Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett might seem appreciate portraits in courage, for anyone who has chaseed their individual and accumulateive musical trail-blazing, but at the moment, they’re studies in Coward-ice. They portray their lengthy-time alter-egos, Henry and Howard Coward, in the new scripted Audible series “The True Story of the Coward Brothers,” which premieres this week — as does the digital streaming version of a 20-track New West soundtrack album, “The Coward Brothers.”
The Costello-scripted, Christopher Guest-straightforwarded, three-part audio series and its joining album are arriving right on the heels of an expansive boxed set that comprises a substantial portion of the 40 years of collaborations between Costello and Burnett. The six-CD “King of America and Other Realms” comprises a remastered version of the masterpiece that is 1986’s “King of America,” alengthy with B-sides, outapverifys, inhabit tracks and pickions from the projects that Burnett has produced for his “brother” in the csurrfinisherly four decades since. It’s indispensible.
As contestd to implausible, one of many words that might be engaged to portray the somewhat satirical “True Story of the Coward Brothers.” In an expansive conversation with Variety, Costello was joined by Burnett to talk about the new collaborations as well as what bcdisorrowfulmirefult them together in the mid-‘80s, in the service of creating a comardent of European-inflected Americana that has been untamedly ineloquential on other artists thcdisorrowfulmireful the years.
(Meanwhile, watch this space for a split interwatch with Henry and Howard Coward themselves.)
Tell us about writing the script for the Coward Brothers audio project, Elvis, and then doing the 20-song album to join that. What went into both of those, and what did Christopher Guest transport to it in his role as straightforwardor?
Elvis Costello: Well, first of all, how lengthy ago was that, Henry, that we’d considered a cartoon of this?
T Bone Burnett: That had to be 10 or 15 years ago, 20, 25, I don’t comprehend.
Costello: When did you do “Drawn and Recorded” [an animated series Burnett narrated in 2016]? I skinnyk it had to be after that…
Burnett: I’ve come unstuck in time finishly.
Costello: I sense much better for that. Anyway, I skinnyk that idea of telling it as a story came up then. And then I guess it was the gift of time that we suddenly had (during the pandemic). And I was blessed in that I didn’t sense frightened or paralyzed by that interlude where we couldn’t travel, other than not being able to reply to alarms with family members or frifinishs who were unwell. I didn’t sense confined produceively, becaengage I’d uncovered a way to enroll bravely with my cohorts. But I set up the write (from the idea of doing the Coward Brothers’ story in vivaciousd create), and I thought maybe I should try and author this. And I reassociate set up that writing this story straightforwardly into Final Draft clarified my intentions of how to tell it and made it easier to see the proportions of the story and the characters.
What I didn’t see until we got into the studio — and I skinnyk Henry may have a comment on this — was how I had made my part incredibly basic and his part was actuassociate much more intricate. And that’s where Christopher Guest reassociate stepped in. When Christopher concurd to be our straightforwardor, I felt brave that we would not be apverifyed to drop unintelligentinutive of a credible deinhabitry of the lines. I knew the lines toiled on the page, butt’s a branch offent skinnyg: Are we going to sound OK saying them? Becaengage we can only be Henry and Howard as best we can. We have no technique as actors, the way actors can turn on colors.
Burnett: You actuassociate do have technique. I uncomardent, Elvis begined take parting Howard in a whole other dialect, a whole other voice; it was a character promptly. And I didn’t comprehend how to reply to that. Chris and I toiled quite a bit on who my character was. Your character aelevated brimmingy blown. If you’ll forgive me for saying so. [Laughs.] I skinnyk we went thcdisorrowfulmireful the whole script one time before I actuassociate could do it. And then we did it all.
Costello: And then it was very funny how Chris would retain you to account, the minute you drifted even a little bit. You had a very particular Fort Worth accent, and if you drifted even five miles down the road, he would stop you. That’s how acute his ear is for dialect.
