Sounds like a great show, Shatter!
P.S. Love the Alejandro avatar.
7/31/05 Wolftrap - Vienna, VA
At that precise time, I was actually at a Cypress, CA 24 Hour Fitness while that was going on, trying to read the L.A. Times Op-Ed section while on a mega-exercise contraption of death, or perhaps I was trying to avoid the 300 pound Russian in the swimming pool.
Most likely, it was when Nick Lowe's "So It Goes" broke up the usual musical diet of early nineties claptrap on the gym's sound system and I briefly became most happy, I was instantly mentally transported to Wolftrap and Shatter saw a bit of my ectoplasmic residue...I probably looked a bit moist/underdressed, I'm embarrassed to say.
Most likely, it was when Nick Lowe's "So It Goes" broke up the usual musical diet of early nineties claptrap on the gym's sound system and I briefly became most happy, I was instantly mentally transported to Wolftrap and Shatter saw a bit of my ectoplasmic residue...I probably looked a bit moist/underdressed, I'm embarrassed to say.
http://www.forwardtoyesterday.com -- Where "hopelessly dated" is a compliment!
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double dutchess
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I was there. Maybe you got me confused with Bobster.
Yes, Gathering Flowers was lovely. But for me, the highlights were "American Without Tears" and "Wild Horses". I thought Elvis and Emmylou's voices blended together beautifully. The fact that he started off with "Uncomplicated" bode well for the rest of the evening. Did you go to his last Wolftrap gig two years ago? This one was so much better! He seemed to be in a much better mood and was witty when addressing the audience. Last time I don't think he said a word between songs.
And wow, what did you think of the new addition to the Scarlet Tide? Very emotional at the end. Yet another highlight. Hell, the entire three hours were phenomenal! I couldn't stop smiling.
Yes, Gathering Flowers was lovely. But for me, the highlights were "American Without Tears" and "Wild Horses". I thought Elvis and Emmylou's voices blended together beautifully. The fact that he started off with "Uncomplicated" bode well for the rest of the evening. Did you go to his last Wolftrap gig two years ago? This one was so much better! He seemed to be in a much better mood and was witty when addressing the audience. Last time I don't think he said a word between songs.
And wow, what did you think of the new addition to the Scarlet Tide? Very emotional at the end. Yet another highlight. Hell, the entire three hours were phenomenal! I couldn't stop smiling.
I wasn't born the sharpest thorn
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verbal gymnastics
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Lotsa photos etc from Wolftrap -
http://thrashersblog.com/2005/08/elvis- ... -wolf.html
including these -
http://thrashersblog.com/2005/08/elvis- ... -wolf.html
including these -
http://www.hickorywind.org/000661.html
August 04, 2005
Elvis Costello & Emmylou Harris @ Wolf Trap
Elvis Costello & The Imposters feat. Emmylou Harris
July 31, 2005
Wolf Trap, Vienna, Va.
Gram Parsons’ legacy as the great unifier of rock and country is often celebrated, but rarely as well as by Elvis Costello and the Imposters with special guest Emmylou Harris on Sunday night.
Plenty of tributes have star power. Last summer in Los Angeles and Pasadena, Calif., Parsons’ daughter Polly organized the two-night “Return to Sin City: A Tribute to Gram Parsons.” The intentions were good. The lineup was great, including Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam, Keith Richards, Jay Farrar, Jim Lauderdale, Norah Jones, John Doe and Kathleen Edwards. But “Return to Sin City” just didn’t seem to equal the sum of its parts, coming off a little bit like a long-delayed funeral for a friend (in fairness, I’m basing this opinion on the pay-per-view version of this tribute, which was all I could afford).
There’s no questioning the credentials of Costello or Harris. Between them, it seems they’ve worked with everybody who’s anybody in several styles of music. So it’s no surprise, even though this show was not a Parsons tribute, that they fulfilled his vision of “Cosmic American Music.” Parsons’ famous label was just another way of saying he wanted to break down the barriers between rock, country and R&B without having to be alt-anything.
Perhaps the California concerts had too much of a good thing. Rarely outside of bluegrass, where the players are used to one microphone, can you get a gaggle of big names to comfortably share the spotlight. The big-sing-along-at-the-end never works. Maybe it’s just that Costello & Co. had what those shows didn’t – Harris. As Parsons’ duet partner and protege, she lends an air of authenticity to all tributes in which she is involved.
Harris has performed duets with many singers since Parsons’ death in 1973, and made all of them sound better. On Sunday she added an air of elegance to Costello’s voice analogous to the stately grace her silver hair adds to her angular features.
