It was a fine idea at the time/Now it's a brilliant mistake...

Elvis Costello delivered a powerful surprise in 1986 when he shed his backing band, The Attractions, and teamed up with T Bone Burnett for King of America.  Originally credited in the U.K. to The Costello Show (Featuring The Attractions and Confederates) and in the U.S. to The Costello Show (Featuring Elvis Costello), the album backtracked from the sleek '80s polish of its two immediate predecessors (Punch the Clock and Goodbye Cruel World) and instead tapped into a vein closer to 1982's country covers set, Almost Blue.  This time, though, the songs were largely original as the British singer-songwriter mined the rich tapestry of Americana: country, folk, blues, and soul.  He did so with authenticity, maturity, and a deep knowledge of what had come before, ensuring that the ironically-titled King of America was no mere genre exercise.  Now, it's the jumping-on point for an eclectic new 6CD box set.

Costello is no longer the outsider pictured on the now-famous album cover.  King of America & Other Realms offers an overview of the Englishman's many subsequent immersions into the roots music of his adopted country - often in collaboration with T Bone Burnett, but also with Allen Toussaint, Emmylou Harris, Kris Kristofferson, Rosanne Cash, Lucinda Williams, Dr. Ralph Stanley, Dave Bartholomew, and other similarly illustrious figures.  Comprising studio tracks, live material, demos, outtakes, and one-offs, the box is a Whitman's Sampler of American music, all filtered through the literate sensibility of one of rock's foremost explorers.

Shockingly, the opening "Brilliant Mistake" wasn't originally selected as a single, though it distilled the album's ethos into one melodic, accessible track.  Costello's lyrics poke at the illusion vs. reality of America ("He thought he was the King of America/Where they pour Coca-Cola like vintage wine" or "It was just a boulevard of broken dreams/A trick they do with mirrors and with chemicals"), with the exiled narrator self-deprecatingly having masked the pain of missed opportunities and lost ambitions.  Set to melodies alternately rollicking and melancholy, Costello's lyrics on King of America touch upon themes of loss, heartbreak, regret, and failure as they balance the straightforward and the poetic...or turn the straightforward into the poetic.

Musicians James Burton, Jerry Scheff, and Ron Tutt - all of the other Elvis' TCB Band - are at the heart of the album with crackling rockabilly grooves on "Glitter Gulch" and "The Big Light" and a loping rhythm on "Our Little Angel."  Burton and Scheff, joined by Mitchell Froom on organ, are equally sensitive on the gorgeous standout ballad of an irrevocably broken relationship, "Indoor Fireworks" (still one of Costello's finest), and the moving wartime reminiscence, "American Without Tears."  (Cajun accordionist Jo-El Sonnier added distinctive color to the track.)  Costello credited most of the songs to his birthname of Declan MacManus; weaving semi-autobiography into his lyrics as well as nods to "It's Too Late," "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," Judy Garland, and Nat "King" Cole, he crafted songs both deeply personal and universal.  His clever turns of phrase are all in service of the compositions and no less delicious: "She sits alone apart from the crowd in a white dress she wears like a question mark" ("Our Little Angel") or "He'd turn the flowers of springtime into a wreath" ("Lovable").

Two covers rounded out the album.  "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood," most closely associated with The Animals and Nina Simone, was recorded by Costello at the behest of CBS Records who didn't hear a single.  J.B. Lenoir's "Eisenhower Blues," on the other hand, was a slice of none-too-subtle satire for the Reagan years.

The TCB trio were joined by other musical guests throughout King of America, including David Hidalgo of Los Lobos, veteran session drummer Jim Keltner, legendary jazz bassist Ray Brown, Wrecking Crew drummer Earl Palmer, longtime Hall and Oates bassist T-Bone Wolk, and, on one track ("Suit of Lights"), The Attractions.  The co-production by Costello and Burnett, a.k.a. The Coward Brothers, eschewed the modern flourishes expected for an album circa 1986 in favor of a clean, out-of-time sound that's aged beautifully.  It's as deceptively simple as Geoff Emerick's production on Imperial Bedroom was dense and intricate, giving ample room for the music and lyrics to breathe.