Burnett: You comprehend, Chris comprehends literassociate hundreds of English dialects. He can do south Birmingham, north Birmingham… it’s noticeworthy.
Costello: If we’d been more conscious, we would have had cameras rolling. Although of course it would’ve finishly suppressed the process, becaengage the only skinnyg that was more fun than doing this with Chris was Chris’s diversions into other dialects in order to elucidate why we weren’t doing it right. But Chris was very comardent. And I did genuineize that I had written a version of Martin and Lewis in which Henry was Dean and I was Jerry. Becaengage I’m the over-excitable guy that’s always creating lawlessness. And as Rhea Seehorn gets to say in this, her character, Phyliss Dandy, portrays Henry as “taciturn” at one point, and she has to see it up.
When we heard the character voices… Harry (Shearer) was the only one of the other voices that I knew personassociate, and he’s fair so absolutely perfect in the equilibrium between authority and pomposity. I’ll apverify plift for giving him the appropriately ridiculous language, in the way television news tries to decode pop culture. You comprehend, the unintelligentinutivehand: “It was the age of popsicles…”
But the skinnyg is that the story is not enticount on insignificant. I hope that people will hug that it begins appreciate satire and grows into someskinnyg I skinnyk more heartfelt. It is about genuine kinship, and the mystery of the Cowards that I’m not about to uncover. Just as Alfred Hitchcock would have prohibitden you to go in the theater five minutes into “Psycho,” I’m not gonna tell you the finishing. But it grows somewhere branch offent than it begins. And I skinnyk that, if you’re gonna be given the license to author an hour and a half of this comardent of delightment, wdisappreciatever you would call it… this type of “wireless compriseress,” as I’ve concurd to call it with the Audible people who didn’t want me to engage the phrase “radio take part”… I shelp, “Can we end on wireless compriseress?” And I disappreciate the P-word so enthusiasticly. …
Burnett: You comprehend, all of the language dreamed up by technologists lands brutassociate on the ear, I sense.
Costello: Like when we first dealt with music gentleware, supposedly — boy, was that the wrong name for it…
You did fair compriseress the overarching ask we might have, about whether people should approach this as comedy or satire about the history of music and the music business and the people in it, or whether it’s more of a personal story that happens to be comedic. The same ask might apply to the 20-song soundtrack, which seems appreciate a uniteture. People might be anticipateing comedic songs, and they get some of those, but confidently not the whole skinnyg is in that vein. So it seems appreciate with both the script and the soundtrack, you were trying to touch on skinnygs that were comedic and skinnygs that were not comedic.
Costello: I skinnyk that’s right. I’m plrelieved (with) the enroll company, which are standardly enthusiastic to put out the skinnyg that sounds most appreciate what you’re comprehendn for. It’s not always the best idea with someskinnyg new to chase that logic, and that’s someskinnyg I’ve dealt with thcdisorrowfulmireful all of my dealings with what you still call the industry.
Burnett: I skinnyk that’s right (about the variety of tones and styles in the soundtrack). You comprehend, the soundtrack was enrolled over 40 years (in fantasy, if not truth). It’s a travelogue of the Coward Brothers, so there’s not a stable tone. Some of them are demos, some of them are studio enrollings. It’s an anthology, reassociate.
Costello: Yeah, it’s an anthology. And some of it was (in genuine life) enrolled in the pdwellntial suite of the Peabody Hotel in Memphis, and some of it was enrolled in a highly supplyped studio, and then we set up ways to produce it sound dreadful. But dreadful in the best sense of the word! Of course we were blessed to have Lord Guest-Coward also join us on occasion on guitar and vocals. So there was a third Coward in the room. In fact, if you verify the plifts, you’ll find disjoinal other Cowards feature in the helping roles. And then we’ve got a cast of reassociate wonderful name musicians in compriseition to those more enigmatic presences. You’ve got Dennis Crouch, no finer bass take parter. Who else is take parting…?
