Elvis Costello & Allen Toussaint: The River In Reverse

Considering this collaboration came about from a chance post-Katrina meeting, "The River In Reverse" works very well indeed. It's better appreciated, however, as a testament to Costello's interpretive ability and Toussaint's classic songwriting than as a portrait of how vital an artist each one is these days.

The story goes like this: Allen Toussaint -- the legendary New Orleans songwriter/pianist/producer behind everything from Al Hirt's "Java" to Lee Dorsey's "Workin' In A Coal Mine" to Glen Campbell's "Southern Nights" -- gets reacquainted with equally legendary pop-punk icon Elvis Costello at a New York concert to benefit victims of Hurricane Katrina. The two fly back down to the Crescent City to record an "Allen Toussaint songbook" in the Bywater section of the city, mere feet from the devastated Lower Ninth Ward (and where your Guide also lived for a while).

The details are a little more complex. The band's a mix of Elvis C.'s mainstays and Allen's own team, the piano and arrangements are Allen's, and the vocals mostly Costello's -- which, given the state of the former angry young man's voice these days, is not necessarily a good thing. The Toussaint selections are mainly from Lee Dorsey's back catalog, including "Freedom for the Stallion," which Costello began covering live immediately after the storm. They're considerably more lighthearted than the duo's new originals, however, like "Ascension Day" (a minor-key rewrite of the boogie standard "Tipitina"), "Broken Promise Land," "International Echo," "The Sharpest Thorn," and the passionate title track, all of which focus Costello's rage at the Katrina aftermath. The covers tend to work better, but that's more a statement on where these two giants have been. Which is, apparently, everywhere.