Naturally, Costello wanted to take the album on the road, so one disc here presents Kings of America Live at the Royal Albert Hall, a previously unreleased concert recorded in London on January 27, 1987 with the singer supported by James Burton, Jerry Scheff, Jim Keltner, T-Bone Wolk, and keyboardist Benmont Tench on loan from Tom Petty's Heartbreakers.  (The 2005 Rhino/Demon reissue of King of America instead presented highlights from an October 1986 New York concert at the Broadway Theatre, today the home of The Great Gatsby.  Burton, Scheff, Wolk, and Keltner were joined for that gig by Burnett, Froom, percussionist Michael Blair, and saxophonist Ralph Carney.)

It's a twangy, joyful noise of a concert, with a number of the album's songs ("The Big Light," "Our Little Angel, "I'll Wear It Proudly," "Lovable," "American Without Tears," "Brilliant Mistake," "Sleep of the Just") along with a clutch of terrifically loose, spirited, and soulful covers of Allen Toussaint ("Riverboat"), Dan Penn and Spooner Oldham ("It Tears Me Up"), Mose Allison ("Your Mind Is on Vacation/Your Funeral, My Trial"), Ray Charles ("What Would I Do Without You"), Buddy Holly ("True Love Ways"), and others. The result is decidedly more raucous than the studio LP.  Costello's enthusiasm for playing with this band is palpable throughout, and they match him at every step with a seeming effortlessness - whether on rock-and-roll rave-ups, introspective ballads, or R&B burners.  There's very little onstage patter preserved here, but Costello sounds positively liberated without The Attractions.

Le Roi Sans Sabots (or The King Without Clogs, or Hooves, per EC) rounds up 17 tracks ("Demos, Outtakes, and Other Realms") related to the original album.  Many of these can be found on the 2005 reissue (including the outtake "King of Confidence" and both sides of the Coward Brothers' Everly Brothers-esque single) with some notable exceptions.  This carefully-sequenced disc premieres six of the solo acoustic demos recorded at London's Red Bus Studios on April 15, 1985 ("Next Time Round," "Brilliant Mistake," "Deportee," "Sleep of the Just," "Blue Chair," "Shoes Without Heels") as Costello was developing the style and sound of King of America.  These songs would ultimately find various homes: "Sleep of the Just" ended up on a single, "Deportee" (itself a rewrite of "The Deportees Club" from Goodbye, Cruel World) found its way to Irish folksinger Christy Moore, and "Next Time Round" and "Blue Chair" were placed on Blood and Chocolate.  Of the two demos of songs that became part of King of America, "Brilliant Mistake" underwent a significant lyrical overhaul.  The songwriter shifted its perspective ("I thought I was the King of America" vs. the eventual "He thought he was the King of America") and held onto the original lyric's most potent images while replacing those that worked less well.  The first draft is a much rawer lyric while missing some of the delicious barbs of the final version ("She said that she was working for the ABC News/It was as much of the alphabet as she knew how to use...")

Costello was, and is, an engaging solo performer, so his guitar-and-voice demos (both the Red Bus demos and others presented here from around the same time, recorded with Burnett in Hollywood at Ocean Way Studios) have the feel and flow of an intimate live show.  Costello writes in the liner notes that, upon completing these drafts and demos, he aimed to add a dash of satire to the often-heartbreaking lyrics for their debut on King of America.  While the choice was wise, these early versions retain their immediacy and go-for-the-jugular directness.  Note that collectors should hold onto the 2005 reissue; the demo of "End of the Rainbow" and Burnett-produced outtake "Betrayal" (featuring The Attractions) are both missing from this box, along with the Broadway Theatre set.

