Contributing editor Jim Beviglia has been ranking the Top 100 Elvis Costello songs on his blog, Countdown Kid. Visit our site throughout the week for a daily countdown of the cream of the crop, and check out the previous entries here. 1. “Man Out Of Time” Mixing the political and the personal, the public and [...]

“[Elvis Costello] was trying when he was younger to write Bruce Springsteen songs —- he really liked Bruce Springsteen’s sound. And he said, but then he eventually stopped doing that because he would try to write these songs like Bruce Springsteen and he would end up writing things that were a little bit wry, sardonic [...]

The first time I saw Freedy Johnston was at the Stone Pony in Asbury Park in 1991 or ’92. Memory doesn’t serve correctly. But I do remember that I was there to see Matthew Sweet who was touring in support of his phenomenal album Girlfriend and not the opening act, a short, skinny guy wearing [...]

Diana Krall Glad Rag Doll (Verve) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars Call Glad Rag Doll an artistic leap forward, although to surmise that Krall hasn’t already gained industry-wide and critical respect would be a bold misconception. Krall was a central piece in Paul McCartney’s recent trip down music’s memory lane with Kisses On The [...]

Jamey Johnson’s upcoming Hank Cochran tribute album will feature a who’s who of living country music legends. Everyone from Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Kris Kristofferson, George Strait, Emmylou Harris, Elvis Costello and more joined up with Johnson to pay tribute to the late country singer, best known for his song “Sally Was a Good Old [...]

Elvis Costello has had pretty good success with songs named after girls. “Alison,” off his debut album, is still one of his signature songs after all these years. And his biggest American chart success came with a song about another girl dear to his heart, albeit not in a romantic way. “Veronica”, found on E.C’s [...]

Elvis Costello & The Imposters The Return of the Spectacular Spinning Songbook (UME) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars If you’re going to spin a big wheel to determine what song you’re going to play, you better have a slew of classics on tap so that the audience isn’t let down by what comes up. [...]

(The Shins) Following his critically acclaimed album Hemingway’s Whiskey, Kenny Chesney plans to release a new (untitled, as of yet) album on June 19. Chesney embarks on ‘The Brothers Of Sun’ tour with Tim McGraw on June 2. Check out the dates here. The Newport Folk Festival announced its 2012 lineup with headliners My Morning Jacket [...]

Various Artists Chimes of Freedom: The Songs of Bob Dylan Honoring 50 Years of Amnesty International (Fontana) Rating: To paraphrase a certain musical genius, the world don’t need any more Dylan covers. Or does it? Bob Dylan’s songs are some of the most covered of all time – see The 30th Anniversary Concert and the [...]

The Songwriters Hall of Fame has announced the nominees for the 2012 class. It’s an all-star list — Tom Waits, Lou Reed, Pete Townshend, Elvis Costello, George Michael, Dion DeMucci, Deborah Harry and Chris Stein of Blondie, Bob Seger, Eurythmics’ Annie Lennox and Dave Stewart, and Gordon Lightfoot have all been nominated as performing songwriters. [...]

Elvis Costello brings his wheel of songs to Nashville.

This wasn’t a night to be predicting anything. Elvis Costello’s stop at the Ryman Sunday night was most notable for its wacky format: A part of his Spectacular Spinning Songbook Tour, the performance established him as suave ringmaster to this musical circus. Excitable fans were invited onstage to spin a multi-colored wheel, featuring 40 song [...]