Secret, Profane & Sugarcane is not Elvis Costello's first foray into the world of Folk-Bluegrass Country and Americana. All the way back in 1981 Costello released an album of all Country covers titled Almost Blue and then in 1986, Costello collaborated with T-Bone Burnett for King of America. 23 years later, Burnett and Costello are at it again with Secret, Profane & Sugarcane, an album that also boasts some of the best Bluegrass musicians in the game (Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, Mike Compton and more) and only took them all three days to make.

The songs that make up Secret, Profane & Sugarcane are a real grab bag of sorts that were written at all sorts of different times for Costello. Some songs, such as "Down Among the Wine and Spirits" and "Hidden Shame", were actually written for Loretta Lynn and Johnny Cash respectively over a decade ago. Other songs here have already ended up on previous Costello records, such as "Complicated Shadows" which first appeared on 1996's All This Useless Beauty. These songs actually fit the Americana mold quite beautifully, but it's when Costello tries to do tracks from the Secret Songs sessions (hence part of the title) in a Bluegrass way that the album falters a bit. For those that don't know, Costello was commissioned a few years back by the Royal Danish Opera to write songs for an Opera about the life of Hans Christian Andersen. A few of those songs, such as "She Handed Me a Mirror", "How Deep is the Red?", "She Was No Good" and "Red Cotton" make their first ever appearance here and the Country arrangements just make these songs feel awkward. It's like trying to stick a square Country peg into a round Operatic hole.

Costello also finds time to throw in a cover of Bing Crosby's "Changing Partners" at the very end as well bringing Secret, Profane & Sugarcane to a very odd end. Even though Secret, Profane & Sugarcane never seems to find a consistent footing from beginning to end, it's still a good batch a songs from a plethora of who's who musicians that I welcome new music from anytime, especially the always versatile Costello.