Elvis, August 19, Wente Vineyards, Livermore, CA

[ramalama]

eSince its a vineyard, shouldn't it be Liver-no-more?

http://www.wentevineyards.com/concerts/ ... _costello/

[MOJO]

I hope there is another Bay Area show because this venue is a bit of trek from SF, plus the cops in these small town venues tend to be active around the concert season... It offsets their year around gig of coffee and donuts. I'm trying to avoid gigs and towns like this. My fingers are crossed for a local SF gig..

[johnfoyle]

$99 Terrace Seating — $149 Orchestra Seating — $179 Mezzanie Dining — $199 Outdoor Dining
$219 Premium Dining — $269 Restaurant Dining — $289 Front Row Dining

These ticket prices might also be a bit of a detterant . If I paid that I'd expect breakfast in the morning and my shirts washed and pressed.

[johnfoyle]

Elvis Costello and the Sugarcanes in Livermore - presale password


http://www.tmpresale.com/2009/04/elvis- ... es-in.html

Presale Info:
Member Presale
Start: Sat, 04/11/09 10:00 AM PDT
End: Sun, 04/26/09 09:59 AM PDT

TM Presale
Start: Mon, 04/20/09 10:00 AM PDT
End: Sun, 04/26/09 09:59 AM PDT

[johnfoyle]

Who's going?

[Dr. Luther]

Who's going?

I am.
Never been to this venue.
The set-up looks a bit fucked up, but we shall see.

[johnfoyle]

http://www.mercurynews.com/music/ci_130 ... ck_check=1

Elvis Costello does Americana

By Shay Quillen

Mercury News
08/13/2009

Although Elvis Costello's latest band, the Sugarcanes, includes some of the best bluegrass pickers in Nashville, the London native makes clear that they're not performing traditional country music. But he says the rural American traditions the musicians embody infuse every note.

"As good as they are, they have a humility about the way they play, and they lend themselves to the telling of the tale," Costello says via telephone from Vancouver, British Columbia. "What it's about is the service of the story."

To help tell his stories — both new ones from the recent "Secret, Profane and Sugarcane" CD and old favorites — Costello has enlisted an acoustic dream team: Jerry Douglas on Dobro, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, Jim Lauderdale on guitar and vocals, Mike Compton on mandolin, Dennis Crouch on bass and Jeff Taylor on accordion.

The combo makes its Bay Area debut Monday at the Mountain Winery in Saratoga, followed by an appearance Wednesday at Wente Vineyards in Livermore.

"It fits together in a totally different way than an electric band, because for one thing the volume is not so great, and nothing is coming to you in a blur," Costello says. "Of course, it's a thrilling blur with you playing in a group like the Imposters, or any of the electric groups I've played in, but this is a different experience completely."

Bay Area fans got a sneak preview last year when Costello threw together a heck of a band — including Lauderdale, Emmylou Harris and guitarist Bill Kirchen — for an Americana-tinged set at the annual Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park that included some of the "Sugarcane" songs. It was the second such appearance at the free fest for Costello, who has become something of an informal adviser and talent scout for the festival in recent years.

Costello, 54, says Bay Area radio stalwart Bonnie Simmons, who has been involved with the festival since its inception in 2001, was his entree into the annual event.

"She was really the first person in the United States to ever invite me on to the radio, at a time when most people were showing us the exit door rather than the entry door," he explains.

In recent years Costello — who has 2-year-old twin boys with his wife, Canadian jazz vocalist Diana Krall — has become something of a fixture in the Bay Area, between his involvement with Hardly Strictly, appearances at buddy Austin de Lone's annual benefits at Great American Music Hall, and even a recent in-store set at Amoeba Records in the Haight with Compton and Lauderdale.

Lauderdale, 52, is not just Costello's harmony singing partner in this band; he's also a die-hard fan.

"It was very dreamlike for me, because he's one of my heroes," Lauderdale says of the invitation to play on this project. "It's hard for me to believe that this is all happening."

