Elvis Costello recently gave fans an unusually intimate look at his decades-long career, performing a solo show inside a historic church on Martha’s Vineyard.
On Aug. 8, the Rock & Roll Hall of Famer, 71, took the stage at the Old Whaling Church in Edgartown as part of the MV Concert Series. The performance also served as the annual fundraiser for MVY Radio, with Costello performing songs from across his career on guitar and piano.
Photos from the sold-out-feeling event show the church packed with fans, while others gathered outside with the windows open to catch the performance.
The intimate concert comes at a particularly nostalgic time for Costello fans, as the singer-songwriter is also preparing to revisit the album that launched his career.
Elvis Costello’s ‘My Aim Is True’ Is Getting a Massive Reissue
Costello’s 1977 debut album, My Aim Is True, is getting an expansive 49th-anniversary edition this fall.
Due Oct. 2 through UMe, the new collection will arrive as a five-CD box set containing 104 tracks, including 52 previously unreleased recordings. The set includes songs, demos, outtakes, live performances, interviews and other rare material spanning Costello’s early career.
The original album has also been newly remastered from the original analog master tapes for the collection.
Among the songs on My Aim Is True are some of Costello’s best-known early recordings, including “Alison,” “Less Than Zero,” “Mystery Dance,” “(The Angels Wanna Wear My) Red Shoes” and “Welcome to the Working Week.”
The expanded edition also offers a glimpse at the evolution of Costello before he became the artist audiences came to know.
The collection traces his transformation from Declan MacManus into Elvis Costello, including recordings made before and during the sessions that produced his debut album.
Elvis Costello Was Still Finding His Sound When He Made ‘My Aim Is True’
When My Aim Is True was recorded in London in late 1976 and early 1977, Costello was still trying to establish himself as a recording artist.
The album was produced by Nick Lowe, and the backing musicians were members of the American country-rock band Clover. Costello would soon form the Attractions, the group that became his primary backing band for some of his most influential early work.
The album’s history is part of what makes the new box set so extensive. Rather than simply remastering the original 12-song collection, the 49th-anniversary edition digs into the recordings surrounding Costello’s emergence as a new artist.
The set includes early versions, bedroom recordings, studio outtakes and other material that show how some of the songs developed.
It also includes a new 72-page essay by Costello, along with contributions and recollections from musicians and writers including Lowe, 77, Rosanne Cash, Peter Wolf, Jim James and others.
The My Aim Is True (49th Anniversary Edition) arrives Oct. 2 and will include 104 tracks, 52 of them previously unreleased.
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