven Page.

I'm not sure I'd enjoy hearing I Want You with the instrumentation used in last night's concert. But the country treatment did give some of his other hits, such as Indoor Fireworks, Everyday I Write the Book, Alison and the final encore (What's So Funny About) Peace, Love and Understanding, a refreshing update.

Costello's banter between songs was often amusing. "Knowing this is a fancy place I thought I'd bring my electric guitar. Don't get too excited it's only got four strings."

While the new material translated particularly well live, including She Handed Me a Mirror, a song about Hans Christian Andersen off his latest album, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane. Costello said that the author was, "as they say in England, 'unfortunate looking,'" and this song was about the Ugly Duckling himself.

Having just surpassed "the 55 mph mark," earlier this week as Costello put it, and after 30 years of making music, he's showing no sign of slowing down. At one point in the concert he asked, "How'd you like to hear a new song?" Seconds later, adding, "Yeah, I wrote it this afternoon.... You think I'm kidding?"
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by sweetest punch »

Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by johnfoyle »

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/688476

Image
ADRIEN VECZAN/TORONTO STAR
Elvis Costello performs at Massey Hall in Toronto. (Aug. 29, 2009)

Elvis Costello offers breadth, banter
Wide-ranging set list for 'aging punk rocker'

Aug 30, 2009

Ashante Infantry
Pop & Jazz Critic

Elvis Costello brought downhome charm and country-rock flavour to Massey Hall Friday night in support of his current T-Bone Burnett-produced disc Secret, Profane & Sugarcane.

Accompanied by six crack musicians who collaborated on the album, the multi-talented singer/songwriter delivered a rousing 75-minute set. Costello, sporting a dark grey suit and purple fedora, kicked off the 27-song concert with tunes picked from his entire 30-year recording history – "Blame it on Cain" from his 1977 debut My Aim is True, "Down Among the Wine and Spirits" and "My All Time Doll" from his latest – and covers like "Mystery Train" and Merle Haggard's "Tonight the Bottle Let Me Down." Later, he debuted a couple of darkly intriguing tunes he said he had written that afternoon, and offered a stirring reworking of 1983's "Everyday I Write the Book."

As much as the novel folkiness of the organically arranged music the group presented – much in the vein of his 1986 album King of America – the crowd enjoyed the leader's banter. The native Brit who turned 55 on Tuesday, joked that sharing his birthdate with Ivan the Terrible, Sean Connery and Billy Ray Cyrus was "conclusive proof that astrology is bulls--t."

And noting his return to Massey Hall after five years, he recalled that bandleader dad Ross MacManus – "always the better singer" – told him to "never look up to a note, always look down to it." And no, he shrugged, he didn't know what that meant.

The host of the talk show Spectacle displayed great comedic timing and the ability to laugh at himself, recalling a time the BBC referred to him as an "aging punk rocker." In setting up "She Handed Me a Mirror," about Hans Christian Andersen's unrequited love for 19th century singer Jenny Lind, the husband of Diana Krall managed a shot at another Canadian diva. Explaining that Lind made her American debut before a large crowd without a microphone, he quipped "It was like a Celine Dion concert: you couldn't get far enough away."

He played mostly acoustic guitar in leading his band – Dennis Crouch on standup bass, Jeff Taylor (accordion) Jerry Douglas (dobro), Mike Compton (mandolin), Stuart Duncan (fiddle) and guitarist/vocalist Jim Lauderdale – but fired up the electric for a stand-out version of Velvet Underground's "Femme Fatale." A microphone change before the song rendered his vigorous voice much clearer for the rest of the set.

