River in Reverse discussion

[johnfoyle]

The Irish Times , June 9 '06

ELVIS COSTELLO & ALLEN TOUSSAINT
The River in Reverse Verve ****

Elvis is having a fine old time these days, hobnobbing with his heroes such as 68-year-old New Orleans legend Allen Toussaint, with whom he has recorded this mixed but ultimately valuable set. Toussaint is the man behind such songs as Lady Marmalade and Working in a Coal Mine, working as producer, writer, pianist and, in many cases, all three. For this 13-track outing (aimed at showcasing the revival of New Orleans) he generally takes a back seat as Elvis and his Imposters, allied to the Crescent City Horns, select from his back pages or crank out a few new songs framed in the New Orleans tradition. Some of Elvis’s own songs and his collaborations sound the wrong side of forced, particularly Broken Promise Land, but when they score they score big-time, as on Nearer to You, Ascension Day, On Your Way Down and All These Things.

http://www.verveforecast.com
Joe Breen


Record Collector , July '06

Elvis Costello &
Allen Toussaint
The River In Reverse

Verve Forecast 9856057

Two greats at the top of their game

Restless Elvis plays closer to home on on this latest hobby’ project. The deep soul strut evident makes it almost a cornpanion piece to 2004’s magnificent The Delivery Man, but with a bona tide R&B legend muscling in on the action.

Having collaborated twice in the past, plans for this joint album were hatched at a Hurricane Katrina benefit in New York last year; half new co-writes and half cherry-picked from Toussaint’s archives of prior New Orleans gems, fashioned, like The Delivery Man, virtually live in the studio with The Imposters in the southern US.

Best of the ‘oldies’ are a delicate reading of Art Neville’s All These Things and Toussaint himself on lead vocals for a soupedup groove through Who’s Gonna Help Brother Get Further?, first recorded by Lee Dorsey in 1970. Many of the new songs recreate the spirit of the past, while boasting an ambiguity where they could be read either as paeans to fictional lost love or factual lost hope, subtly addressing the aftermath of Katrina without recourse to in-yer-face sloganeering.

Toussaint’s signature piano is well evident throughout (Imposter Steve Nieve switching to Hammond organ), but ultimately it’s Costello’s album, and one of his best. Still a collaborative effort, though, and probably more palatable to some ears than excursions with chamber quartets, jazz orchestras or easy listening gurus.

Terry Staunton


http://www.rockymountainnews.com/drmn/m ... 40,00.html


Rocky Mountain News
June 9, 2006

Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint
The River in Reverse, Verve/Forecast
Grade: A-

Casual fans might think Elvis Costello is jumping on the Katrina bandwagon with his new collaboration with the legendary Allen Toussaint on an album recorded in New Orleans in the wake of the hurricane's destruction.

But Costello has worked with producer-pianist Toussaint for more than 20 years, with Toussaint producing Punch the Clock in '83 and Costello playing songs such as Tears, Tears and More Tears onstage with The Attractions a year later.So it's fitting that that particular song is the first single off of The River in Reverse, a for-the-most-part- seamless collaboration of two musical greats.


Some of Costello's side projects and collaborations are an acquired taste; many fans still can't take the great Juliet Letters, recorded with the Brodsky Quartet. This isn't an acquired taste but an instant delight. It helps that Costello is joined by his backing band The Imposters for most songs, and the band is perfectly suited to work with Toussaint as well.

Consisting of remakes of Toussaint classics combined with new co-compositions by the pair, The River in Reverse is an earnest, authentic romp through New Orleans' musical heritage (heavy on the horns) with some biting social commentary.

Maybe it's aural comfort food. Like Bruce Springsteen's recent foray into traditional music with We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, Costello casts a modern voice back into our shared musical past - a reminder that the best music may have been made decades ago.

It's worth revisiting, even in the brand-new songs. International Echo, a co-write by Costello and Toussaint, perfectly encompasses both men's musical strengths - classic Costello given a zesty New Orleans blast from Toussaint.

The title cut, however, is the standout. The River in Reverse asks, "How long does a promise last? / How long can a lie be told? / What would I take in exchange for my soul? / Would I notice when it was sold?" A song of abandonment, lost faith and despair, it has New Orleans and Katrina written all over it. It dovetails neatly with another song on the disc, Broken Promise Land, where raucous verses suddenly go silent while Costello's voice plaintively sings, "It didn't turn out the way we planned / now I'm living in broken promise land."

Costello's voice occasionally gets overwrought on some of the slower numbers, such as Toussaint's Nearer to You, but that's a small quibble. The River in Reverse is a high point in both artist's careers.

