The Coward Brothers [Bubblegum Pink 2 LP] [Barnes & Noble Exclusive]

by The Coward Brothers

Overview

Sometimes a joke starts small and develops a life of its own, and to a certain degree that seems to be the case with the Coward Brothers. In 1984, Elvis Costello staged a solo acoustic tour of the United States, and T-Bone Burnett was tapped to open the shows. Costello and Burnett became fast friends, and they soon began playing their encores together, harmonizing on vintage country tunes and dubbing themselves the Coward Brothers. In 1985, they cut a Coward Brothers single, and took to spinning an elaborate backstory for the characters of siblings Henry (Burnett) and Howard (Costello), who boldly claimed to have written a remarkable number of classic country and blues classics traditionally credited to others. Forty years after the Coward Brothers' debut, Costello and Burnett have taken the act out of mothballs for a combination podcast and radio play, scripted by Costello and directed by Christopher Guest, and The Coward Brothers is the duo's "debut" album, featuring 20 songs written for the podcast series (though "The People's Limousine," from the 1985 single, wasn't included). While Costello and Burnett get co-star billing here, and Burnett's touch is frequently audible, this plays more like an eccentric Elvis Costello project with production and occasional interjections from T-Bone Burnett than the fully collaborative effort one might have expected. The doomstruck spoken passages in "The Devil's Wife" and the mixed metaphors of baseball and global discord in "World Serious" are pure Burnett, and they feel grave and introspective in a way most of the tunes are not, with many clearly playing for laughs. "My Baby Just Whistles (Here Come the Missiles)" plays like a distant cousin of "Please Mr. Kennedy," the faux-novelty song Burnett helped create for the Inside Llewyn Davis soundtrack; "Yesteryear Is Near" is a venomous parody of "patriotic" British Music Hall numbers that would be ideal for Archie Rice; and "Early Shirley" is a playful early rock & roll knockoff that sounds like it took only slightly longer to write than to play, and is all the more enjoyable for it. These songs were supposedly written by the Cowards over the space of many years, which accounts for the frequent stylistic shifts in the performances and production, but it's hard to imagine how the raucous aural chaos of "Birkenhead Girl" and the sweet, old-timey "Smoke Ring Angle" are intended to be part of the same narrative, let alone the same fictive repertoire. That said, there's a playfulness and spontaneity in this music that sets The Coward Brothers apart from the increasingly mannered and ambitious approach of Costello's work from 2018's Look Now onward (and of Burnett's Invisible Light series). It doesn't quite sound like a collaboration from two of the finest songwriters of their day, but maybe that's the point -- this is Costello and Burnett having a good time throwing ideas at the wall, and a fortunate number of them happen to stick. ~ Mark Deming

Product Details

Release Date:	11/15/2024
Label:	New West Records
UPC:	0607396588916
Rank:	72268

Tracks

Disc 1

1. Always
2. Like Licorice
3. My Baby Just Squeals (You Heel)
4. The Devil's Wife
5. Tipsy Woman
6. My Baby Just Purrs (You're Mine, Not Hers)
7. My Baby Just Whistles (Here Come The Missiles)
8. World Serious
9. Early Shirley
10. Yesteryear Is Near

Disc 2

11. Birkenhead Girl
12. Smoke Ring Angle
13. Wooden Women
14. (I Don't Want Your) Lyndon Johnson
15. Lotta Money
16. Pure Bubblegum
17. Cathy Come Home
18. Bygones
19. Row Me Once
20. Clown Around Town

Album Credits

Performance Credits

The Coward Brothers   Primary Artist