The show clocked in at a more-than-generous three hours. Of the 37 songs, five were written by or associated with Parsons: “Sin City,” “Luxury Liner,” “Wheels,” “Love Hurts” and the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses.” At least another 10 were performed in his barrier-busting spirit.
The choice of country and roots music was a natural. Harris made her mark in the field. Costello’s well-documented genre hopping began in earnest in 1981 with his salute to Nashville, “Almost Blue.” He also dabbled in American roots music on 1986's “King of America” and last year’s “The Delivery Man,” on which Harris was a guest vocalist.
Costello and the Imposters (keyboardist Steve Nieve, drummer Pete Thomas, bassist Davey Faragher) pumped the crowd up by tearing into seven songs drawn largely from the back catalog – “Uncomplicated,” “Clown Strike,” “Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs are Taking Over),” “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea,” “Clubland,” “Country Darkness” and “Waiting for the End of the World.” They then welcomed to the stage Harris and guest multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell, a veteran of scores of recording sessions but perhaps best known for his work on Bob Dylan albums and tours.
For the next 13 songs, the show took on a decidedly country feel. Costello and Harris began with a duet on “Stranger in the House,” which Costello originally performed with George Jones. There were plenty more covers, among them Jones’ “One of These Days,” the Louvin Brothers’ “My Baby’s Gone” and “Must You Throw Dirt In My Face?” and Merle Haggard’s “The Bottle Let Me Down.” There were, of course, the Parsons tunes “Sin City” and “Luxury Liner,” the former spiced up by Campbell’s pedal steel and the latter by blistering guitar solos on his Telecaster.
Campbell was the band’s secret weapon, adding country color with steel, guitar, fiddle and mandolin as well as complimenting the outstanding Nieve, who stepped out from behind the keys to play theremin, hooter and accordion.
The main set with Harris also included a duet on “Heart Shaped Bruise” from “The Delivery Man” and “Indoor Fireworks” and “American Without Tears” from “King of America.” Harris, who described the tour as a “fantasy summer vacation,” performed her own “Red Dirt Girl.”
Harris left the stage after the 20th song, “Luxury Liner.” Costello and the Imposters closed the main set as impressively as they started it with another seven songs, tacking the old-timey ballad “The Butcher Boy” onto the end of “The Delivery Man,” super-charging Hank Williams’ “Why Don’t You Love Me Like You Used to Do?” and bringing the crowd to its feet (not for the first time) with “Pump it Up,” from 1978's “This Year’s Model.”
The 10-song encore was half as long as most shows and twice as good as many. Among the highlights were the duets on the always painfully beautiful “Wild Horses” and “Love Hurts,” Harris’ vocal lead on Townes Van Zandt’s “Pancho and Lefty,” and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece.” The night ended with two pleas for peace: Nick Lowe’s (made famous by Costello) “(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace Love & Understanding” and “The Scarlet Tide” from the “Cold Mountain” soundtrack and “The Delivery Man.” Costello punctuated his point by adding the line “admit you were wrong and bring the boys home” to “Scarlet Tide.”
The show was the last of the tour, and Costello was in good spirits. He soloed enthusiastically on the guitar during the early numbers, often stopping to get the crowd clapping along. He prefaced many of the songs with stories such as “trying to rid the world of alcohol ... by drinking it” during the recording of “Almost Blue, and the dangers of recording country in the late ’70s for fear that the “punk police” would come and “take your safety pin away.” The humor wasn’t limited to the stories, as he threw a quote from “I Feel Pretty” into his guitar solo on “Clubland.”
A lasting image from the night, though, came during the encore, when Costello, Harris and Faragher gathered around a single microphone stage left to sing the Stanley Brothers’ “Gathering Flowers for the Master’s Bouquet.” Harris, wearing a flowery dress; Farragher, wearing a western shirt and jeans; and Costello, nattily dressed as always in an expensive suit and glittery silver shoes, wove angelic harmonies and proved again that it’s what the music sounds like, not what it looks like, that matters. Their collaboration symbolized, and sounded like, Gram Parsons’ vision realized.
Setlist
1. Uncomplicated
2. Clown Strike
3. Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs Are Taking Over)
4. (I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea
5. Clubland
6. Country Darkness
7. Waiting for the End of the World
8. Stranger in the House (w/Emmylou Harris)
9. One of These Days (w/E.H.)
10. Heart Shaped Bruise (w/E.H.)
11. The Bottle Let Me Down (w/E.H.)
12. Indoor Fireworks (w/E.H.)
13. Life’s Companion (Note: E.C. said this song had been co-written with T-Bone Burnett for a movie but the producers didn’t want to pay for it, so I don’t know the correct title. This one is based off information found on Costello fan sites)
14. My Baby’s Gone (w/E.H.)
15. Mystery Train (w/E.H.)
16. Sin City (w/E.H.)
17. “You Don’t Know My Mind Today” (Again, I didn’t know this song so I listed a prominent line from the lyrics. At least one E.C. fan site indicated this is a new song he has been performing on this tour) (w/E.H.)
