More Thoughts on Elvis Costello: The Boy Named If

Elvis Costello and the Imposters

Elvis Costello continues to charm the pants off his audiences. It’s something he’s done successfully in a music career that’s spanned more than five decades. He’s one of his generation’s greatest songwriters and performers – and one of many reasons I never tire of seeing him perform live in concert. 

Costello has worked diligently at his craft to attain a special place in the music world. Whether with a simple wink of the eye, a friendly smile or just the right choice of words and upbeat tone of voice, the bespectacled and iconic English musician, who was once described by a critic as a “pop encyclopedia,” has become a master of the craft of storytelling.

Last week at the Filene Center at Wolf Trap in Vienna, Va., near Washington, D.C., in what was my 13th time to see Costello in concert since the early ‘80s, Costello delighted the baby-boomer crowd with disposable money that flocked to see him and his band, the Imposters (Steve Nieve on keyboards, Pete Thomas on drums, Davey Faragher on bass, Charlie Sexton on assorted guitars) and joined by guest vocalist Nicole Atkins – plus special guests Nick Lowe and Los Straightjackets – with his good-natured manner and geniality of performing. The singer-songwriter, who turns 68 on August 25, has taken great care of himself and of the stories he shares with his audiences, through his musical lyrics and interpretation.

Nick Lowe and Los Straightjackets

Musically, throughout his 105-minute performance, Costello moved freely between playing a canon of his most-recognized hits – “Accidents Will Happen,” “Watching the Detectives,” “(I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea,” “Pump It Up,” and “(What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace, Love and Understanding,” which he performed with Lowe – and also a quartet of new songs from his most recent album, “The Boy Named If.” The set list on this night totaled 17 songs. Throughout, Costello’s material was filled full of rich characters loaded with plenty of desire mixed with heartache. 

What one learns from going to so many Elvis Costello shows through the years – and whether seeing him perform with his original band the Attractions, current band the Imposters, with special guests such as the late great New Orleans pianist Allen Toussaint or backed by a symphony orchestra – is that Costello is truly a music fan. He also delights in championing the works of other musicians, whether it be from country star George Jones or rock guitarist and producer T Bone Burnett – or even the influential Philadelphia hip-hop band The Roots. Through the years, Costello has also collaborated with Burt Bacharach and duetted with Tony Bennett. 

Filene Center at Wolf Trap, Vienna, Va.

Looking back, Costello has immersed himself in pop, rock and roll, country, Americana, soul and jazz, among the many genres that he’s mastered. In a Costello show, he’s not afraid to share many of the lessons he’s learned growing up in a Liverpool music family and we’re rewarded with songs that are as literate as they are artful. I am reminded of when my wife and I took the train to Philadelphia last October just to see Costello perform at The Met, an old opera house in north Philly, and he charmed us with a hauntingly beautiful minor-key tango that blended his own song “Brilliant Mistake” with the 1930s Al Dubin-penned “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” that was a hit song for Bennett among many.

Throughout his Wolf Trap performance, Costello showed he can be acerbic and witty, as well as lamenting and sad. There’s always a fine balance between rock and balladry in a Costello performance and this one was no different from the other 12 shows I had seen over the past 40 years in that regard. Yet, he also reminded us that this was no exercise in nostalgia and pastiche, either despite the age demographic of the audience – about 55 to 70 years-old – that’s been around to enjoy Costello from the beginning of his rock-n-roll career in the late ‘70s.

Collectively, Costello’s body of work is that of an adept storyteller who’s learned more than a few things from the past. On this summer night in northern Virginia, Costello took his audience on a musical journey through his expansive songbook that was as intimate as it was entertaining – and it was inspiring, too.

Elvis Costello and the Imposters

Elvis Costello’s Wolf Trap set list:

Accidents Will Happen / Green Shirt / Either Side of the Same Town / Hetty O’Hara Confidential / Mystery Dance / Watching the Detectives-Invisible Lady-Isabelle in Tears / My Most Beautiful Mistake / Still Too Soon to Know / Just About Glad / The Man You Love to Hate / Penelope Halfpenny / What If I Can’t Give You Anything But Love? / Magnificent Hurt / (I Don’t Want to Go to) Chelsea / Pump It Up / Indoor Fireworks (with Nick Lowe) / What’s So Funny ‘Bout) Peace Love and Understanding (with Nick Lowe).

All photographs: © Michael Dickens, 2021.

Serena: The Countdown Toward Retirement Has Begun

Serena Williams 

Serena Williams has never liked the word retirement, saying it doesn’t feel like a modern word to her.

However, a week ago, a day after Williams won her first WTA Tour singles match after turning 40, the 23-time Grand Slam champion – arguably the greatest women’s tennis player of all time – hinted in an interview with Vogue magazine that her storied career will soon come to an end.