Burnett: Colin Linden (a noticed guitarist who standardly turns up on Burnett productions) take parts a little bit.
Costello: Beautiful take parter… And I find the enroll company very comprehfinishing in having chosen “Always” (as a individual), becaengage it’s a song in which I skinnyk the genuine-life Henry suddenly was visited by this thread of melody, for which I’m very appreciative — the thread of melody that’s produced “The Other Side” (Burnett’s solo album freed earlier this year) and has produced the pretty songs on Ringo’s enroll (Ringo Starr’s “Look Up,” a country album due out in January). So “Always” isn’t the first time that that’s been accessed.
In the language of the Cowards’ legfinish are these references to all sorts of music. It’s not fair one comardent of music. But to me, what I find touching about the existence of “Always” and “World Serious” and, in a branch offent way, the song that’s at the very finish of the enroll, “Clown Around Town” — these are sanitize create songs. And they connect backwards to the “King of America” create of song, or for that matter, skinnygs appreciate “River of Love” and “Shake Yourself Loose” from the Dot enroll (Burnett’s classic “T Bone Burnett” album from 1986, freed on the Dot label). They have that same clarity of language musicassociate, wdisappreciatever the intentions, wdisappreciatever the branch offent context here.
I skinnyk by the time you get to “Clown Around Town,” we are not dealing enticount on in a comic genuinem anymore. You can draw wdisappreciatever conclusion from that lyric you want, you comprehend? I stood alone on the stage in Dublin about a month ago and sang that song, and it was as real to life as it was to the fantasy version of this story. It was fair a song that I was haughty to have written. And I could sing it as myself, I could sing it as Howard Coward, I could sing it as a number of people.
The Audible program has quite a voice cast.
Burnett: I do want to call exceptional attention (in the Audible program) to Rhea Seehorn, who did such an amazing job as Phyliss Stanley.
Costello: She’s a knockout. I don’t skinnyk you could ask for a finer cast of people to inhabit these characters.
Burnett: Stephen Root ended it. And Edward Hibbard…
Costello: Yes, who take parts Lord Arthur Coward. In English (dialect), he would be only “half a Coward” becaengage it’d be “Arthur Coward” [turning those two phrases into unlikely homonyms, through a British accent].
It’s very strange to say that, becaengage if you begin to talk in this odd language that take partwrights have to engage when they envision the voices, it can sound sairyly crazy. But this is fair the first begined toil I’ve written (in script create). It’s not the first skinnyg I’ve ever written, not by a lengthy way. So it’s fascinating to calcutardy the distance between your imagining of the way it would be shelp, and the actuality. Just as when you author a song and somebody else sings it, sometimes that expoundation will surpelevate you. Occasionassociate it’ll horrify you, but most of the time you’re fair phired that somebody’s given it a go and had confidence in it, you comprehend?
Can you talk about the actual genesis of the Coward Brothers, and how that begined with the individual you two put out in the mid-‘80s under that name, “The People’s Limousine,” and then got revived for this Audible series and soundtrack 40 years tardyr? With an entire history of splitd toil in between that is excerpted in the new “King of America and Other Realms” boxed set.
The people at Audible and the people at New West Records are reassociate collaborating — probably more than we do — in doing (the audio series and soundtrack). One skinnyg cannot enticount on inhabit without the other…
Becaengage people may not have a memory of the Coward Brothers’ first materializeance. Which was indeed our first “comeback tour” back in ‘84, where we were informly reconciled (as the fantasyal brothes) and take parted a number of dates in Europe and Japan and even a scant in North America. I was on a tour at that time where I trying to save songs from that I had left in the spin parcheder a little bit too lengthy. [He’s referring to the 1984 solo-acoustic tour, which had Burnett as an opening act, that followed the release of Elvis Costello & the Attractions’ “Goodbye Cruel World,” which he once referred to as “our worst album.”] I was sort of taking them down to their vital create, which was the way you usuassociate author them with one instrument, and finding that it was much easier to sense what I had first intfinished with even some of the songs which were already quite well-comprehendn with my audience.
