http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr/co ... 1000892505
Burnett juggles films with album, anthology
By Chris Morris
The movies have been very good to T Bone Burnett, but he's scratching his record-making itch again.
The lanky Texas-born musician-producer was barracked at the Village Recorder in West Los Angeles this week, completing work on the soundtrack for director James Mangold's Johnny Cash biopic "Walk the Line," due in November from 20th Century Fox. Burnett tweaked a guitar solo on Tyler Hilton's rambunctious version of Elvis Presley's "Milk Cow Blues" and unspooled a concert sequence in which Joaquin Phoenix, Reese Witherspoon and L.A. country singer Waylon Payne make very credible musical impressions as Cash, his wife June Carter Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis, respectively.
"Joaquin was relentless in his search for J.R. Cash," says Burnett, who adds that the actor, who cut his own vocals for the film, "stretched his voice a good octave lower" during rehearsals to capture Cash's profound sound.
Hollywood has been keeping Burnett busy since he won four Grammys in 2002 for his work on the Coen brothers' "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" and its documentary spinoff "Down From the Mountain." He collected an Oscar nomination for "The Scarlet Tide," a song he co-wrote with Elvis Costello for the "Cold Mountain" soundtrack.
Beyond "Walk the Line," Burnett has created music for two other forthcoming features. He scored and wrote three songs for Wim Wenders' "Don't Come Knockin'," the Sony Pictures Classics release screening at Cannes next month. He has collaborated again with Costello -- whose Burnett-produced 1986 classic "King of America" gets an expanded rerelease by Rhino on Tuesday -- on "Sulfur to Sugar Cane," a song to be sung by Sean Penn in Steve Zaillian's remake of "All the King's Men," due in December from Columbia.
But Burnett -- who hasn't issued an album under his own name since "Criminal Under My Own Hat" in 1992 -- is stepping out with a new release, "The True False Identity," which his Sony imprint DMZ will issue in August. (A two-CD career retrospective, "20/20," will be issued by DMZ/Legacy around the same time.)
He says he began a six-month writing siege for the new album in the summer. Then he took the material into the studio, and the free-for-all began.
"We've cut 15 to 18 things so far -- 80% of it was improvised in the studio," Burnett says. "Whatever would strike us that day, we'd take it and stick it together. ... I would go through pages of things, rapping, ad-libbing." He compares the process to Miles Davis' intuitive methods during his "Jack Johnson" era.
"The True False Identity" is a nearly complete departure for Burnett. The sound of such new songs as "Palestine, Texas," "Seven Times Hotter Than Fire" and "Zombieland" is raw, loose, percussive (he employs three drummers) and wailing (thanks largely to guitarist Marc Ribot's unbridled playing).
"It is very primal," Burnett says of his liberating new work. "It's emancipation. Everyone who works in the record business is a victim of Stockholm syndrome, and I've finally been deprogramd. ... We're doing this to supply some liberty in the horrible environment we're living in."
New T-Bone Burnett album on the way
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Who Shot Sam?
- Posts: 7097
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- Contact:
Hurrah!! and about time too - "Criminal Under My Own Hat" was a great album and this "primal" album sounds the buisness.
Glad to have a retrospective too - would it be too much to ask to have some Alpha Band stuff on it?
Glad to have a retrospective too - would it be too much to ask to have some Alpha Band stuff on it?
echos myron like a siren
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
with endurance like the liberty bell
and he tells you of the dreamers
but he's cracked up like the road
and he'd like to lift us up, but we're a very heavy load
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Mr. Average
- Posts: 2031
- Joined: Sat Jun 28, 2003 12:22 pm
- Location: Orange County, Californication
Re: New T-Bone Burnett album on the way
johnfoyle wrote:
"We've cut 15 to 18 things so far -- 80% of it was improvised in the studio," Burnett says. "Whatever would strike us that day, we'd take it and stick it together. ... I would go through pages of things, rapping, ad-libbing." He compares the process to Miles Davis' intuitive methods during his "Jack Johnson" era.
