Elvis Costello Plans a Variety of Concerts for 2010

Posted on Feb 2nd 2010 10:00AM by Steve Baltin
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Elvis Costello was one of many artists who paid tribute to Neil Young last Friday night, Jan. 29, at the 20th anniversary MusiCares dinner. Costello was very impressed with the night's music, singling out a few performances that stood out to him. "Wilco were amazing. That was impressive that they put so much work in. I don't imagine Buffalo Springfield ever played that song cause it's kind of a collage," he told Spinner of their rendition of 'Broken Arrow' at the Grammy Awards. "So impressive that they learned it, and Ben Harper was great as well. A lot of great performances."

Through all of the night's amazing renditions of Young classics, Costello thought they captured what made Young such an icon. "The humanity of the songs really came through and that's the main characteristic of Neil's work," he said.

We asked Costello about the first time he ever met the man and turns out it was a memorable first encounter. "It was in Ireland. I went to see him play with the MGs," he recalled. "Actually I ended up on the stage on Booker [T's] organ stools, singing background on 'Rockin' in the Free World' and Booker said, 'Take it.' And I went, 'You gotta be kidding. I'm not doing that.'"

Having already had the likes of Bruce Springsteen and U2's Bono and the Edge on his critically acclaimed talk show, 'Spectacle,' it would be pretty cool to see Young on there. "Either of them would be great," Costello said of Young and Booker, who played on Friday night as well. But Costello isn't sure what's in store for his show. "We're done with it now. We'll see what the future brings, but we've had some great guests and it's been tremendous," he said.

With his TV journalism career on hold for now, Costello is putting his full concentration back on music for the immediate future and heading out on the road. "I'm playing solo shows in California and Arizona, playing with the Sugarcanes on the East Coast, playing a few shows with the Impostors, then with the Dallas Symphony," he said. "And I'm playing in Europe with the Sugarcanes in the summer, so it's a good varied year."

For some artists, that variety might get tricky but Costello loves the diversity of playing with so many different bands. "With the Sugarcanes' repertoire, people know it, it's out there and people have heard the record. Little by little, they hear about that album," he said. "And then obviously with the Impostors, that's a more familiar thing but it's moving forward all the time. We have lots of new songs and there are always new songs for us to perform."