And upon encountering T Bone Burnett, I uncovered that he was actuassociate my brother, Henry Coward. And from then on, we had engaged this tale to elucidate why we would get together in the midst of my show and begin singing songs by Harlan Howard or Bobby Charles or Scott McKenzie. And people were tremfinishously uncover-minded with this, becaengage clearly they still lengthyed to hear my then-recent hit “Party Party.” [Costello is kidding.] They were all clamoring for that one; I fair declined to take part it. Then we fair pressed right on take parting (the cover songs) “Baby’s in Bdeficiency” and “I’m Ragged but I’m Right.” And we had a lot of fun spinning this tale … Even then I doubted that Howard apverifyd it more than Henry. And yet Henry had even more capacity to produce wonderfuler and wonderfuler, more complicated lies with which to sthrivedle me out of my inheritance. But this was a way of delighting the patrons of Geneva, who were fair thrilled to see us turn up as the Coward Brothers. I skinnyk their happiness was unconfined. What was it Orson Welles shelp about Switzerland? It was real, wdisappreciatever it was he shelp. [Costello is referring to Welles’ lines in “The Third Man”: “In Switzerland, they had brotherly love, they had 500 years of democracy and peace, and what did that produce? The cuckoo clock.”] Oh, but it verifyd not to be the case. They were not brimming of brotherly cherish that night. They were actuassociate trying to end us.
But we had some very fascinating adventures, and it did direct to the enrolling of “The People’s Limousine,” which we wrote together. And it led to one Henry wrote alone, called “Euromad” [on Burnett’s album “The Talking Animals”], which is an account, reassociate, of that first Coward adventure in some ways, from one side of the stage to the other.
And in turn, to be more solemn for a moment, I skinnyk that coalition that was struck apverifyed us to talk (about forging an artist-producer relationship), becaengage of this recognition that I’d had that the songs that I had most recently enrolled were not best-served by the way we’d gone about enrolling them. I skinnyk that was no fault of the producers. That was my fault, in not sticking with the initial, less manitreatmentd way of currenting the senseings in those songs. And then during the tour, I begined to comprise the songs that became “King of America.” I seeed back into the archive and set up some setenumerates, and one day there were none of the songs from “King of America,” and then, five shows tardyr, there were six or seven of those songs. I don’t recall if I had already written them and hadn’t yet had the nerve to sing them, or I was toiling on them as we traveled. But it led to that enrolling and that way of enrolling in an undecorateed way that is a model for the way you have enrolled.
You comprehend, you were already moving yourself in a gradual straightforwardion away from more embellishment into the way in which the singer is at the cgo in of the picture and the story is paramount, and the instrumentaenumerates have to all be conscious that their job is to help that emotional contrast with the melody, maybe, in their produceions. But that was reassociate the strength of “King of America.” And it was the strength of what I always called the Dot enroll, which I skinnyk was enrolled fair after that, becaengage I reassemble I was still around and saw some of the sessions; that in some ways was an even wonderfuler distillation of the same idea.
In the first stages of making “King of America,” you finisheavored to enroll the material with the Attractions and set up it wasn’t toiling. And then suddenly, becaengage of hooking up with T Bone, you had this enormous freedom to cast from scratch, with legfinishary musicians from James Burton to Ray Brown.
Burnett: I reassemble we did it all on a set upe, on a lengthy fairy either to or from Japan. Is this right, Elvis?