An iconic champion and crossover star, Williams admitted she doesn’t like the word retirement, because “it doesn’t feel like a modern word to me. I’ve been thinking of this as a transition, but I want to be sensitive about I use that word, which means something very specific and important to a community of people. Maybe the best word to describe what I’m up to is evolution.”

Evolution as in evolving away from tennis toward other things that are important to Williams. Like her older sister Venus, who has created a large business footprint outside the baseline, a few years ago, Serena started Serena Ventures, a venture capital firm “designed to do VC differently through standout strategies, bold initiatives, and a global network of investors, business leaders, and influencers.” Soon after, she started a family with her husband, Alexis Ohanian, co-founder of Reddit, when their daughter, Olympia, was born in September 2017.

“Believe me, I never wanted to have to choose between tennis and a family. I don’t think it’s fair. If I were a guy, I wouldn’t be writing this because I’d be out there playing and winning while my wife was doing the physical labor of expanding our family,” Williams told writer Rob Haskell for Vogue, in an interview published last Tuesday for its September issue. “Maybe I’d be more of a Tom Brady if I had that opportunity. Don’t get me wrong: I love being a woman, and I loved every second of being pregnant with Olympia.

“I was one of those annoying women who adored being pregnant and was working until the day I had to report to the hospital – although things got super complicated on the other side. And I almost did do the impossible: A lot of people don’t realize that I was two months pregnant when I won the Australian Open in 2017. But I’m turning 41 this month [in September], and something’s got to give.”

While Williams was not specific in Vogue about the exact timing of her farewell, on Instagram, she gave a hint that it might end very soon. The start of the US Open is less than two weeks away, a major which she has won six times. So, it would be very fitting if Williams ended her career in New York. She won the US Open for the first time in 1999 at age 17 against then-No. 1 Martina Hingis.

“One thing I’m not going to do is sugarcoat this,” Williams wrote. “I know that a lot of people are excited about and looking forward to retiring, and I really wish I felt that way. Ashleigh Barty was number one in the world when she left the sport this March, and I believe she really felt ready to move on. Caroline Wozniacki, who is one of my best friends, felt a sense of relief when she retired in 2020.

“Praise to those people, but I’m going to be honest. There is no happiness in this topic for me. I know it’s not the usual thing to say, but I feel a great deal of pain. It’s the hardest thing that I could ever imagine. I hate it. I hate that I have to be at this crossroads. …”

Williams trails only Margaret Court’s 24 Grand Slam singles titles and has been stuck on 23 since winning the Australia Open in 2017, when she was pregnant with her daughter. She owns 73 career titles overall – including seven at the Australian Open, three at Roland Garros, seven at Wimbledon and six at the US Open – and has earned more than $94.5 million in prize money. Along with Court, Helen Wills and Chris Evert, Williams has won major singles titles in her teens, 20s and 30s. Ten of her Grand Slam crowns have come after she turned 30.

In addition to her singles success, Williams has also won 14 Grand Slam doubles titles with Venus, two mixed doubles crowns with Max Mirnyi, and four Olympic gold meals, including one in singles and three in doubles with Venus.

“There comes a time in life when we have to decide to move in a different direction,” Williams wrote. “That time is always hard when you love something so much. My goodness do I enjoy tennis. But now, the countdown has begun. I have to focus on being a mom, my spiritual goals and finally discovering a different, but just [as] exciting Serena. I’m gonna relish these next few weeks.”

After Williams defeated Nuria Parrizas-Diaz of Spain, 6-3, 6-4, at the National Bank Open Presented By Rogers in Toronto, her first win since beating Danielle Collins in the third round of the 2021 French Open, she told reporters, “I guess there’s just a light at the end of the tunnel. I don’t know, I’m getting closer to the light. Lately that’s been it for me. I can’t wait to get to that light.”

A postscript …

• Williams lost her second-round match to Tokyo Olympic Games gold medalist Belinda Bencic of Switzerland, 6-2, 6-4. Afterward, she was feted on court by the tournament. 

“Yeah, it was a lot of emotions,” Williams said during an on-court interview after the match. “Obviously, I love playing here. I’ve always loved playing here. And, yeah, I wish I could have played better, but Belinda played so well today.”

• Tonight, Williams returns to face 19-year-old Emma Raducanu of Great Britain, the reigning US Open champion in the first round of the Western & Southern Open in Mason, Ohio. It will be their first meeting.

“It’s going to be an exciting match,” Raducanu said in her pre-tournament press conference. “An amazing opportunity to play probably the best tennis player of all time. For our careers to have crossed over, I am really fortunate to get to play her, and whatever happens, I think it’s just going to be an incredible experience for me and something I think I will remember for the rest of my life.”

Cover photo: Courtesy of National Bank Open. Graphics: Vogue magazine, WTA Twitter, YouTube video.