Coming on Friday (November 25th) is Elvis Costello & The Imposters' surprise new studio set, The Boy Named If (Alive at Memphis Magnetic). The album is a companion to this year's The Boy Named If collection, which has just snagged a Grammy nom for Best Rock Album. The new set features Costello and the band tackling favorites by Paul McCartney & Wings, Nick Lowe, the Beatles, the Byrds, and the Rolling Stones, among others.
The set was recorded live-in-the-studio during tour rehearsals October 2021 and May 2022 at Memphis Magnetic and captures what Costello says are: “Some of our favorite songs while negotiating with any tricky angles in our new tunes.”
Elvis Costello told us he was a Byrds die-hard from day one: “The band itself, the Byrds, were the band that I'd followed and like, a lot of people, I suppose you might say they were an American vocal group that answered the Beatles in some ways. And then they became, like, a psychedelic group, almost in a way — the 5D album — and by the time they got to the Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, that was quite a shock. But there was nothing tongue-in-cheek about it. It was clear that a song like 'Hickory Wind' was very sincere.”
The tracklisting to The Boy Named If (Alive at Memphis Magnetic) is:
“Magnificent Hurt” (Costello)
“Truth Drug” (Nick Lowe)
“Penelope Halfpenny” (Costello)
“So You Want To Be A Rock & Roll Star” (McGuinn/Hillman)
“What If I Can't Give You Anything But Love?” (Costello)
“The Boy Named If” (Costello)
“Let Me Roll It” (Paul McCartney/Linda McCartney)
“Every Day I Write The Book” (Costello)
“Out Of Time” (Jagger/Richards)
“Here, There And Everywhere” (McCartney)
“Magnificent Hurt” – remix (Costello/chelmico)
Elvis Costello & The Imposters will next perform on December 2nd in Austin at ACL Live at The Moody Theater. Costello and friends will be salute his 1985 classic, King Of America.