The audience was receptive, but sedate, cheering songs at the end, but never singing along or standing 'til the encores.
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by scielle »

Amused by EC's reference to the Billy Bob Thorton incident - played well with the Toronto crowd by the sound of it.

http://www.elviscostellofans.com/phpBB2 ... b+#p125064
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by scielle »

The angry young man is living the good life and it shows
Elvis Costello's remarkable act of musical reinvention

CARL WILSON
Globe and Mail
Elvis Costello & The Sugarcanes At Massey Hall On Friday in Toronto

The most palpable wave of wonder that swept over the crowd at Massey Hall on Friday night came when Elvis Costello plucked the uncharacteristically upbeat 1982 single Every Day I Write the Book from his three decades of back catalogue and transformed it into a yearning country-gospel ballad that someone like George Strait might plausibly sing.

This remarkable act of musical reinvention also showed up the humorous aspect of onetime angry-young-geek Costello crossing over into country, as he has done several times before this year's Secret, Profane & Sugarcane album: While the genre mimicry was spot-on, the urbane essence of the song's governing metaphor (a love affair as the composition and marketing of a novel) also made it utterly improbable. If a Nashville star really were to record it, it would have to be redrafted as "Every Day I Read the Good Book."

But such are the pleasures, pains and paradoxes of the kudzu-like creative path of Elvis Costello. To outlast the self-destructive streak that came with his early persona as an incendiary new-wave misanthrope, he ended up taking counsel from the English music-hall tradition in which his father plied the musician's trade. He's become a one-man variety hour, donning and doffing genres (jazz, opera, Broadway, blues) as showily as he did his violet fedora on stage Friday night, stocking his road-show trunk with comic anecdotes and aphorisms and even becoming a Dick-Cavett-like talk-show host on the CTV-Bravo! series Spectacle.

Throw in an idyllic-seeming third marriage (to Canadian jazz star Diana Krall, of course) and first-time fatherhood (with twins) and it looks like a pretty good life. Costello's enjoyment of it was evident live not only in his general bonhomie but in the energy and generosity of the 30-song, 2 ½-hour set, including one new song he said he'd actually written that afternoon (adding, "You think I'm kidding?").

The price of this contentment - and perhaps it's simply that of survival, creatively and otherwise - has been a certain lowering of the stakes. His musical promiscuity also denotes a diminishment of commitment, a certain (typically British) aesthetic distance. In that respect, having just passed his 55th birthday, he may be keeping pace with his aging audience, who on Friday night were expansive with their appreciation, giving several standing ovations, but stingy with self-exposure. They mostly spurned enticements to call-and-response singalongs and almost completely ignored moments obviously designed to spark dancing in the aisles.

Some of that hesitation was probably regional, as Toronto is traditionally not as steeped in country music as many of the spots where the tour will touch down. There was little sign of recognition, for example, when Costello launched into George Jones's The Race Is On as his second-last number or appended Jim Reeves's 1959 classic of sugar-coated bitterness, He'll Have to Go, as an affectingly apt coda to fan favourite Alison.

Indeed, while they were duly impressed by the virtuosity of his nearly all-acoustic (save his own occasional switches to a four-stringed electric tenor guitar) ensemble, it seemed likely that much of the crowd was unaware of how lucky they truly were, as the group Costello calls the Sugarcanes is made up of many of the hottest veteran session players in Nashville, with a bushel of Grammys under their individual big-buckled belts.

This was thanks to Costello's long association with producer T-Bone Burnett, who's best known to city slickers perhaps for his stewardship of the Oh Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack, which also included Sugarcanes such as the dazzling Jerry Douglas on dobro and Stuart Duncan on fiddle. The stage was also graced by the presence of Jim Lauderdale, a star singer-songwriter in his own right, on guitar and honeyed southern vocals whose bona fides contrasted cleverly with Costello's chameleonic cod-twang - a dynamic not fully exploited on Friday, as Lauderdale took only one lead verse, in a cover of the Grateful Dead's Friend of the Devil.

