Graham Reid | | <1 min read
Well, if it was good enough for Tom Petty to resurrect his pre-Heartbreakers band Mudcrutch, then why not Declan McManus getting back with Allan Mayes with whom he'd played clubs around Liverpool and The Wirral in the years before he lit out under the name Elvis Costello?
The McManus/Mayes duo was called Rusty and half a century on they got back together to record a bunch of songs to “make the record we would have cut when we were 18, if anyone had let us,” said Costello.
Obviously it's not quite that we have here.
But with Costello's Imposters band we do get utterly engaging versions of Jim Ford's soulful country-rock I'm Ahead If I Can Quit While I'm Behind, a medley of Neil Young's Everybody Knows This is Nowhere/Dance Dance Dance and some Rusty originals.
It's only half a dozen songs but the Costello/Mayes voices are well suited to each other (Mayes more rough-edged), the originals are decent enough (aside from maybe the rock cynicism of Maureen and Sam), those covers are sound and the couple by Nick Lowe (the swinging organ-driven Surrender to the Rhythm, Don't Lose Your Grip on Love) make for a thoroughly enjoyable 25 minutes which are relaxed but also coloured by just enough ambitious professionalism to make this a serious if minor entry.
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You can hear this album at Spotify here
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