The first three discs of King of America & Other Realms add up to a greatly expanded edition of the 1986 album.  The latter three discs, a.k.a. the Other Realms in question, are far more sprawling.  Writing in the liner notes for the 2001 reissue of his 1989 Warner Bros. debut Spike, Costello wrote, "I had the blueprint of five albums in my head...They told me to make whatever record I wanted.  I seem to have elected to make all five albums at once."

In a sense, Spike has been a blueprint for all that's come after.  Over the past 35 years, the singer-songwriter has released collaborative albums with English composer Richard Harvey, classical group The Brodsky Quartet, opera singer Anne Sofie von Otter, The Roots, and legendary American composers Burt Bacharach and Allen Toussaint.  He's done so with passion and credibility, bringing out the best in his collaborators and vice versa.  His solo albums have reflected this broad musical palette, too, taking in elements of jazz, chamber music, country, rhythm and blues, and bluegrass.

Discs Four through Six ask the listener to connect the dots between the seeds planted on King of America and the full flowers that blossomed later - in some cases, much later - in Costello's career.  Disc Four, Il Principe di New Orleans e Le Marchese del Mississippi, features "Deep Dark Truthful Mirror" from Spike, a T Bone Burnett co-production featuring Toussaint's majestic piano, but spends far more time with two cornerstone albums of the 2000s Costello discography: 2004's The Delivery Man and 2006's The River in Reverse.  The former, recorded in Mississippi with co-producer Dennis Herring, was a love letter to the sounds of the South, fusing country, blues, and soul with muscular rock-and-roll.  It's represented here by seven highlights including the rollicking "There's a Story in Your Voice" with the raspy duet vocals of Lucinda Williams; the muscular "Monkey to Man;" evocative "Country Darkness;" and mysterious ode to "The Delivery Man."

Two years later, The River in Reverse was a full-fledged collaboration with Allen Toussaint.  Their pairing took place in the wake of the devastating Hurricane Katrina, a storm which cost Toussaint his home, his studio, and his livelihood.  He responded by pouring himself into his art and any number of charitable events to support the rebuilding of his beloved New Orleans.  He and Costello hit it off when performing at these benefits, and when the younger man suggested a Toussaint songbook album, he was receptive.  It soon transformed, though, into one of the most poignant musical statements to come in the aftermath of Katrina.  Co-produced by Joe Henry, The River in Reverse melded Toussaint favorites with five songs co-written by both men; its title came from a solo Costello composition reflecting the anger he felt at the mishandling of Katrina.  The roiling, rightfully furious "The River in Reverse" - featuring Steve Nieve, Davey Faragher and Pete Thomas, a.k.a. The Imposters plus Toussaint on piano and horn arrangements - is joined here by the sad, moving Costello/Toussaint/Roy Byrd original "Ascension Day" and two Toussaint classics, the pulse-pounding "Wonder Woman" and the scorchingly funky "Who's Gonna Help Brother Get Further?"  Elvis' respect for Allen is further evidenced by their cover of "The Greatest Love," originally aired on the soundtrack to HBO's drama Treme and premiering here in an audio format.  (An alternate version was a bonus track for The River in Reverse.)  Costello's vocal and Toussaint's piano gracefully intertwine on this beautifully understated reading.

The fifth disc, El Principe del Purgatorio, finds the musical wanderer reuniting with Burnett for 2009's Secret, Profane, and Sugarcane and 2010's follow-up, National Ransom.  These companion albums feature The Sugarcanes, a.k.a. Mike Compton on mandolin, Dennis Crouch on double bass, Jerry Douglas on dobro and steel guitar, Stuart Duncan on banjo and other stringed instruments, and Jeff Taylor on accordion and piano.  Jim Lauderdale supplied vocal harmonies.  The Imposters' Pete Thomas and Steve Nieve also played on National Ransom, in fitting with Costello's typical blurring of the musical lines - in these cases, country, folk, and bluegrass.  Underscoring this, the songs on Secret... were drawn from various sources including, improbably, Costello's opera about Hans Christian Andersen and a writing session with Loretta Lynn.  The artist's all-encompassing sense of Americana, he writes, "may denote treasured items or merely quaint artifacts, a particular, even peculiar view or a catalogue of the country; pencil sketches of unspoiled landscapes, vainglorious poses struck in fading daguerreotypes, embroidered prayers and mottos, the antique counterpart of graffiti on an underground wall, the false memory of old minstrel tunes about the 'Gallant South' or even a young fellow with a borrowed beard and an itchy woolen vest, adopting a voice of antique grain to send a message across an electrical wire."