"The True False Identity" is a nearly complete departure for Burnett. The sound of such new songs as "Palestine, Texas," "Seven Times Hotter Than Fire" and "Zombieland" is raw, loose, percussive (he employs three drummers) and wailing (thanks largely to guitarist Marc Ribot's unbridled playing).
"It is very primal," Burnett says of his liberating new work. "It's emancipation. Everyone who works in the record business is a victim of Stockholm syndrome, and I've finally been deprogramd. ... We're doing this to supply some liberty in the horrible environment we're living in."[/b]
I love the reference to Miles and, in particular, the comment about the "Stockholm Syndrome" in the recording industry. What a witty line. And a comment that I suspect Elvis is in strong agreement with, yet he has been able to produce quality music for more than 25 years that doesn't appear to have been controlled by the industry. When he is brilliant...he is accountable. When he produces something that is lackluster, he is accountable, and is more likely to blame liquid intoxicants over the industry.
"The smarter mysteries are hidden in the light" - Jean Giono (1895-1970)
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martinfoyle
- Posts: 2502
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- Location: Dublin, Ireland
- Contact:
Still no definite word on new product by T Bone, so to keep you going you may be interested to know that some Proof demos are being torrented here.
U.K. -
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASI ... 01-6048627
The Arista Albums
The Alpha Band (Artist)
Audio CD (August 15, 2005)
Number of Discs:2
Label: Acadia
ASIN: B000A3X6WG
Catalogue Number: ACAD8091
U.S. -
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/de ... ce&s=music
Arista Albums
Alpha Band
Audio CD (October 25, 2005)
Number of Discs: 2
Label: Acadia Records
ASIN: B000A3X6WG
' All Three Alpha Band LP's in their entirety on two CD's: The Alpha Band (1976), Spark In The Dark (1977) & The Statue Makers of Hollywood (1978). The Alpha Band first came to prominence as part of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Review and features T-Bone Burnett, now famous not only as a performing artist but as a top producer (Elvis Costello, Sam Phillips, Oh Brother Where Art Thou, Counting Crows and the Wallflowers). Ringo Starr guests on two cuts! Evangeline. 2005. '
Here's hoping this happens!
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E6 ... hisProduct
"The True False Identity,"
T-Bone Burnett
# Audio CD (March 21, 2006)
# Number of Discs: 1
# Label: Sony
# ASIN: B000E6UWEE
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000E6 ... hisProduct
"The True False Identity,"
T-Bone Burnett
# Audio CD (March 21, 2006)
# Number of Discs: 1
# Label: Sony
# ASIN: B000E6UWEE
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Extreme Honey
- Posts: 622
- Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2005 3:44 pm
- Location: toronto, canada
T-Bone Burnett is an extremely talented musician and a good friend of Elvis (not to mention Bob Dylan) who releases albums all too seldomly. For that reason you should be ecstatic. I'm not sure why you felt the need to post here simply to say you are not anxious at all. What a waste of a post.
Last edited by BlueChair on Wed Mar 08, 2006 8:20 am, edited 1 time in total.
This morning you've got time for a hot, home-cooked breakfast! Delicious and piping hot in only 3 microwave minutes.
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Mr. Average
- Posts: 2031
- Joined: Sat Jun 28, 2003 12:22 pm
- Location: Orange County, Californication
There are the Alan Toussaints, the T-bones, the Little Feat's, the Frank Zappa's, the Nick Lowe's, the Miles Davis' that have such an impact and influence on music today that remain under the radar screen for those who can't see their influence.
At some point, the connection is made, the light bulb goes on, and people say "ah-hah!" that makes sense. I hear that pervasive influence. That is why they talk so much about this guy, or this group.
I think I have that experience multiple times each year, when a connection is made and "I get it".
For others, anything beyond scratching the surface is simply too much effort, and they would rather float on the cream of the here and now. They have no interest in connecting the dots.
