BETHLEHEM, Pa. — An influential singer who kicked off his tour just two months ago at Easton's State Theatre will return to play with a guitar wizard at a larger Lehigh Valley venue.
Elvis Costello, whose career bridged punk and new wave music with mainstream, will perform with his band The Imposters at 8 p.m. Sept. 8 at Wind Creek Event Center, it was announced.
The concert is being called The Early Songs of Elvis Costello, which indicates he'll play songs from his early punk and new wave success, such as “My Aim is True,” “Less Than Zero,” “Alison” and “Watching the Detectives.”
Tickets for the Wind Creek show, at $59.50-$129.50, go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, April 25.www.windcreekeventcenter.com
Joining him onstage will be guitarist Charlie Sexton, who hit the Billboard chart with his own album in 1989, then toured with Bob Dylan and recorded with Lucinda Williams and Shawn Colvin.
Costello kicked off his current tour at the State Theater on Feb. 19. He played that show with only pianist Steve Nieve from his band The Attractions.
Tickets for the Wind Creek show, at $59.50-$129.50, go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, April 25 at the Wind Creek Event Center website or at the box office at 77 Wind Creek Blvd.
Sexton's self-titled album in 1989 just missed the Billboard Top 100, but won him acclaim as a guitarist.
He toured as Dylan's guitarist Sexton's 1999- 2002, and again in 2013. He appeared on Dylan's song "Things Have Changed" and his 2001 album "Love and Theft."
Sexton also appeared on Lucinda Williams's hit "Car Wheels on a Gravel Road" and on Colvin's Grammy-winning album "A Few Small Repairs."
Hits and Hall of Fame
Costello’s debut album “My Aim Is True” in 1977 connected the United States with punk rock and the more palatable new wave.
He then went on to top the charts with “Veronica” and “The Other Side of Summer” in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
It wasn’t until 1983’s song “Everyday I Write the Book” that Costello cracked the U.S. singles chart. In 1991, “Veronica” went to No. 1, followed by “The Other Side of Summer” in 1991.Billboard chart history
In 2003, Costello and his band The Attractions were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. In 2004, Rolling Stone magazine ranked Costello among the 100 Greatest Artists of All Time.
“My Aim is True” included the iconic songs “Less Than Zero,” “Alison” and “Watching the Detectives.” The follow-up “This Year’s Model” in 1978 had the songs “Pump It Up” and “Radio Radio,” which Costello famously played on “Saturday Night Live” after being told by the show not to.
Both those albums, as well as 1979’s “Armed Forces,” went gold or platinum, and “Armed Forces” hit No. 10 on the albums chart. His first three albums also all appeared on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time.
But it wasn’t until 1983’s song “Everyday I Write the Book” that Costello cracked the U.S. singles chart. In 1991, “Veronica” went to No. 1, followed by “The Other Side of Summer” in 1991.
The 70-year-old Costello has had two gold albums since: 1985’s “The Best of Elvis Costello & The Attractions” and 1989’s “Spike.”
Continued to evolve
Costello's music has continued to evolve. His 1998 collaboration with Paddy Moloney of The Chieftains on “Long Journey Home” on the soundtrack of the PBS/Disney miniseries of the same name won him a Grammy Award that year.
That same year, he released a duo album with Burt Bacharach, "Painted from Memory."
His 2013 album “Wise Up Ghost,” with Philadelphia hip-hop/soul band The Roots, hit No. 16 — his third-highest-charting disc ever in the United States, and second-highest in 33 years.
Costello released his most recent album, "The Coward Brothers," on Nov. 15.
Costello also played a sold-out show at the State Theatre in 2013 as part of the first solo tour of his career, and played at Wind Creek, then called Sands Event Center, in 2016 and 2019.
