Elvis Costello with Emmylou Harris and the Imposters: Central Park SummerStage
Richard Gehr, The Village Voice, 19 July 2005
IT SEEMS SLIGHTLY ridiculous now, but Elvis Costello's 1981 Almost Blue came with a sticker warning: "This album contains country & Western music & may produce radical reaction in narrow minded people." An alt-country movement, Americana format, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack later, the most radical reaction Costello's epic country-punk jamboree with Emmylou Harris and the Imposters induced was a certain amount of awe at the ass-kicking audacity of a 50-year-old rock star performing 33 songs over two and a half breakless hours—particularly in last week's fetid summer stew, and while sporting a finely tailored dark two-piece suit.
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