Photo credit: Mark Seliger
Elvis Costello & The Imposters celebrate the release of their widely acclaimed new album, ‘The Boy Named If’, with summer tour titled “The Boy Named If & Other Favourites.” The first announced date is in Huber Heights, OH on August 6th and the tour closes in Las Vegas, NV on September 3rd. Costello will also return to Massey Hall, Toronto, visiting New York City, Wolf Trap, Denver, Anaheim and many other cities near you with more dates to be announced. Select cities will also include an opening set by Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets, the first time since 1989 that the pair have toured together.
Costello and his band, The Imposters – Steve Nieve, Pete Thomas and Davey Faragher – will once again be joined on stage by Texas guitarist, Charlie Sexton, who also played the twenty-two date, “Hello Again” tour in October 2021, when six of the then unreleased songs, now heard on ‘The Boy Named If’, were performed for the very first time to incredible audience reactions. In the OC Register, Peter Larsen wrote that “over the course of 26 songs and nearly two-and-a-half hours, Elvis Costello and the Imposters delivered a terrific night that time-traveled across Costello’s songbook, past, present, and future.”
The Imposters have been Costello’s bandmates for the last twenty years or as Costello put it recently, “Pete Thomas, Steve Nieve and I have been spinning around like your favorite 45rpm for forty-five years and let’s be clear, Davey Faragher isn’t anyone’s deputy. The Attractions could have no more made ‘The Boy Named If’ than we have any desire to time travel back to the 1970s. This is happening right now in 2022, we are coming at you, big as life and twice as ugly.”
Select cities will include an opening set by Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets.
Costello first met Nick Lowe in a pub opposite The Cavern in Liverpool in 1972 at a time when the then “D.P. MacManus” and his partner Allan Mayes – as the duo “Rusty” – were performing many of the songs Lowe had written for the band Brinsley Schwarz.
By 1976, Nick Lowe was house producer and recording artist at Stiff Records – a small independent label in London. The newly named “Elvis Costello” was their first signing.
Lowe went on to produce Elvis’ debut album, ‘My Aim Is True’, ‘This Year’s Model’, ‘Armed Forces’, ‘Get Happy’ and ‘Trust’ in just four years, during which Rockpile (with both Lowe and Dave Edmunds) were part of a U.S. package tour playing between Mink Deville and Elvis Costello and the Attractions.
Lowe returned to the studio for E.C. and the Attractions last album of the 80s, ‘Blood & Chocolate’ before playing bass on “Hurry Down Doomsday (The Bugs Are Taking Over)” in 1990 and then on five tracks of the 1993 album, ‘Brutal Youth.’
Nick Lowe’s songs have been recorded by Johnny Cash, Tommy McLain, Sir Rod Stewart, Engelbert Humperdinck and Solomon Burke. His song “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love & Understanding”, first recorded by the Brinsleys in 1974, covered by Costello in 1978 and sung by Curtis Stigers on one of biggest selling movie soundtrack albums of all-time, ‘The Bodyguard.’
Aside from his work as producer of The Damned, Graham Parker and The Rumour and John Hiatt, Nick Lowe’s albums range from 1978’s, ‘Jesus Of Cool’, ‘Labour Of Lust’ and ‘Rose Of England’ through his work with Rockpile and Little Village to his extraordinary trio of ballad albums: ‘The Impossible Bird’, ‘Dig My Mood’ and ‘The Convincer’. Recent years have seen Nick Lowe work in the studio and on the stage with the rocking Los Straitjackets, as well as a solo balladeer..
Following her popular guest vocalist appearance with Costello on “My Most Beautiful Mistake”, Nicole Atkins will open the shows in Huber Heights and Buffalo. Nicole’s latest release is “Memphis Ice” on Single Lock Records.
‘The Boy Named If’ was released by EMI – in the U.K. (and The Rest Of The World) and Capitol Records – in the U.S and Canada, on January 14th to rave reviews in publications right across the globe and in the U.S. from the New York Times to Pitchfork. The Sunday Times in London made the album “The Record Of The Week”, declaring the record, “Worthy Of Bowie.”
Listen to the album here: https://elviscostello.lnk.to/TBNIPR
“Songs that kick hard and deep. It’s anything but quiet … the Imposters sound gleefully, brutally unified.” – The New York Times (Jon Pareles Critic’s Pick)
“Electrifying…A deeply thoughtful blast of rock ‘n’ roll”- People (Jordan Runtaugh)
Tickets go on sale Friday, February 18th at 10am local time. Go to elviscostello.com
TOUR DATES – (More dates to be announced)
August 6 – Huber Heights, OH @ Rose Music Center at The Heights^
August 8 – Toronto, ON @ Massey Hall*
August 9 – Buffalo, NY @ Artpark Amphitheater^
August 11 – New York, NY @ The Rooftop at Pier 17*
August 12 – Bensalem, PA @ Xcite Center at Parx Casino
August 13 – Ledyard, CT @ Foxwoods Resort Casino
August 15 – Boston, MA @ Leader Bank Pavilion*
August 16 – Northampton, MA @ The Pines Theater*
August 18 – Vienna, VA @ Wolf Trap*
August 23 – Denver, CO @ Levitt Pavilion*
August 25 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Sandy Amphitheater*
August 28 – Thousand Oaks, CA @ Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza*
August 30 – Anaheim, CA @ City National Grove of Anaheim*
September 2 – Paso Robles, CA @ Vina Robles Amphitheatre*
September 3 – Las Vegas, NV @ The Theater at Virgin Hotels*
^ = Nicole Atkins opening
* = Nick Lowe & Los Straitjackets opening