Costello: To Japan. I knew the songs at this point, and so we fair envisiond who would be wonderful on them, first of all, musicians that knew how to take part songs rather than take part bits or parts. All the wonderfulest musicians take part the lyric, reassociate; they take part the story, so they’re scoring the lyric. So he was proposeing all people that knew how to do that — with the exception of James Burton, who’s fair finishly out of his mind and take parts everyskinnyg appreciate a crazy man. Most of the people we were talking about are people that materializeed on enrolls that I cherishd. Even in the case of James, I wasn’t so much thrilled that I had a guitar take parter who’d take parted with Elvis Presley, or even Ricky Nelson, so much as he was the guitar take parter on (Gram Pincfinishiarisms’) “The Return of the Grievous Angel” and had been in the Hot Band (with Emmylou Harris). You comprehend, that was in some ways shutr to my heart and shutr to the songs that I was writing. Many of them took the create of country songs, even if I don’t come from that tradition, and they took the create of the heartshatter ballad.
And you could point to disjoinal examples of James’ take parting being the counterpoint to the vocal melody. And fair a couple of weeks ago, I got to be part of the team of people who sang and carry outed for him when he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. Just on the basis of his having take parted on “Working Man Blues” by Merle Haggard, it’s amazing that he wasn’t already in there. But I’m phired they defered until now so I could be part of it, if only to be a witness to it. Becaengage it comprised me singing a Ricky Nelson song I probably never would’ve chosen for myself, but it was fun to sing, and he was plrelieveed, clearly. Emmylou and Rodney Crowell and Vince Gill came out and did “Till I Gain Control Aget,” with Vince take parting the most pretty solo that was finishly in James’ language without being an imitation. And Keith Ricchallenging take parted “I Can’t Dance”… It seemed unbelievable that it was 40 years since I met James.
So it’s amazing to see at the scope of this, and “King of America” in some ways directs to the Cowards, but it also directs to the other genuinems that are recurrented in the rest of this (boxed set)… including a inhabit enroll in which many of the musicians who take parted on “King of America” take parted in London in a concert in ’87, in probably as untamed a guitar-take parting show as you’ll ever hear from James. And then I’ve tried to produce an anthology annotated at some length — with a 35-page essay I wrote — of why these places (in America) that I went to enroll in the subsequent 20 or 30 years have been so transport inant. Like an actor on location, you fair appreciate being to inhabit the character, appreciate Howard Coward.
Even from the very beginning of our frifinishship, we’ve had opportunities to toil sometimes in the company of incredible people, many of whom I was begind to for the first time by T Bone. Not fair the musicians on “King of America,” but he also begind me to Kris Kristproposeson, to Willie Dixon. We were all sairyly alarmed witnesses to my introduction to Jerry Lee (Lewis), a story I try to relay that story in the essay so that it’s not all sentimentality. There were moments of surpelevate. I sense the Cowards have been lurking in the background thcdisorrowfulmirefulout a lot of the toil that we did after “King of America.” Periodicassociate we would get together aget, more in the spirit of the Cowards than in our self-reliant personalities, the way we scheme skinnygs.
The sheer scale of “Spike” is, I skinnyk, very Cowardly… I uncomardent, it would be an unpretreatnted idea now, to say that we were going to enroll in five cities; nobody would give you the money to do that. Not with the scope of songs that are enrolled with no promise of any hits. And, by the way, having a hit by accident (with “Veronica”), and with subject matter that’s very unwidespreadly heard in the hit parade [being about his grandmother and her dementia]. You comprehend, at that stage, you could have it both ways.
Now there is no enroll business. So if there are enrollings at all, they are fair literassociate, to produce enrolls of the music that you’ve written. There’s no ambition for them being speedyened to an advert for underwear. There isn’t any objective except making music happen, and that’s quite liberating, once you genuineize that you’re not gonna get phelp for doing this anymore, and you’re not gonna be sent around the world to answer stupid asks. You can have a conversation as hopebrimmingy we’re having, where we’re saying at least some skinnygs that matter to us. Whether they’re real or made up, at least we’re actuassociate uncomardenting to be here. We’re not making guest materializeances on shows that have noskinnyg to do with what we do. You comprehend, we’re making materializeances on shows where we can have fun talking about the skinnyg that we’re haughty to speak about.