And that's okay. It just doesn't give occassion for that person to be critical of the pioneers music, especially if he knows nothing about it. I, for example refrain from making comments about artists that I know nothing about. Instead, this forum teaches me how little I do know, and how much I would like to learn, and need to learn.
At some point, the connection is made, the light bulb goes on, and people say "ah-hah!" that makes sense. I hear that pervasive influence. That is why they talk so much about this guy, or this group.
I think I have that experience multiple times each year, when a connection is made and "I get it".
For others, anything beyond scratching the surface is simply too much effort, and they would rather float on the cream of the here and now. They have no interest in connecting the dots.
And that's okay. It just doesn't give occassion for that person to be critical of the pioneers music, especially if he knows nothing about it. I, for example refrain from making comments about artists that I know nothing about. Instead, this forum teaches me how little I do know, and how much I would like to learn, and need to learn.
"The smarter mysteries are hidden in the light" - Jean Giono (1895-1970)
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Otis Westinghouse
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- Location: The theatre of dreams
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Extreme Honey
- Posts: 622
- Joined: Fri Jun 03, 2005 3:44 pm
- Location: toronto, canada
Aren't you a big Dylan fan EH? Or am I confused....? Anyway, T-Bone figured prominently in Dylan's Rolling Thunder band and has definitley been all over the place, genre wise. Of course he is mainly known these days as a producer and the supervisor of music for period films such as O Brother Where Art Thou, Cold Mountain, and Walk the Line. He was married for several years to the fantastic Sam Phillips and produced here awesomely ecelectic pop albums. Check out 'Martinis and Bikinis' or 'Cruel Inventions' (on which our man guests).
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Extreme Honey
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- Location: toronto, canada
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martinfoyle
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- Location: Dublin, Ireland
- Contact:
http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/060323/nyth053.html?.v=43
T Bone Burnett to Release First New Album in 14 Years The True False Identity in Stores and Online May 16
Thursday March 23, 6:00 am ET
Twenty Twenty - The Essential T Bone Burnett 40 Song Career Retrospective Set For Simultaneous Release
NEW YORK, March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- T Bone Burnett will emerge from a 14-year hiatus as a recording artist to release The True False Identity -- a collection of entirely new songs written and produced by T Bone -- on May 16 on DMZ/Columbia Records. That same day, Legacy Recordings will release the 40-song, 2-disk Twenty Twenty - The Essential T Bone Burnett, the first-ever career retrospective from this quintessential American songwriter and musician.
The DualDisc version of The True False Identity features vidiosyncrasy, a 20-minute film created exclusively for this release. Directed by Jesse Dylan, vidiosyncrasy captures T Bone in a special solo performance of songs and spoken word.
The songs on The True False Identity are the opening of a whole new musical chapter in T Bone's career. According to T Bone, the aim of The True False Identity is to "erase the nonexistent line between comedy and tragedy." The True False Identity is divided into two sections of six songs each: Art of the State includes the songs "Zombieland," "Palestine Texas," "Seven Times Hotter Than Fire," "There Would Be Hell To Pay," "Every Time I Feel The Shift," and "I'm Going On A Long Journey Never To Return" while Poems of the Evening features the songs "Hollywood Mecca of the Movies," "Fear Country," "Baby Don't Say You Love Me," "Earlier Baghdad (The Bounce)," Blinded By The Darkness," and "Shaken Rattled And Rolled."
The songs that make up The True False Identity were conceived during a period of isolation in which T Bone wrote "about 200 pages of couplets and verses, all in longhand." He honed those pages into songs, entered the studio with a thoughtfully selected band of top-flight musicians -- including Jim Keltner, Marc Ribot, Jay Bellerose, Carla Azar, Dennis Crouch, Keefus Ciancia and Bill Maxwell -- and created the extraordinary music that propels the album. The unique percussive and rhythmic textures of The True False Identity are anchored by the use of three drummers on most of the album's tracks, and T Bone's production approach also utilized guitars, bass and keyboards as percussion instruments. "I wanted to put listeners in the middle of this new sound, to experience it almost in 3D," says T Bone.
