Relix.com: Dean Budnick: February 10th 2025.
During a series of shows that extended from 1984 into 1985, Elvis
Costello performed as a solo artist, with T Bone Burnett serving as his
opener. A friendship flourished, along with a musical kinship that
manifested a new collective identity as the Coward Brothers. In the
summer of ‘85, the Cowards entered the studio to record “The People’s
Limousine,” a song they had co-written and would release as a single.
The two were a match in ambition and aesthetic, with Burnett
subsequently producing a series of Costello’s records off and on over
the decades to follow, starting with 1986’s King of America. That album
found Costello embracing his predilection for the singular sounds of the
United States that had long captivated the British artist. Burnett
teamed him with James Burton, Ray Brown, Earl Palmer, Ron Tutt, Jerry
Scheff, Jim Keltner and other renowned players for an affecting
statement from a transplant with bountiful roots. The new six-disc box
set King of America & Other Realms, which came out in November,
supplements the triumph of that studio effort with demos, live
recordings and complementary tracks.
A few weeks after that release, Audible debuted The True
Story of the Coward Brothers, a new comedic audio series scripted by
Costello and directed by Christopher Guest. The all-star cast also
includes Harry Shearer, Rhea Seehorn, Edward Hibbert, Stephen Root and
Kathreen Khavari. A 20-track soundtrack album, The Coward Brothers,
accompanied the three-part series.
The True Story of the Coward Brothers is a show within a show. Sterling
Lockhart, who is voiced by Shearer, hosts a radio program that presents
the conflicting, conflicted tales of Henry and Howard Coward. In the
conversation that follows, their counterparts share their own
intertwined but far less twisted yarns.