While Costello is a musical omnivore, who leaps from Coleman Hawkins to "King of Bluegrass" Jimmy Martin without a pause, Lauderdale is country to the bone, a North Carolina native who has sung bluegrass with Ralph Stanley and written hit honky-tonk songs for George Strait.

Lauderdale says he first became aware of Costello when he read an early interview in which the British new wave sensation professed his love for George Jones and Gram Parsons.

"I thought, wow, I'm going to check this guy out, because those are two of my favorites," Lauderdale says.

The two first met in 1988 when Lauderdale performed at a benefit show in Los Angeles, then crossed paths in subsequent years at the Grand Ole Opry and the Newport Folk Festival. They first sang together when Costello assembled an all-star group to back him at North Carolina's Merle Watson Festival in 2007.

Though Costello has been an outspoken country fan since his career began — he and Jones recorded a duet in Nashville in 1979 — he has only recently been making a mark on the bluegrass and acoustic music scene.

Costello met many of the musicians in the Sugarcanes through producer and longtime Costello friend and associate T Bone Burnett, who worked with many of them on his soundtracks for "O Brother Where Art Thou" and "Cold Mountain."

"Sugarcane" is the third album Costello has recorded with Burnett, following "King of America" and "Spike."

Though the players and instrumentation are fairly consistent throughout, the nature of Costello's compositions ranges widely.

"It's like he can write a perfect George Jones song and a perfect Johnny Cash song, and then he can do something like 'She Handed Me a Mirror,' " says Lauderdale, referring to a sophisticated art song on the album inspired by the unrequited love of Hans Christian Andersen for singer Jenny Lind.

Live, the band is mixing the new batch of songs with reworkings of Costello classics. Costello is especially excited about what the combo does with one of his most commercial pop hits.


'Every Day I Write the Book,' which you wouldn't expect us to play at all, took on a whole different life played by this band," he says. "It's a song I've never really found a way that I'm completely happy with playing. "... I actually ended up finding the most satisfying way to perform it with this lineup."

More than perhaps anyone else in popular music, Costello is a student, someone who has tirelessly and passionately endeavored to assimilate the techniques of the masters who came before him.

"You can't write what someone else has written, but you can learn from those structures, and you can have a spin on that," he says. "Writing a simple, really effective three-chord rock 'n' roll song or a four-chord narrative ballad is a tricky task, because many people have done it before and a lot of the permutations have been used up.

"But there's always a new tale to tell."

[The imposter]

http://www.mercurynews.com/music/ci_130 ... ck_check=1


'Every Day I Write the Book,' which you wouldn't expect us to play at all, took on a whole different life played by this band," he says. "It's a song I've never really found a way that I'm completely happy with playing. "... I actually ended up finding the most satisfying way to perform it with this lineup."

"

Elvis once said that it was Ron Sexsmith who "taught him how to play this" or "found a better way to play it"

indeed my favourite version is their duet in Berlin 96. I think the new arrangement's a bit too ponderous or "measured" as is reported elsewhere. Similarly Red Shoes, Interesting,nonetheless.

[The imposter]

I meant to say Berlin 1999, a great sounding show.

[johnfoyle]

Any news Dr Luther?

[Dr. Luther]

Any news Dr Luther?

Decent -- that's about it.

Awful venue. Bizarre crowd -- looked like a wedding reception at a mid-level country club in Bakersfield.
I honestly believe that over 50% of the crowd had a subscription series for the summer, and just attend every single show -- getting all fucked up on wine, and playing grab-ass with the couple that lives down the street.

Shitty sound. Truncated setlist. No surprises. Elvis held back quite a bit with his vocals, I think, in that his voice was just on the edge of taking that well-known dive. (It never did.)
The odd thing is -- the crowd was really respectful, and virtually nobody left before the end.

A very strange evening -- although I actually enjoyed it, if only because of the knowledge that I'll be attending what will be (I predict) a spectacular show in Santa Rosa just over 4 hours from now.

Woo hoo.

[bronxapostle]

hope so for you Dr. L. keep us posted! setlists please.