The musical genesis of The True False Identity has its roots in the records T Bone and his musicians immersed themselves in while recording. Burnett acted as DJ for those sessions, spinning records and videos between takes. "We were listening to Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf, The Carter Family, and a lot of Haitian music," he says, "so the axis this music turns on is some kind of line drawn from New Orleans through Mississippi and Tennessee to Haiti."
A definitive overview of T Bone's recording career from 1976-1992, Twenty Twenty - The Essential T Bone Burnett includes songs dating back to the groundbreaking Alpha Band (the group formed in 1976 by T Bone, Steven Soles, and David Mansfield, fellow travelers in Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue); tracks from each of T Bone's solo albums; rarities including "The People's Limousine" (the single T Bone recorded with Elvis Costello as "The Coward Brothers"); and previously unreleased material.
Twenty Twenty - The Essential T Bone Burnett includes a revelatory song-by-song annotation written by T Bone Burnett and a fascinating new essay chronicling T Bone and his times penned by noted pop music critic and author Bill Flanagan.
Albums represented on Twenty Twenty - The Essential T Bone Burnett include The Alpha Band (Arista, 1976); Spark In The Dark (Arista, 1977); Truth Decay (Takoma, 1980); Trap Door (Warner Bros. EP, 1982); Proof Through The Night (Warner Bros., 1983); Behind The Trap Door (Demon EP, 1984); T-Bone Burnett (Dot, 1986); The Talking Animals (Columbia, 1988); and The Criminal Under My Own Hat (Columbia, 1992).
T Bone's 14 year hiatus from recording and performing paved the way for one of music's most multi-faceted and successful careers. His multitude of musical identities include: Grammy-winning producer (the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack, the Tony Bennett and k.d. lang album, A Wonderful World); Oscar-nominated songwriter ("The Scarlet Tide" from Cold Mountain); indie record label founder (DMZ Records); soundtrack composer/Executive Music Producer (Walk The Line, The Big Lebowski) and versatile studio wizard (Elvis Costello, Roy Orbison, Tony Bennett, k.d. lang, Alison Krauss, Counting Crows, the Wallflowers, Sam Phillips, Gillian Welch, and Ralph Stanley).
http://www.columbiarecords.com
http://www.legacyrecordings.com
T Bone Burnett to Release First New Album in 14 Years The True False Identity in Stores and Online May 16
Thursday March 23, 6:00 am ET
Twenty Twenty - The Essential T Bone Burnett 40 Song Career Retrospective Set For Simultaneous Release
NEW YORK, March 23 /PRNewswire/ -- T Bone Burnett will emerge from a 14-year hiatus as a recording artist to release The True False Identity -- a collection of entirely new songs written and produced by T Bone -- on May 16 on DMZ/Columbia Records. That same day, Legacy Recordings will release the 40-song, 2-disk Twenty Twenty - The Essential T Bone Burnett, the first-ever career retrospective from this quintessential American songwriter and musician.
The DualDisc version of The True False Identity features vidiosyncrasy, a 20-minute film created exclusively for this release. Directed by Jesse Dylan, vidiosyncrasy captures T Bone in a special solo performance of songs and spoken word.
The songs on The True False Identity are the opening of a whole new musical chapter in T Bone's career. According to T Bone, the aim of The True False Identity is to "erase the nonexistent line between comedy and tragedy." The True False Identity is divided into two sections of six songs each: Art of the State includes the songs "Zombieland," "Palestine Texas," "Seven Times Hotter Than Fire," "There Would Be Hell To Pay," "Every Time I Feel The Shift," and "I'm Going On A Long Journey Never To Return" while Poems of the Evening features the songs "Hollywood Mecca of the Movies," "Fear Country," "Baby Don't Say You Love Me," "Earlier Baghdad (The Bounce)," Blinded By The Darkness," and "Shaken Rattled And Rolled."