18. Red Dirt Girl (E.H. lead vocal)
19. American Without Tears (w/E.H.)
20. Luxury Liner (E.H. lead vocal)
21. The Delivery Man
22. Bedlam
23. Monkey to Man
24. Needle Time
25. Mystery Dance
26. Why Don’t You Love Me Like You Used to Do?
27. Pump it Up
Encore
28. Wild Horses (w/E.H.)
29. Wheels (w/E.H.)
30. Pancho and Lefty (E.H. lead vocal)
31. Why Must You Throw Dirt in My Face? (w/E.H.)
32. I Ain’t Living Long Like This (w/E.H.)
33. Gathering Flowers for the Master’s Bouquet (w/E.H and Davey Faragher)
34. Love Hurts (w/E.H.)
35. When I Paint My Masterpiece (w/E.H.)
36. (What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding (w/E.H.)
37. The Scarlet Tide (w/E.H.)
Posted by sean at August 4, 2005 04:58 AM
August 04, 2005
Elvis Costello & Emmylou Harris @ Wolf Trap
Elvis Costello & The Imposters feat. Emmylou Harris
July 31, 2005
Wolf Trap, Vienna, Va.
Gram Parsons’ legacy as the great unifier of rock and country is often celebrated, but rarely as well as by Elvis Costello and the Imposters with special guest Emmylou Harris on Sunday night.
Plenty of tributes have star power. Last summer in Los Angeles and Pasadena, Calif., Parsons’ daughter Polly organized the two-night “Return to Sin City: A Tribute to Gram Parsons.” The intentions were good. The lineup was great, including Steve Earle, Lucinda Williams, Dwight Yoakam, Keith Richards, Jay Farrar, Jim Lauderdale, Norah Jones, John Doe and Kathleen Edwards. But “Return to Sin City” just didn’t seem to equal the sum of its parts, coming off a little bit like a long-delayed funeral for a friend (in fairness, I’m basing this opinion on the pay-per-view version of this tribute, which was all I could afford).
There’s no questioning the credentials of Costello or Harris. Between them, it seems they’ve worked with everybody who’s anybody in several styles of music. So it’s no surprise, even though this show was not a Parsons tribute, that they fulfilled his vision of “Cosmic American Music.” Parsons’ famous label was just another way of saying he wanted to break down the barriers between rock, country and R&B without having to be alt-anything.
Perhaps the California concerts had too much of a good thing. Rarely outside of bluegrass, where the players are used to one microphone, can you get a gaggle of big names to comfortably share the spotlight. The big-sing-along-at-the-end never works. Maybe it’s just that Costello & Co. had what those shows didn’t – Harris. As Parsons’ duet partner and protege, she lends an air of authenticity to all tributes in which she is involved.
Harris has performed duets with many singers since Parsons’ death in 1973, and made all of them sound better. On Sunday she added an air of elegance to Costello’s voice analogous to the stately grace her silver hair adds to her angular features.
The show clocked in at a more-than-generous three hours. Of the 37 songs, five were written by or associated with Parsons: “Sin City,” “Luxury Liner,” “Wheels,” “Love Hurts” and the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses.” At least another 10 were performed in his barrier-busting spirit.
The choice of country and roots music was a natural. Harris made her mark in the field. Costello’s well-documented genre hopping began in earnest in 1981 with his salute to Nashville, “Almost Blue.” He also dabbled in American roots music on 1986's “King of America” and last year’s “The Delivery Man,” on which Harris was a guest vocalist.
Costello and the Imposters (keyboardist Steve Nieve, drummer Pete Thomas, bassist Davey Faragher) pumped the crowd up by tearing into seven songs drawn largely from the back catalog – “Uncomplicated,” “Clown Strike,” “Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs are Taking Over),” “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea,” “Clubland,” “Country Darkness” and “Waiting for the End of the World.” They then welcomed to the stage Harris and guest multi-instrumentalist Larry Campbell, a veteran of scores of recording sessions but perhaps best known for his work on Bob Dylan albums and tours.
For the next 13 songs, the show took on a decidedly country feel. Costello and Harris began with a duet on “Stranger in the House,” which Costello originally performed with George Jones. There were plenty more covers, among them Jones’ “One of These Days,” the Louvin Brothers’ “My Baby’s Gone” and “Must You Throw Dirt In My Face?” and Merle Haggard’s “The Bottle Let Me Down.” There were, of course, the Parsons tunes “Sin City” and “Luxury Liner,” the former spiced up by Campbell’s pedal steel and the latter by blistering guitar solos on his Telecaster.