The string band settings for such tunes as the laconic "From Sulphur to Sugarcane" and contemporary folk song "Red Cotton" (one of those songs from the Hans Christian Andersen project) find the weighty lyrics complemented and contrasted by organic accompaniment.  Costello's gifts for pastiche are evident on such songs as "A Voice in the Dark" and "A Slow Drag with Josephine," so delightfully and deliberately old-timey (dig the whistling interlude!) that he released it on a 10-inch 78 RPM record.  Similarly, "Hidden Shame" was first recorded by Johnny Cash, whose trademark chick-a-boom rhythm infuses the song.  As on Spike, Costello was unafraid to feature various styles on an album.  National Ransom offered the evocative "One Bell Ringing," more redolent of late-night jazz than Americana with its spare, haunted horn parts.  It's one of the hidden treasures here ripe for rediscovery.

2014's Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes, another T Bone production, welcomed an array of artists to virtually collaborate with Bob Dylan via a notebook of Dylan's unrecorded lyrics. Elvis composed the melodies to the boisterous "Quick Like a Flash" and the tender "Lost on the River # 12," and was backed on both songs by an all-star band of younger talents including Jim James on guitar, Rhiannon Giddens on fiddle, Taylor Goldsmith on bass and mellotron, and Marcus Mumford on mandolin and drums.  "Quick Like a Flash" makes its first appearance here, and Elvis indicates in the liner notes that there's another full album's worth of New Basement Tapes recordings.  Bring 'em on.  Other rarities on this disc include the demos of National Ransom-era song "For More Tears" and "Condemned Man" (the fully-produced version of which was included on the National Ransack vinyl EP).

The final Other Realm, Der Herzog des Rampenlicht, might well be the most schizophrenic.  The opening track, "Stella Hurt" from 2008's Momofuku, is anchored by crunchy guitars and an ominous rhythm; as Costello himself admits, "The music for [the] song does not attempt to evoke the time in which the story takes place."  Similarly, the edgy but elegant "Under Lime" from Costello's celebration of all things pop, Look Now (2018), is far from an obvious choice for inclusion here.  But it picks up the story of the titular character in "Jimmie Standing in the Rain" (from National Ransom) - which follows it in the sequence.  The brass in "Under Lime" conjures The Beatles; so do the harmonies in "Mr. Feathers" (another Momofuku cut).  All of Costello's many influences inform his work, and these Other Realms aren't strictly limited to Americana.  Beatle Paul himself makes a belated appearance here as co-writer of the appropriate closing track, "That Day Is Done," with The Fairfield Four.  Among the other highlights are previously unreleased reworkings of two songs that were clearly built to last: a more rhythmic arrangement of "Indoor Fireworks" from 2022 and a slinky, dark "Brilliant Mistake" fused with the standard "Boulevard of Broken Dreams" from earlier in 2024.

King of America and Other Realms is housed in a hardcover book-style package.  Costello's vivid liner notes in the 60-page booklet are so dense and packed with information that an index wouldn't have been a bad idea, but his remembrances of old friends and insights into songwriting are illuminating and essential.   The booklet also contains copious photos, credits, and lyrics to all of the EC-written songs.  Audio has been mastered to a high standard by Greg Calbi (CDs 1 & 3) and Dave Donnelly (CDs 2, 4-6).

Over the years, Elvis Costello has taught his fans to expect the unexpected.  King of America and Other Realms may not be for all of his fans - particularly for those who believe his career stopped somewhere in the 1980s - but for those who have followed him on his multi-faceted musical journey, this immersive set is more brilliant than mistake.

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