Hear Music/Concord Music Group

National Ransom is the fully realized follow-up to 2009’s Secret, Profane & Sugarcane. Both albums feature producer T-Bone Burnett and acoustic masters The Sugarcanes ( Jerry Douglas on lap steel/dobro, Mike Compton on mandolin/vocals, Dennis Crouch on double bass, Stuart Duncan on fiddle/banjo and Jim Lauderdale on guitar/vocals). But Ransom also includes Costello’s longtime cohorts The Imposters, as well as guitarist Marc Ribot, pianist Leon Russell and country stars Vince Gill and Buddy Miller. Costello makes great use of the varied talent with songs ranging from contemporary rock and roll ( “National Ransom” ) and bluegrass ( “Dr. Watson, I Presume” ) to old timey character sketches ( “Jimmie Standing in the Rain” ) and crooning ballads ( “You Hung the Moon” ). In lesser hands, this much diversity would come off as aimless; here, it sounds distinctly Costello and positively timeless.