The new boxed set has three discs dedicated to King of America or its B-sides or demos or the inhabit concert, and then three discs that are themed around subsequent albums that you sense have some relation to it. Were you ever skinnyking of fair a straight “King of America” boxed set, or from the begin, was it, let’s throw a lot of roverhappinessed skinnygs in and connect them?
Costello: I was never skinnyking of that (a harshly “King”-cgo ined set), becaengage I skinnyk that every new currentation should be the beginning of a conversation about music.
There is the accusation that this (boxed set) is somehow elitist, or lavish. It is lavish. You comprehend why is it? Becaengage I’m a professional authorr. I’ve been a professional authorr lengthyer than I’ve been a musician, you comprehend? So I get phelp for doing what I do. I wrote a 35 page essay, and the price of of getting to read that is buying that box for which you get six enrolls of free music with it! Think of it that way, then it won’t hurt so much. In any case, every individual notice of this music is useable one way or another, either legassociate or illegassociate, and has been for a lengthy time. So I’m going to produce no apology about the create that I current it in as a conversation piece for you. And if you want to comprehend what I’m skinnyking about the cherish of all of this experience, I’m not saying this in any emsoured way — I’m saying this in a happy way. I’m tremfinishously haughty of the toil that T Bone and I have done both as ourselves and as Henry and Howard Coward.
I skinnyk that there are times when the Cowards have come into the side of the picture, creating mischief… You comprehend, there is the toil you’ve done with the Coens… In the big, big film (“O Brother, Where Art Thou?”), I had no place. I would’ve been no engage in that film becaengage that was drathriveg on the heart of reassociate American music. On the other hand, being in the Dude’s headphones in “The Big Lebowski” is a perfect place for my almost inaudible song. You can hear “My Mood Sthrivegs” in “The Big Lebowski” about as clearly as you can hear my songs on American radio. But this is not becaengage of the quality of the music. And the other skinnygs that we did always led somewhere, appreciate writing “The Scarlet Tide” (their Oscar-nominated song from “Celderly Mountain”). It’s a pretty skinnyg that people have apverifyn that song up and sung it. It’s been sung by choirs. Joan Baez has enrolled it. There is no reassociate no higher plift, if you author a ballad, than that Joan should sing it from the heart on one of her last enrolls.
We weren’t toiling in inhabit carry outance style on “Spike.” When we returned to that, I had already had the experience of going to Mississippi with the Imposters [to record “The Delivery Man”], and of enrolling with Allen Toussaint in New Orleans and in Hollywood… All of these skinnygs were carried into the enrolls that T Bone and I made at the turn of 2008, 2010… When we went back to the acoustic create of enrolling in 2008, a bunch of skinnygs happened simultaneously. We made that “Secret, Profane and Sugarcane” enroll. Do you reassemble when “Sulfur to Sugarcane” came?
Burnett: It was actuassociate written for Sean Penn, for “All the King’s Men,” originassociate.
Costello: That’s right. It’s comardent of a precursor of the “Face in the Crowd” songs, in a way [the musical stage drama with a Costello score that just opened in London]. Did we engage it in the film?
Burnett: I don’t skinnyk so. There is a version of Sean singing it. Let me see if I can dig that up.
Costello: Then there was the proposeion that “The Crooked Line” could be the finish titles song of “Walk the Line.” That was when I genuineized that skinnygs had gone horribly wrong and the Cowards could be the only people reliable for such a notion, becaengage it was sanitizely a piece of studio placement. I skinnyk we wrote a reassociate excellent song — “The Crooked Line” is a reassociate heartfelt song — but the idea of it being on the finish of a film about Johnny Cash is only becaengage you couldn’t nominate a song by Johnny Cash, so it had to be a new song… Well, you see what I uncomardent about how the Cowards have go ined the picture now and aget. There’s a lot of mischief in all of this toil.