Campbell was the band’s secret weapon, adding country color with steel, guitar, fiddle and mandolin as well as complimenting the outstanding Nieve, who stepped out from behind the keys to play theremin, hooter and accordion.
The main set with Harris also included a duet on “Heart Shaped Bruise” from “The Delivery Man” and “Indoor Fireworks” and “American Without Tears” from “King of America.” Harris, who described the tour as a “fantasy summer vacation,” performed her own “Red Dirt Girl.”
Harris left the stage after the 20th song, “Luxury Liner.” Costello and the Imposters closed the main set as impressively as they started it with another seven songs, tacking the old-timey ballad “The Butcher Boy” onto the end of “The Delivery Man,” super-charging Hank Williams’ “Why Don’t You Love Me Like You Used to Do?” and bringing the crowd to its feet (not for the first time) with “Pump it Up,” from 1978's “This Year’s Model.”
The 10-song encore was half as long as most shows and twice as good as many. Among the highlights were the duets on the always painfully beautiful “Wild Horses” and “Love Hurts,” Harris’ vocal lead on Townes Van Zandt’s “Pancho and Lefty,” and a cover of Bob Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece.” The night ended with two pleas for peace: Nick Lowe’s (made famous by Costello) “(What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace Love & Understanding” and “The Scarlet Tide” from the “Cold Mountain” soundtrack and “The Delivery Man.” Costello punctuated his point by adding the line “admit you were wrong and bring the boys home” to “Scarlet Tide.”
The show was the last of the tour, and Costello was in good spirits. He soloed enthusiastically on the guitar during the early numbers, often stopping to get the crowd clapping along. He prefaced many of the songs with stories such as “trying to rid the world of alcohol ... by drinking it” during the recording of “Almost Blue, and the dangers of recording country in the late ’70s for fear that the “punk police” would come and “take your safety pin away.” The humor wasn’t limited to the stories, as he threw a quote from “I Feel Pretty” into his guitar solo on “Clubland.”
A lasting image from the night, though, came during the encore, when Costello, Harris and Faragher gathered around a single microphone stage left to sing the Stanley Brothers’ “Gathering Flowers for the Master’s Bouquet.” Harris, wearing a flowery dress; Farragher, wearing a western shirt and jeans; and Costello, nattily dressed as always in an expensive suit and glittery silver shoes, wove angelic harmonies and proved again that it’s what the music sounds like, not what it looks like, that matters. Their collaboration symbolized, and sounded like, Gram Parsons’ vision realized.
Setlist
1. Uncomplicated
2. Clown Strike
3. Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs Are Taking Over)
4. (I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea
5. Clubland
6. Country Darkness
7. Waiting for the End of the World
8. Stranger in the House (w/Emmylou Harris)
9. One of These Days (w/E.H.)
10. Heart Shaped Bruise (w/E.H.)
11. The Bottle Let Me Down (w/E.H.)
12. Indoor Fireworks (w/E.H.)
13. Life’s Companion (Note: E.C. said this song had been co-written with T-Bone Burnett for a movie but the producers didn’t want to pay for it, so I don’t know the correct title. This one is based off information found on Costello fan sites)
14. My Baby’s Gone (w/E.H.)
15. Mystery Train (w/E.H.)
16. Sin City (w/E.H.)
17. “You Don’t Know My Mind Today” (Again, I didn’t know this song so I listed a prominent line from the lyrics. At least one E.C. fan site indicated this is a new song he has been performing on this tour) (w/E.H.)
18. Red Dirt Girl (E.H. lead vocal)
19. American Without Tears (w/E.H.)
20. Luxury Liner (E.H. lead vocal)
21. The Delivery Man
22. Bedlam
23. Monkey to Man
24. Needle Time
25. Mystery Dance
26. Why Don’t You Love Me Like You Used to Do?
27. Pump it Up
Encore
28. Wild Horses (w/E.H.)
29. Wheels (w/E.H.)
30. Pancho and Lefty (E.H. lead vocal)
31. Why Must You Throw Dirt in My Face? (w/E.H.)
32. I Ain’t Living Long Like This (w/E.H.)
33. Gathering Flowers for the Master’s Bouquet (w/E.H and Davey Faragher)
34. Love Hurts (w/E.H.)
35. When I Paint My Masterpiece (w/E.H.)
36. (What’s So Funny ’Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding (w/E.H.)
37. The Scarlet Tide (w/E.H.)
Posted by sean at August 4, 2005 04:58 AM
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Sulkygirl1
- Posts: 41
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