The songs that make up The True False Identity were conceived during a period of isolation in which T Bone wrote "about 200 pages of couplets and verses, all in longhand." He honed those pages into songs, entered the studio with a thoughtfully selected band of top-flight musicians -- including Jim Keltner, Marc Ribot, Jay Bellerose, Carla Azar, Dennis Crouch, Keefus Ciancia and Bill Maxwell -- and created the extraordinary music that propels the album. The unique percussive and rhythmic textures of The True False Identity are anchored by the use of three drummers on most of the album's tracks, and T Bone's production approach also utilized guitars, bass and keyboards as percussion instruments. "I wanted to put listeners in the middle of this new sound, to experience it almost in 3D," says T Bone.
The musical genesis of The True False Identity has its roots in the records T Bone and his musicians immersed themselves in while recording. Burnett acted as DJ for those sessions, spinning records and videos between takes. "We were listening to Bo Diddley, Howlin' Wolf, The Carter Family, and a lot of Haitian music," he says, "so the axis this music turns on is some kind of line drawn from New Orleans through Mississippi and Tennessee to Haiti."
A definitive overview of T Bone's recording career from 1976-1992, Twenty Twenty - The Essential T Bone Burnett includes songs dating back to the groundbreaking Alpha Band (the group formed in 1976 by T Bone, Steven Soles, and David Mansfield, fellow travelers in Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue); tracks from each of T Bone's solo albums; rarities including "The People's Limousine" (the single T Bone recorded with Elvis Costello as "The Coward Brothers"); and previously unreleased material.
Twenty Twenty - The Essential T Bone Burnett includes a revelatory song-by-song annotation written by T Bone Burnett and a fascinating new essay chronicling T Bone and his times penned by noted pop music critic and author Bill Flanagan.
Albums represented on Twenty Twenty - The Essential T Bone Burnett include The Alpha Band (Arista, 1976); Spark In The Dark (Arista, 1977); Truth Decay (Takoma, 1980); Trap Door (Warner Bros. EP, 1982); Proof Through The Night (Warner Bros., 1983); Behind The Trap Door (Demon EP, 1984); T-Bone Burnett (Dot, 1986); The Talking Animals (Columbia, 1988); and The Criminal Under My Own Hat (Columbia, 1992).
T Bone's 14 year hiatus from recording and performing paved the way for one of music's most multi-faceted and successful careers. His multitude of musical identities include: Grammy-winning producer (the "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack, the Tony Bennett and k.d. lang album, A Wonderful World); Oscar-nominated songwriter ("The Scarlet Tide" from Cold Mountain); indie record label founder (DMZ Records); soundtrack composer/Executive Music Producer (Walk The Line, The Big Lebowski) and versatile studio wizard (Elvis Costello, Roy Orbison, Tony Bennett, k.d. lang, Alison Krauss, Counting Crows, the Wallflowers, Sam Phillips, Gillian Welch, and Ralph Stanley).
http://www.columbiarecords.com
http://www.legacyrecordings.com
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And No Coffee Table
- Posts: 3555
- Joined: Thu Aug 21, 2003 2:57 pm
The Twenty Twenty track list:
DISC ONE
1. Humans From Earth
2. Born In Captivity
3. Primitives
4. Power Of Love
5. Fatally Beautiful
6. Monkey Dance
7. The Long Time Now
8. River Of Love
9. Shut It Tight
10. Tear This Building Down
11. The Murder Weapon
12. Image
13. Kill Zone
14. Hula Hoop
15. Criminals
16. Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend
17. No Love At All
18. When The Night Falls
19. Over You
20. The Bird That I Held In My Hand
DISC TWO
1. Every Little Thing
2. House Of Mirrors
3. The Dogs
4. Shake Yourself Loose
5. Kill Switch
6. I Wish You Could Have Seen Her Dance
7. Hefner And Disney
8. Drivin Wheel
9. Boomerang
10. Euromad
11. Strange Combination
12. East Of East
13. The People's Limousine
14. Trap Door
15. I'm Coming Home
16. It's Not Too Late
17. Song To A Dead Man
18. After All These Years
19. Man, Don't Dog Your Woman
20. Bon Temps Rouler
EC content: In addition to "The People's Limousine," it includes "It's Not Too Late," which EC co-wrote, and "I'm Coming Home," which EC covered.
