Elvis Costello Reunites With First Bandmate For Upcoming Album

Elvis Costello and his first bandmate, Allan Mayes, have reunited to record their debut album, Rusty: The Resurrection of Rust, to be released on June 10, which marks the 50 years after the band was formed.

The duo were still in their teens when they performed together in local clubs. Five decades later, they’re returning to their musical roots. Costello explained in a press release:

“So, when [Mayes] asked me if I wanted to celebrate this anniversary by getting together to play a few songs that we used to know, I said, ‘Absolutely not!'”

He said he had another idea in mind:

“Let’s make the record we would have cut when we were 18 if anyone had let us.”

Rusty was originally formed as a quartet with Mayes before Costello joined on New Year’s Day 1972. Performing under his birth name, D.P. MacManus, Costello performed in Liverpool clubs several nights each week for the next 12 months with Rusty, but they never made it to the recording studio before Costello left Liverpool the following year. He continued:

“I asked if Allan wanted to come with me.

“But I had a place to live with my dad and he had a steady job to give up, and I suppose I thought we might travel lighter and further alone.”

Costello is currently on tour with the Imposters in support of their recently released album The Boy Named If. While, Mayes now lives in Austin. Mayes then contacted Costello about a reunion project.

Their upcoming album Rusty: The Resurrection of Rust features newly recorded versions of six songs drawn from Rusty’s 1972 set lists, including the Costello-penned “Warm House” and an original Costello-Mayes collaboration called “Maureen and Sam.”

The album also features duets on two Nick Lowe songs, “Surrender to the Rhythm” and “Don’t Lose Your Grip on Love,” Jim Ford’s song “I’m Ahead if I Can Quit While I’m Behind,” and wraps up with an arrangement incorporating two Neil Young songs, “Everybody Knows This Is Nowhere” and “Dance, Dance, Dance,” which features Costello’s debut on the electric violin.

Costello added:

“Allan and I quickly rediscovered the vocal blend that convinced us that we might conquer the world (or at least Widnes) when we were teenagers, but to bring Rusty into the 21st century, I enlisted the talents of the Imposters.”

Costello and the Imposters will wrap up their European tour on July 1 in Aarhus, Denmark, and plan to kick off a U.S. leg of the tour in August.