​The Coward Brothers (Elvis Costello and T-Bone Burnett) (from the album The Coward Brothers

​The Coward Brothers (Elvis Costello and T-Bone Burnett) (from the album The Coward Brothers

​The Coward Brothers (Elvis Costello and T-Bone Burnett) (from the album The Coward Brothers available on New West Records) (By Lee Zimmerman)
 
Like The Traveling Wilburys, the fictitious band of brothers who provided the aegis for the super group consisting of George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison, and Tom Petty, The Coward Brothers are a nom-de-plume for Elvis Costello and T-Bone Burnett, outstanding artists each in his own right. They play the part on both stage and in the studio, subverting their actual identities in order to carry on their covert guise. The result is an eponymous album that boasts elements of each man’s earlier work, specifically, Costello’s sardonic wit and Burnett’s devotion to detail and fondness for more traditional templates. 

At the same time, however, these supposed siblings still manage to find a similarity in style, as evidenced by a generous 20 songs they share in sync. While the fictitious backstory detailed in the booklet that accompanies the album adds some levity to the proceedings, the music the two make is the result of combined craft and creativity. Eloquent and expressive, it finds a cohesion that belies the fact that The Coward Brothers are after all, the pair’s first formal offering. In truth, these sounds could find a fit within the wheelhouse of either of these individuals. 
 
Part of the reason for that compatibility can be owed to fact that the two are hardly strangers, their fictitious brotherly bond aside. Their relationship goes back to 1984, when the two first performed together live, before being further ignited when Burnett co-produced Costello’s classic King of America, recently reissued as an expanded box set. Their recording relationship was subsequently rebooted three years later when they worked together on Costello’s Spike. 
 
With this first formal entry as a twosome, they vary the mood, sandwiching different sounds between the somewhat surreal delivery of opening track “Always” and the eerie Psychedelic strangeness of the closing “Clown About Town”. The ricochet rhythm that propels “Like Licorice” recalls Costello’s classic rocker “Pump It Up”, while the frenzied pace of the aptly-named “Tipsy Woman”, the rapid-fire “Birkenhead Girl”, and the kinetic cacophony and sexual innuendo of “My Baby Just Purrs (You’re Mine, Not Hers)” all suggest Elvis Costello is still holding fast to his early Punk precepts. On the other hand, the duo is adept at switching things up, adding Blues, Gospel, Rockabilly, and Rap on various occasions when so inclined. 
 
One might refer to it as brotherly love, sibling symmetry, or simply the ability of two iconic artists to pool their talents and create something special. Whatever the case, The Coward Brothers share a relationship that’s as fearless as it is fruitful.  (by Lee Zimmerman)
 
Listen and buy the music of The Coward Brothers from AMAZON
 
For more information, please visit The Coward Brothers website