DISC ONE
1. Humans From Earth
2. Born In Captivity
3. Primitives
4. Power Of Love
5. Fatally Beautiful
6. Monkey Dance
7. The Long Time Now
8. River Of Love
9. Shut It Tight
10. Tear This Building Down
11. The Murder Weapon
12. Image
13. Kill Zone
14. Hula Hoop
15. Criminals
16. Diamonds Are A Girl's Best Friend
17. No Love At All
18. When The Night Falls
19. Over You
20. The Bird That I Held In My Hand
DISC TWO
1. Every Little Thing
2. House Of Mirrors
3. The Dogs
4. Shake Yourself Loose
5. Kill Switch
6. I Wish You Could Have Seen Her Dance
7. Hefner And Disney
8. Drivin Wheel
9. Boomerang
10. Euromad
11. Strange Combination
12. East Of East
13. The People's Limousine
14. Trap Door
15. I'm Coming Home
16. It's Not Too Late
17. Song To A Dead Man
18. After All These Years
19. Man, Don't Dog Your Woman
20. Bon Temps Rouler
EC content: In addition to "The People's Limousine," it includes "It's Not Too Late," which EC co-wrote, and "I'm Coming Home," which EC covered.
http://www.legacyrecordings.com/site_ar ... 39348.html
The True False Identity
82796939702
Release Date: May 16, 2006
1. Zombieland
2. Palestine Texas
3. Seven Times Hotter Than Fire
4. There Would Be Hell To Pay
5. Every Time I Feel the Shift
6. I'm Going On A Long Journey Never To Return
7. Hollywood - Mecca Of The Movies
8. Fear Country
9. Baby Don't You Say You Love Me
10. Earlier Baghdad
11. Blinded By The Darkness
12. Shaken, Rattled And Rolled
The True False Identity
82796939702
Release Date: May 16, 2006
1. Zombieland
2. Palestine Texas
3. Seven Times Hotter Than Fire
4. There Would Be Hell To Pay
5. Every Time I Feel the Shift
6. I'm Going On A Long Journey Never To Return
7. Hollywood - Mecca Of The Movies
8. Fear Country
9. Baby Don't You Say You Love Me
10. Earlier Baghdad
11. Blinded By The Darkness
12. Shaken, Rattled And Rolled
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12086118/site/newsweek/
Jesse Dylan
Burnett: 'I’ve really begun to appreciate the extraordinary value of the fleeting live moment'
The Man Behind the Curtain
After 14 years of studio wizardry, the spotlight-shy record producer T Bone Burnett is about to release a new record of his own—and he's even going on tour.
By Jac Chebatoris
Newsweek
March 31, 2006
March 31, 2006 - “I figured out early on what I wanted to do,” says T Bone Burnett. "I got out of high school, bought a recording studio and started operating it as an engineer and a producer. When I started out I wanted to be Burt Bacharach. Write tunes. Produce music. Be married to Angie Dickinson.”
At least he's two for three. During his four decades in music, the 58-year-old, Texas-bred Joseph Henry Burnett (he’s been T Bone since he was knee-high) has worked with such artists as Roy Orbison, the Wallflowers, Elvis Costello, Counting Crows, Los Lobos and the bluegrass master Ralph Stanley. He toured with Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue, wrote music for plays by Sam Shepard and formed a band of his own with a couple Rolling Thunder colleagues. But he's better known for his work on film soundtracks: the sea-changing, five-time-Grammy-winning music from "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"; the Civil War-era country music from “Cold Mountain.” Most recently, Burnett served as executive music producer on the Johnny Cash biopic, “Walk the Line.” For that picture, he tutored Joaquin Phoenix on his musical approximation of Cash, and coached Reese Witherspoon on how to sing like June Carter—which helped her to take home an Oscar. “My original idea was to produce and not make records myself,” Burnett says. “I made a few records here and there by default, but I wasn’t ever comfortable in that role. I wasn’t comfortable on stage. We’ll see how it goes this time.”
