red and prolific talents has delivered a remarkable album that draws on deep American musical roots more than any of his releases since King of America in 1986. It is a collection that ranges from the ferocious, bass-driven opening track, "Button My Lip," which speaks in the voice of a desperate man on the verge of committing a terrible crime, to a tender and timely closing rendition of "The Scarlet Tide," referred to by Costellos co-composer and fellow Oscar nominee T-Bone Burnett as an "anti-fear song."

Like a lot of great things in music history, The Delivery Man can be said to have started with the late great Johnny Cash. "The Delivery Man is actually a character imported from a song I wrote in 1986 for Johnny Cash," Costello explains. "He's based on a real character. I read this story in the paper about a man who confessed to murdering his childhood friend thirty years later, having been in prison for a number of other things. I thought this story was very interesting because he'd carried this burden of guilt of this childhood crime."

36:T403,I was fortunate enough to buy the expanded edition first. Those who didn't are disappointed. Boo-hoo-hoo! But I'm not going to dwell on their sour grapes or downgrade this album as a result. Let's talk about the sweet music, shall we?This is wonderful, honest stuff, a return to form for our delivery man Elvis. He's written moving, cutting-edge songs and performed them with a top-flight crew, and he's stretched himself by immersing himself in Mississippi culture, an influence that pervades the album.Almost an hour of studio recordings are nicely complemented by nearly a half-hour of an exquisite informal session on a second CD. This music has a very intimate, live feel. Three of the songs on the two discs are unavailable elsewhere.The video of Elvis' Memphis performance of "Bedlam" whets one's appetite for an eminently recommendable DVD c