My Darling Clementine - Country Darkness, Vol. 3 (feat. Steve Nieve) (2020) Hi-Res

Country Darkness Vol 3 is the last of the EP trilogy from My Darling Clementine before they’re bundled together with a bonus track on a full album. The four numbers on this latest offering wrap up their covers of a selection of Costello’s country flavoured songs. First up is I’ll Wear It Proudly from King Of America, originally conceived as Johnny Cash treatment but suggested by Nieve to adopt a Bruce Springsteen Streets of Philadelphia approach, one which, with its tinkling piano cascades and simple rimshot percussion serves it perfectly as the pair trade verses and harmonise chorus.

Co-written by Costello and T Bone Burnett, The Crooked Line comes from Secret Profane & Sugarcane and gets the full Sir Douglas Quintet treatment with an endearing fairground Vox backing. A song that’s been in Lou Dalgleish’s repertoire for years, they finally get round to recording the classic and deeply sad Indoor Fireworks in her simple two voices and piano arrangement. This would make concrete weep.

Finally, neither country nor country soul, from All This Useless Beauty, comes the organ-backed Why Can’t A Man Stand Alone? a slow soulfully swaying song which, on paper, simply doesn’t work as a duet, but in their hands, featuring a brass arrangement and building to an almost Broadway show-tune finale, sounds like a natural. I don’t know if Costello has heard their covers, but if he has he should be duly humbled.