But that's all part of the journey in a Costello show, which also included detours into the life of Hans Christian Andersen and the place of P.T. Barnum in the invention of the American concert business (the subjects of an abortive theatre project whose fragments show up on the new album); a sly reference to the local controversy around actor-turned-songwriter Billy Bob Thornton's own recent Massey Hall appearance; recollections of Johnny Cash (for whom Costello wrote one of the night's most raucous stompers, Hidden Shame); several more countrified repertoire revisitations (after Every Day I Write the Book, the best was probably the zydeco-style Mystery Dance, highlighting Jeff Taylor's accordion); a demonstration of the stage-craft purpose of place-name-dropping songwriting, as Toronto was thrown into the vaudevillian travelogue in the fine new Sulfur to Sugarcane; a Velvet Underground cover and a Celine Dion joke (after which Costello said he'd forgotten the concert was being recorded for CBC Radio 2, and worried he might never again be welcome in Montreal).

Such rich restlessness is what keeps Costello one of the most rewarding live acts in rock - and not just for a guy his age. And for those who sometimes wish he'd kept on startling us with his sting instead, he always has the golden riposte with which he finally bid goodnight: What's So Funny About Peace, Love and Understanding?
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by johnfoyle »

Throw in an idyllic-seeming third marriage (to Canadian jazz star Diana Krall, of course) and first-time fatherhood (with twins)

CARL WILSON
blogs -

http://www.zoilus.com/documents/general/2009/002331.php

Sharp Globe readers have already pointed out an error in the review, in saying that Costello became a “first-time” father with the twins he had with third wife Diana Krall. I can’t believe that in my decades as a pretty dedicated Declan McManus devotee, I’d never known that he had a son, Matthew, in his first marriage. (That must have been quite a childhood.) I should have checked that fact. Mea culpa.
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by scielle »

Erica Ehm is a former MuchMusic VJ and author, radio host, songwriter.

http://ow.ly/o9Mh

"On Friday night hubby and I continued to pretend we're cool, kidless and on a date, driving our (borrowed) hot sports car to see Elvis Costello in concert.

The show was spectacular - Elvis Costello had a bluegrass band backing him up and transformed all his classic songs into Grand Ol Oprey tunes. Then I noticed a face from my past on stage, from back in the day when I WAS cool and kidless...Jerry Douglas on dobro used to play on the country albums I wrote and produced in the '90's.

After Elvis' 3rd encore, I passed my business card to a security person. Happily,hubby and I were ushered to the meet'n greet area to hang out Jerry Douglas. Out of the corner of my eye, I see the one and only Elvis saunter into the room to chat. I totally lost my cool, acting like a tongue tied fan and forgot to tell him about YummyMummyClub and how I wanted to hook up with his uber yummy wife Diana Krall."
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by scielle »

This show is now available on CBC's Concerts on Demand.

http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/cod/concerts/20090828elvis
TRACK LISTING FOR THIS CONCERT

1 Mystery Train
Herman Parker Jr. (composer)

2 Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down
Merle Haggard (composer)

3 Down Among The Wine And Spirits
Declan MacManus (composer)

4 Femme Fatale
Lou Reed (composer)

5 Don't Lie To Me
Chuck Berry (composer)

6 Everyday I Write The Book
Declan MacManus (composer)

7 The Delivery Man
Declan MacManus (composer)

8 The Butcher's Boy
traditional (composer)

9 (The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes
Declan MacManus (composer)

10 Five Small Words
Declan MacManus (composer)

11 Happy
Mick Jagger (composer), Keith Richards (composer)

12 Allison
Declan MacManus (composer)

13 Peace, Love And Understanding
Declan MacManus (composer)
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by FAVEHOUR »

Thank you for posting that link, Scielle! I wish they would give us all of the show, or at least more of it. It's an excellent recording and a great performance! Even the songs that I didn't pay as much attention to, like PLU, sound great here. They really caught the band. Hopefully this will be taped by someone off the actual radio broadcast...