Mark Brown

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00486.html

Toussaint: Following The Ebb And Flow

By Richard Harrington
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, June 9, 2006; Page WE07

Toussaint profile ; usual stuff.

[verbal gymnastics]

Wow - did anyone else know Allen Toussaint produced Punch the Clock?

Is Tears Tears and More Tears the new single?

[BlueChair]

It's amazing how many errors have been included in these reviews.

[scielle]

Reminder - tomorrow afternoon, 4-5 pm in all Canadian time zones - DNTO on CBC Radio 1 is airing the EC and AT show recorded in Toronto on May 2nd.

From 4-5
And we'll close out the show with a special live concert featuring Elvis Costello and New Orleans musician Allen Toussaint. Recorded at Toronto's Spoke Club, tune in to hear music from their brand new album, The River in Reverse.

Setlist:

WHAT DO YOU WANT THE GIRL TO DO (Not commercially available) THE SHARPEST THORN (Not commercially available) Duration: 00:03:51
FREEDOM FOR THE STALLION (Not commercially available) Duration: 00:02:41
THE RIVER IN REVERSE (Not commercially available) Duration: 00:04:16
ASCENSION DAY (Not commercially available) Duration: 00:02:42
WHO'S GONNA HELP BROTHER GET FURTHER (Not commercially available) Duration: 00:03:48
NEARER TO YOU (Not commercially available) Duration: 00:02:39
THE GREATEST LOVE (Not commercially available) Duration: 00:03:12
YES WE CAN CAN (Not commercially available) Duration: 00:02:09

[LessThanZero]

I'm KILLING this CD! Listening too much, too often! How do I stop?!?

[pophead2k]

LTZ, I know what you mean. I find myself skipping tracks around a lot, not because I don't like any particular one, but because I can't wait to hear the next one!

[Otis Westinghouse]

I'm KILLING this CD! Listening too much, too often! How do I stop?!?

Go to a gig by someone else. I was playing it a lot for a week, and then ron sexsmith hit these shores and I've played no-one else for a week, revisiting all of his LPs etc. Heaven. Now for Elvis again...

[johnfoyle]

http://www.dfw.com/mld/dfw/entertainmen ... =dfw_music

Fort Worth Star-Telegram

Fri, Jun. 09, 2006

It's a nice pairing -- too nice

ROBERT PHILPOT
STAR-TELEGRAM STAFF WRITER

From the rolling piano chords that begin On Your Way Down, the first song on Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint's new album The River in Reverse, the influence on Toussaint of New Orleans greats Professor Longhair and Fats Domino is clear. But although this album -- a collaboration formed in the wake of the Hurricane Katrina disaster -- is steeped in Crescent City soul, something's a little off about it. I never thought I'd say this about something involving Costello, but it's too nice.

Or rather, too pleasant. Controlled rather than raucous, The River in Reverse tames Costello's vitriol (not totally a bad thing, given the crankiness of much of his work during the past two decades) and slides along on Joe Henry's politely tasteful production. Costello sings most of the lead vocals, but this is more Toussaint's album, and you begin to understand why the legendary New Orleans-based composer is best-known for other people's versions of his songs. This is the calm after the storm, even if the NPR-ready music sometimes conceals bitter lyrics.

For many listeners, this will be fine. But for many others, they'll cherish the occasional moments of relative rudeness or liveliness. Not for nothing is the horn-driven single Tears, Tears and More Tears; despite its title, it's the most upbeat thing on the album. Who's Gonna Help a Brother Get Further?, one of the older Toussaint songs here, benefits from the change of pace of having Toussaint take lead vocal. Broken Promise Land gets a boost from Costello's tremolo strikes on his Fender Telecaster, and Toussaint's longtime guitarist Anthony "AB" Brown gives several songs a little more oomph.

Broken Promise Land is one of the album's more overt references to Katrina, which brought the two artists back together. They've collaborated before, most notably on Deep, Dark Truthful Mirror from Costello's 1989 CD Spike and for a Katrina benefit concert. When Costello learned that Toussaint had been forced to relocate to New York from New Orleans after the storm, he pushed for a bigger project. According to the record label's Web site, the album was recorded early last fall and is believed to be the first full-length post-Katrina CD project done in New Orleans.

Other influences slip through: There's a lot of Booker T. and the MG's (especially in the Hammond B3s that Costello and longtime keyboard player Steve Nieve play) and an overall Southern soul sound to the Crescent City Horns, a major presence throughout the album. It's all very affectionate, all very smooth. And it would be better if it was a little rough.

Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint

The River in Reverse

Verve Forecast

GRADE: B


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Robert Philpot, 817-390-7872 rphilpot@star-telegram.com

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http://www.boston.com/ae/music/cd_revie ... rt/?page=2

Boston Globe, Fri, 09 Jun 2006

Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint
THE RIVER IN REVERSE
Verve Forecast

Elvis Costello’s latest is a project born of Hurricane Katrina — specifically, of legendary New Orleans songwriter, producer, and musician Allen Toussaint’s dislocation to New York City, where he and Costello crossed paths at various Katrina benefits and renewed their musical friendship. In turn, that lighted the fuse in Costello’s febrile mind of doing an album with Toussaint. The result is part collaboration and part tribute to Toussaint and, thereby, to New Orleans and its musical heritage. In some measure, it’s also an expression of distress at the current state of the city, although it’s not entirely clear at whom, exactly, the finger is being pointed. Costello has described the project as a ‘‘meeting,’’ and indeed it is: between Costello and his Imposters, and Touissant and his Crescent City Horns; between Costello the vocalist and the structure of classic Toussaint material (and classic renditions of that material); and between Costello and Toussaint working together as songwriters, arrangers, and musicians. The greater part of the record consists of renditions of less-familiar songs from Toussaint’s catalog, using classic performances of those songs as templates — from Little Feat (‘‘On Your Way Down’’), Betty Harris (‘‘Nearer to You’’), Brinsley Schwarz (‘‘Wonder Woman’’), the Uniques (‘‘All These Things’’), and especially Lee Dorsey (‘‘Tears, Tears and More Tears,’’ ‘‘Freedom for the Stallion’’). Those revisitations are complemented by several new songs by the pair, the best of which marry Toussaint’s classic R&B vibe to the murky sting and wit of Costello’s lyrics. Altogether a whole that is more than the sum of its parts, ‘‘The River in Reverse’’ celebrates the music of Toussaint’s New Orleans by adding to it, even as it laments the destruction and incompetence that have been visited upon the city itself.

ESSENTIAL TRACK: ‘‘Who’s Gonna Help Brother Get Further?’’

STUART MUNRO

[johnfoyle]

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 00324.html

The Washington Post
Sunday, June 11, 2006

THE RIVER IN REVERSE

Elvis Costello and Allen Toussaint

After years spent wrestling into submission musical genres ranging from pop standards to ballet scores, it was probably only a matter of time until Elvis Costello got around to making an R&B album.

"The River in Reverse," a collaboration among Costello, venerated New Orleans pianist Allen Toussaint and their respective backing teams, was, according to its press materials, the first major album recorded in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina. Though its aftereffects can be felt in any number of recent releases, "River" may be the first bona fide Katrina set piece. It's as woeful and angry an album as you might have figured, helped along by several Costello-Toussaint compositions that speak either implicitly ("Ascension Day") or directly ("Broken Promise Land") to the disaster, and several Toussaint standards likely chosen for their ability to do the same.

There's a poignancy to even the simplest lines ("Baby won't you please come home?"), underscored by Toussaint's masterly piano-and-horn-centric arrangements, though "River" isn't any darker than it needs to be. Unlike many of Costello's other stylistic wanderings, the disc has a game, let's-put-on-a-show quality, though it's often more willing than it is great: "River" is fenced in by Costello's voice, which has grown in warmth since his sharp-elbowed early days but is still no match for Toussaint classics such as "Tears, Tears and More Tears," which have tested the limits of voices far greater than his.



-- Allison Stewart

[johnfoyle]

Usual write-up here -

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/feat ... allen.html

Katrina unites duo in musical healing

By George Varga
UNION-TRIBUNE POP MUSIC CRITIC
June 11, 2006



Elvis Costello has hailed Allen Toussaint as a “master of music,â€

[John]

Sales seem to be quite good in the US. The album has been in the Amazon top 20 all week and is currently at 15 - the highest I saw was 14.

[Neil.]

Any news from the good ol' US of A? Did it make the Billboard Chart?

[so lacklustre]

RiR has the same feel as Don't Give Up On Me. Hardly surprising given the connections.

[John]

I assume the US charts run Tuesday to Monday as all new releases seem to be on a Tuesday. So it's probably a bit early to know, Neil. I'll hazard a guess as no. 52!