On May 16, Burnett will release a new album of his own—the first in 14 years—along with a generous anthology of his earlier work as a singer and songwriter. “The True False Identity” is an eclectic collection of new Burnett originals; "Twenty Twenty: The Essential T Bone Burnett," is a two-disc, 40-track retrospective that spans his career from 1976 to 1992. It includes such rarities as "The People's Limousine," his still-blistering 1985 collaboration with Elvis Costello, under the name the Coward Brothers. For those who can’t name a single T Bone Burnett song, you’ll want to go through both records to see what you’ve been missing. For the cognoscenti, you’ll want to listen to remember why you cared in the first place.
Perhaps surprisingly, Burnett is also going out on tour. “I want to write songs and play them for people—live,” he says. “Because in this age of mechanical reproduction, where we’re able to copy and distribute music on a moment’s notice, the less valuable the copy becomes, and the more valuable the live thing becomes. I’ve really begun to appreciate the extraordinary value of the fleeting live moment.”
A long-time resident of Los Angeles—which he calls “the Athens of the modern world”—Burnett may still be a country boy at heart, but he's learned what's going to work for an audience, and how to stay ahead of the curve. The 2000 "O Brother" soundtrack showed his prescience in recognizing that bluegrass music could appeal to a wider audience. (Unbelievably, Ralph Stanley's stark a cappella version of "O Death" later beat out performances by the likes of Tim McGraw and Willie Nelson to give him the Grammy for best male country vocal.) True, most of the competition was less like a longneck than like flat ginger ale. “O, Brother” sold nearly 9 million copies and introduced mainstream audiences not only to Stanley (whom Burnett calls “one of most important country musicians” out there) but such younger performers as Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch. The record showed that a mass audience could recognize music of quality and integrity and not run the other way. It was a lesson Burnett applied to his own music. “That was the story of my life,” he says. "It gave a dimension of meaning to my life. It gave me the sense that this is the reason I was born. And if that was the reason that I was born, then I’m fine with that.”
The call he felt was strong enough to make him take leave of L.A. and head up the coast to Northern California, where he finished some songs he'd already started—and came up with about 30 more. From jangling roots rock to Lou Reed-like spoken-word songs, the 12 tracks on “The True False Identity” suggest why Burnett has been the lucky rabbit's foot for so many other performers—as he puts it, "I listen hard"—and why we should hope his apprehensions about performing live don’t get the best of him. He's a singer whose voice you instantly believe, and a songwriter with a wide range and a well-honed set of skills. He describes “Earlier Baghdad” as the Memphis version of "King Lear": “It’s the tragic fallen hero facing his own mortality and then not accepting his fate. The deceptively buoyant “Baby Don’t You Say You Love Me” manages to get across heartbreak without getting overwrought or cloying. "Shaken, Rattled and Rolled,” the album's closing song, is, as Burnett says, “a sort of bookend to an era of rock and roll.” It's all that, but it's not a nostalgic downer: when an era ends, it seems to suggest, there's a new one coming. And if you don't end up with Angie Dickinson, life might offer compensations you could never have predicted.
Jesse Dylan
Burnett: 'I’ve really begun to appreciate the extraordinary value of the fleeting live moment'
The Man Behind the Curtain
After 14 years of studio wizardry, the spotlight-shy record producer T Bone Burnett is about to release a new record of his own—and he's even going on tour.
By Jac Chebatoris
Newsweek
March 31, 2006
March 31, 2006 - “I figured out early on what I wanted to do,” says T Bone Burnett. "I got out of high school, bought a recording studio and started operating it as an engineer and a producer. When I started out I wanted to be Burt Bacharach. Write tunes. Produce music. Be married to Angie Dickinson.”
