Live Stream: Elvis Costello Performs New Songs

Elvis Costello's new album, National Ransom, comes out tomorrow — but you can stream Costello and the Sugarcanes performing songs from it tonight, starting at 8:30 p.m. Eastern time. The album was recorded with a hybrid electric-acoustic band that mixes members of the garage-rocking Imposters and a crew of top Nashville pickers. It "juxtaposes time and place," Costello says. "It includes old ballads, gospel, rhythm & blues, rock and roll and some country elements. I don't know what kind of music it is."

Watch: Elvis Costello Talks New Disc, 'National Ransom'

National Ransom includes historical narratives ("Jimmie Standing in the Rain" is about a 1930s British country singer) and classic Costello male-female turmoil (the rockabilly shuffle "Five Small Words"). And there's even a first for Costello: the whistle solo on the jaunty acoustic swing tune "A Slow Drag With Josephine." "I've kept that talent under wraps," he says. "You've gotta keep something in reserve for the third decade, you know?"

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Song Stories

“The A Team”

Ed Sheeran | 2011

This debut track from the then-20-year-old British singer-songwriter has a dark story behind it. Sheeran says he culls songwriting inspiration from "viewing other people's situations," which, for the heroine in "The A Team," involves drug addiction and prostitution that began as a teen. Sheeran paints the woman's trials with haunting imagery such as "But lately her face seems/Slowly sinking, wasting/Crumbling like pastries." "I did a gig at a homeless shelter, [and the song] is about one of the women there. It's her story," he said.

More Song Stories entries »

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