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Elvis Costello: Secret, Profane & Sugarcane

Bud Scoppa, Uncut, July 2009

WHEN ELVIS COSTELLO and T-Bone Burnett first crossed acoustic guitars in 1984 in the guise of the Coward Brothers, each was seeking a new direction. Costello's run with the Attractions, which had churned along so forcefully for a half decade, was running out of steam, as the title of 1983's largely dreary Punch The Clock intimated, while Burnett had found his singer-songwriter hat to be ill-fitting. They shared a passion for what Burnett refers to as traditional American music, and each was engaged by the other's fierce intellect. So they hit the road as a duo, in the process clearing their palates of accumulated residue.

Total word count of piece: 814

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