Dave
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by sweetest punch »

The FM broadcast is today. I hope someone in Canada is going to record it!
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by scielle »

CBC streams so you can listen to it here: http://www.cbc.ca/radio/

I'd be surprised if they air anything other than what's already online at http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/cod/

There's a little blurb about it on today's Radio 2 blog:

Elvis Costello is probably an honourary Canadian by now, what with being married to Diana Krall and hosting his great TV show, Spectacle With Elvis Costello.

At the end of the summer he did a concert at Massey Hall, and Radio 2 was there to record -- broadcast tonight. As you'll know if you're an Elvis fan, the guy is a musical chameleon. But tonight it's Country Elvis, performed with the Nashville band you can hear on his latest, curiously named recording: Secret, Profane & Sugarcane. (The band is also called Sugarcane.)

One of the truly great musicians you'll hear is Jerry Douglas on dobro. Say no more.

OK, say a little more. The show was sold out, and bloggers had a field day talking about things like whether or not some of Elvis' best known songs translate well or not to country.

A commenter to Blog TO points out that some of his songs essentially are country songs, even in their original incarnations. (eg. My Aim Is True.)

But he doesn't just do his own songs, he also does a few covers, like Merle Haggard's Tonight The Bottle Let Me Down.

And as always, he approaches everything he sings with that totally gutsy, inimitable Elvis Costello style. (Personal style too, he was decked out in a dark suit -- and purple fedora.) Well, well worth a listen!

http://www.cbc.ca/radio2/programs/canad ... assey.html
Last edited by scielle on Thu Oct 08, 2009 4:10 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by blureu »

Can someone save the stream for the group?
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by sweetest punch »

The FM broadcast is on Dime.
Since you put me down, it seems i've been very gloomy. You may laugh but pretty girls look right through me.
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by johnfoyle »

Hearing this properly mixed recording of a Elvis/'Canes show is a real treat. If more shows by them happen next year I will just have to go to one of them. The texture and tightness of the ensemble's interplay is breath taking. The Delivery Man/The Butcher's Boy medley is a highlight. Elvis' machinations on a electric guitar draw all kinds of responses from the acoustic intrumentations. Some of it seems so loose and ready that it just has to be ad libbed. Intriguingly I could swear I can hear a bit of something that sounds like a clarinet towards the end. A spellbinding show.
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by The Deliveryman »

I was lucky enough to catch two of the Sugarcanes shows (the Ryman in Nashville and Chautauqua, NY), and they were unbelievable. I really hope Elvis will take the show to your side of the pond next year, John, because the recordings, even as good as the Massey Hall radio recording is, don't *begin* to do the shows justice. (Actually John, you owe it to yourself to come see Elvis the next time he plays the Ryman -- *all* of my best Elvis shows have been at that venue. He truly loves and respects that place, and always pulls out something extra....) I've seen dozens of Costello shows and I don't think I've ever seen Elvis *enjoying* himself more than with this band -- no disrespect to any of his regular bands, because I love them *all*, but with the Sugarcanes it felt like he was a peer and not the boss. You're right, there was clearly a great deal of improvisation in these performances -- these guys in the Sugarcanes are as good as they come and the arrangements were extremely fluid.

No clarinets being played -- most likely what you were hearing was coming from Jeff Taylor, who played accordion, squeezebox and pipe whistle at the shows.

(And yes, Elvis pulling out the electric tenor guitar for the "Delivery Man" medley always did get a big response in these acoustic shows!)


And, off on a tangent, since the subject of this thread is the Massey Hall show, and the broadcast omitted the performance of "Happy" that was on the stream -- what is the best recording of "Happy" that has surfaced from this tour? I was hoping it would be in the radio broadcast and so haven't been keeping up with the torrents of the shows. Would anyone be willing to upload the best recording of that song?
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Re: Elvis and the Sugarcanes, Massey Hall, Toronto, 28 Aug 2009

Post by enlightend rogue »

I was luckyenough to catch this lineup at the Beacon in NYC. Show was great I can only hope we see another DVD like the one from the Toussaint tour. I sure hope that happens. The reworking of Everyday I Write the Book is worth the price of admission alone.
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