music

Elvis Costello

Secret, Profane & Sugarcane

Like Ray Charles, rock legend Elvis Costello has spent his career absorbing a variety of musical styles into his palette—including country, for which he demonstrated a knack as far back as 1978’s “Stranger in the House.” But Elvis has tended to approach the genre on its own terms, a tack he certainly takes on Secret, Profane & Sugarcane. Recorded in Nashville with top-flight acoustic players including Dobro player Jerry Douglas and fiddler Stuart Duncan, Secret lays suitably bare a characteristically first-rate set of songs from one of country music’s most passionate champions in the rock world.

• June 29, 2009
• by Chris Neal