Tag Archives: musical influences

#653: C is for Costello, Elvis (A Prologue)

I have 25 Elvis Costello albumsin my CD collection. There is onlyone other artist more prominent in the shelves of compact discsthan Elvis, and that would beMr. Frank Zappa, at 36 albums, half of which are double CD’s. On the shelves of vinyl, I have the three Elvis studio recordsreleased since 2018, and threemore specialContinue reading “#653: C is for Costello, Elvis (A Prologue)”

#649: The First Record I Listen To In 2026 Is a New Old Record and Out of Alphabetical Order

I didn’t listen to a single record on the first two daysof 2026, but in the car yesterday, driving across town to have breakfast with a dear friend, I listened to a downloaded album of Nine Horses, a studio project put togetherby two brothers with different surnames, DavidSylvian and Steve Jansen, who, more than fortyContinue reading “#649: The First Record I Listen To In 2026 Is a New Old Record and Out of Alphabetical Order”

#638: B is for Byrne, David

While I’m not even close to S or Tin the alphabet, I can mentionhow happy I am to get an early listen to two of my favorite musical artistsbefore I get to St. Vincent and before I get to Talking Heads.It’s hard to overstate how jazzedI was when I learned that myfavorite twenty-first century songwriterContinue reading “#638: B is for Byrne, David”

Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume V, Letter Costello

It happened when I was listening to The Beatles; I couldn’t choose which record to listen to.  It happened again with The Boomtown Rats, again with Cheap Trick, and now, in my mission to listen to one cd from each artist represented in my collection in alphabetical order, I am faced with choosing a singleContinue reading “Notes Toward a Musical Autobiography: Volume V, Letter Costello”