Elvis Costello and T Bone Burnett have been friends and collaborators for four decades, a partnership documented on two new releases. A deluxe reissue of Costello’s Burnett-produced 1986 album King Of America, titled King Of America & Other Realms, dropped in early November, followed later in the month by the debut self-titled album from Costello and Burnett’s duo, the Coward Brothers. The pair recently appeared on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert to spread the word.
During their visit to the Ed Sullivan Theater, Burnett and Costello sat for an interview with Colbert and performed two songs from The Coward Brothers. They explained that they first met at a soundcheck in Ohio in 1984 and quickly struck up a creative friendship, which at first involved covering the Beatles and a range of great American songwriters on tour together. “I don’t know a single person who knows more about American music than Elvis, for real,” Burnett told Colbert. “The more we talked, the more I realized how deep he had gone into American music.”
Burnett used the interview to expound on why he and Costello have been such rigorous students and practitioners of American music. “If you want to know what’s good about the United States, listen to our music,” Burnett said. “‘Cause in our music, all of the promise of the United States is realized. Because people from all nationalities, all countries, all languages, all religions, ethnicities, have all gotten together and listened to each other and created harmony. And that’s the promise of the melting pot. That’s the promise of the United States.”
Before performing two songs from their Coward Brothers album, “Always” and “Like Licorice,” the pair discussed the King Of America reissue, whose bonus materials include several early Coward Brothers tracks. The 97-track compilation includes a wealth of archival material, including excerpts from what Costello described to Colbert as “a demo tape from 40 years ago that I clearly had put in a drawer.” The demos include developmental versions of the King Of America material, including some with alternate lyrics. The box set concludes with three recordings from 2024, including a version of “Indoor Fireworks” tracked at Memphis Magnetic, a fresh spin on “That’s Not The Part of Him You’re Leaving” with Larkin Poe, and a new arrangement of King Of America opener “Brilliant Mistake.”
Listen to Elvis Costello’s King of America & Other Realms now.