Diana Krall’s step back into time

Krall declined an interview request, but this month in a Rolling Stone story Krall says Burnett shares her love of old records and that Costello and Burnett “are like brothers.”

But initially she was hesitant to work with Burnett.

“I was thinking … ‘Oh gosh, if this doesn’t work, this is gonna be difficult.’” she said.

Krall said Burnett understood her desire to evoke earlier eras without making nostalgic records.

He’s like “a great director who knows exactly what to say,” Krall told Rolling Stone. “It was a life-changing experience to work with him.”

Despite her desire to avoid nostalgia, Krall remains inspired by glittering bygone productions.

“I think I just wanted to live out one of the Carole Lombard characters that I saw on late-night pictures but with the music from the Ziegfeld Follies,” she says on her site. “If there was an era to which I could choose to go back in time, it would be the 1920s, just because of the whole wildness of it all.”

The cover of “Glad Rag Doll” was inspired by Alfred Cheney Johnston’s pictures of the girls of the Ziegfeld Follies taken during the 1920s, Krall says on her site.

In the image, shot by celebrity photographer Mark Seliger, Krall is reclining on a red velvet couch in gauzy black undergarments, a leather jacket draped over one shoulder and a string of black beads hanging around her neck.

“Mark is someone I admire and trust completely in creating something that I have had in my head for years,” Krall said, “photographs that echo images of the Ziegfeld Girls.”

Krall, who won a Grammy in 2000 for “When I Look in Your Eyes” was born on Victoria Island in British Columbia, and in 2003 married Costello on Elton John’s estate near London.

In 2006, Krall gave birth to twins on the couple’s third wedding anniversary, the BBC reported.