Elvis Costello recently made his second appearance in Atlanta within three months, and true to his reputation as a musical chameleon, he put on a two and a half hour show of almost entirely different material than he did back in May. In a different vein than his classical-and-pops show in April, Costello put an energetic and sometimes angry voice to the entire song list of his collaboration with legendary New Orleans R&B producer Allen Toussaint. To that album’s worth of material was added a number of tunes from Toussaint’s back catalog and eight of Costello’s songs — some well known and some album tracks — augmented by Toussaint horn arrangements. Four of those eight songs — plus the title track of the pair's current album The River in Reverse -- were the entirety of the material repeated between both shows.

The show was part of the 2006 Delta Concert Series, and many of the series ticket holders who attended were too busy eating and drinking to notice the passionate musical creativity taking place on stage between two members of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. This is a consistent complaint among performers at this venue, and Costello made note of the distractions by pointing out that the audience should take time away from its imported cheese and such to pay attention to the great Allen Toussaint, of whom it was obvious Costello was in awe.

Costello allowed — or prodded, as he put it — Toussaint to take the lead on several numbers, and Toussaint’s smooth soulful voice did not disappoint. The first bit of the encore features Toussaint playing piano with Costello standing and watching. Toussaint plays some variations of the Professor Longhair classic “Big Chief,” and this leads into the reworked minor key variation of “Tipitina” to which Costello added words to create “Ascension Day.” The show featured the dancing and blowing of Toussaint's Crescent City Horns, and their impassioned playing led one to think that the nine-piece combination of Elvis’ Imposters and Toussaint’s horns would have created an even better album by recording it with more live playing under their belts — perhaps after this tour rather than before.

Though the album was inspired by the tragic events of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, home to some of the musicians who strongly influenced Costello such as Dave Bartholomew, the political implications were kept within the music for the most part — except when Costello mentioned his one stage prop, a tiny George Bush doll. The rest of the time, the band let the music do the talking — and it was powerful!

Outside of the reserved tables, there were only six or eight rows of seats filled — it’s as if people didn’t recognize that this would be a nontraditional Costello performance. As it was truly an R&B show more like Costello's early '80s album Get Happy! than anything else he’s recorded, those who did attend were tapping their feet throughout the performance. Don’t miss it — this one’s worth catching!