[johnfoyle]

http://www.stuttgarter-zeitung.de/stz/p ... hp/1175908

Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint: The River In Reverse


Kann Elvis Costello eigentlich noch Elvis Costello sein? Die Frage lauert ja hinter all seinen letzten Platten, den Jazz-und Klassikexpeditionen, den Ballett- und Filmmusiken, den Kollaborationen mit hochmögenden Menschen der Popgeschichte, die der Supersongwriter der New-Wave-Generation veröffentlichte. Elvis Costello ist ein Fall für hochkulturelle Sonntagsnachmittags-Betrachtungen geworden. Vordergründig reiht sich das neue Album in die Liste der wohlfeilen Experimente ein, nach Burt Bacharach, Anne Sofie von Otter und Diana Krall, nach Paul McCartney, dem Brodsky Quartet und T-Bone Burnett nun Allen Toussaint: Miterfinder des New-Orleans-R & B, Pianist, Songwriter und Produzent, der Mann, der aus dem Schatten des Mardi Gras in die Rock'n'Roll Hall Of Fame trat. Das war 1998. Knapp zehn Jahre zuvor hatte Toussaint Costello auf einem Song des Albums "Spike" begleitet, am Piano. Auf "The River In Reverse" spielen zwei Bands, die Rhythmus-Abteilung von Costello und die Bläsergruppe von Toussaint, über weite Strecken klingt das, als hätten sie nie etwas anderes getan. Costello legt seinen Klagegesang in die Bläser-Arrangements und Piano-Wiegen, die Toussaint ihm da hinstellt. Gemeinsam schaukeln sie sich durch ein paar schöne Toussaint-Songs (u.a. "Wonder Woman", "Freedom For The Stallion"), gemeinsam haben sie fünf neue Songs geschrieben, nur der Titelsong ist ein astreiner Costello, die kritische Bebilderung der Katastrophe, die der Hurrikan "Katrina" 2005 über Toussaints Heimat New Orleans brachte ("The River In Reverse"). Ein Stück fast auch über die Entstehung der Platte. Besser aber sind Costello und Toussaint im Wechselspiel Gesang Piano, in einer bis aufs Blut reduzierten Version von "Tipitina", der Costello den Titel "Ascension Day" gab. In diesen Momenten des Dialogs mit Toussaint kommt Elvis Costello übrigens Elvis Costello wieder sehr nahe.

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Google trans -

Can Elvis Costello be actually still Elvis Costello? The question lurks behind all its last plates, Jazz-und classical period expeditions, the ballet and Filmmusiken, the Kollaborationen also high-liking humans of the Popgeschichte, which the Supersongwriter of the new Wave generation published. Elvis Costello became a case for advanced cultureal views of Sundays in the afternoon. Vordergründig lines up the new album into the list probably-files experiments in, after Burt Bacharach, Anne Sofie of Otter and Diana Krall, after Paul McCartney, the Brodsky Quartet and T-Bone of the Burnett now all Toussaint: Miterfinder of the new Orleans r & B, pianist, Songwriter and producer, the man, who from the shade of the Mardi grass into the Rock'n'Roll resound to OF Fame stepped. That was 1998. Scarcely ten years before Toussaint Costello on a Song of the album “spikeâ€

[johnfoyle]

http://pub8.bravenet.com/forum/676852346/fetch/591975/

Re: Steve, is there a planned format for the shows w/ Allen Toussaint?
Name: Webmaster Nieve
Date Posted: Jun 10, 06 - 9:30 AM
Message: Yes - very similiar - though it's so much fun with a horn section and two keyboards - maybe the 'guests' will be forced to stay longer - + Allen has so many mighty songs up his sleeve - We will kick off as a 4 piece band and GROW from there....

[sabreman]

I really love the album. Always been a giant AT fan and knew he would come through. The production and engineering (sound) are top notch. JH deserves some major props for that. IMHO the last two albums didn't sound that great.

[Who Shot Sam?]

I'm lovin' Steve's work on the Hammond B3. A nice change after the theremin overload of recent years.

[oldhamer]

I hear his organ playing more with every listen. he really is a gem, elvis is so lucky to have held on to him for so long. The album really is a grower, listening to it more and more now. One of Elvis's most mature albums.

[John]

Any news from the good ol' US of A? Did it make the Billboard Chart?

Unfortunately RIR has only debuted at 103! See http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/153426 ... lines=true

What a shame. It makes The Delivery Man look like a huge hit.

[sabreman]

The album is great and that is all that matters IMHO.

[verbal gymnastics]

That's a sentiment that's pretty much shared on this board. Wisely too.

[mood swung]

I've had it about 3 days now, and I woke up this morning with Tears, Tears and More Tears in my head. A very pleasant experience.

Anyway, if Elvis keeps heading further south with each new album, I'm thinking the next one's gonna be from Margaritaville and feature the Coral Reefer Band.

[verbal gymnastics]

I've had it about 3 days now, and I woke up this morning with Tears, Tears and More Tears...A very pleasant experience.

You obviously had a spanking over the new dryer (deliberately edited for a cheap joke - sorry MDM!).

[mood swung]

I am so sorry I ever mentioned that dryer...