At least he's two for three. During his four decades in music, the 58-year-old, Texas-bred Joseph Henry Burnett (he’s been T Bone since he was knee-high) has worked with such artists as Roy Orbison, the Wallflowers, Elvis Costello, Counting Crows, Los Lobos and the bluegrass master Ralph Stanley. He toured with Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue, wrote music for plays by Sam Shepard and formed a band of his own with a couple Rolling Thunder colleagues. But he's better known for his work on film soundtracks: the sea-changing, five-time-Grammy-winning music from "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"; the Civil War-era country music from “Cold Mountain.” Most recently, Burnett served as executive music producer on the Johnny Cash biopic, “Walk the Line.” For that picture, he tutored Joaquin Phoenix on his musical approximation of Cash, and coached Reese Witherspoon on how to sing like June Carter—which helped her to take home an Oscar. “My original idea was to produce and not make records myself,” Burnett says. “I made a few records here and there by default, but I wasn’t ever comfortable in that role. I wasn’t comfortable on stage. We’ll see how it goes this time.”
On May 16, Burnett will release a new album of his own—the first in 14 years—along with a generous anthology of his earlier work as a singer and songwriter. “The True False Identity” is an eclectic collection of new Burnett originals; "Twenty Twenty: The Essential T Bone Burnett," is a two-disc, 40-track retrospective that spans his career from 1976 to 1992. It includes such rarities as "The People's Limousine," his still-blistering 1985 collaboration with Elvis Costello, under the name the Coward Brothers. For those who can’t name a single T Bone Burnett song, you’ll want to go through both records to see what you’ve been missing. For the cognoscenti, you’ll want to listen to remember why you cared in the first place.
Perhaps surprisingly, Burnett is also going out on tour. “I want to write songs and play them for people—live,” he says. “Because in this age of mechanical reproduction, where we’re able to copy and distribute music on a moment’s notice, the less valuable the copy becomes, and the more valuable the live thing becomes. I’ve really begun to appreciate the extraordinary value of the fleeting live moment.”
A long-time resident of Los Angeles—which he calls “the Athens of the modern world”—Burnett may still be a country boy at heart, but he's learned what's going to work for an audience, and how to stay ahead of the curve. The 2000 "O Brother" soundtrack showed his prescience in recognizing that bluegrass music could appeal to a wider audience. (Unbelievably, Ralph Stanley's stark a cappella version of "O Death" later beat out performances by the likes of Tim McGraw and Willie Nelson to give him the Grammy for best male country vocal.) True, most of the competition was less like a longneck than like flat ginger ale. “O, Brother” sold nearly 9 million copies and introduced mainstream audiences not only to Stanley (whom Burnett calls “one of most important country musicians” out there) but such younger performers as Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch. The record showed that a mass audience could recognize music of quality and integrity and not run the other way. It was a lesson Burnett applied to his own music. “That was the story of my life,” he says. "It gave a dimension of meaning to my life. It gave me the sense that this is the reason I was born. And if that was the reason that I was born, then I’m fine with that.”
The call he felt was strong enough to make him take leave of L.A. and head up the coast to Northern California, where he finished some songs he'd already started—and came up with about 30 more. From jangling roots rock to Lou Reed-like spoken-word songs, the 12 tracks on “The True False Identity” suggest why Burnett has been the lucky rabbit's foot for so many other performers—as he puts it, "I listen hard"—and why we should hope his apprehensions about performing live don’t get the best of him. He's a singer whose voice you instantly believe, and a songwriter with a wide range and a well-honed set of skills. He describes “Earlier Baghdad” as the Memphis version of "King Lear": “It’s the tragic fallen hero facing his own mortality and then not accepting his fate. The deceptively buoyant “Baby Don’t You Say You Love Me” manages to get across heartbreak without getting overwrought or cloying. "Shaken, Rattled and Rolled,” the album's closing song, is, as Burnett says, “a sort of bookend to an era of rock and roll.” It's all that, but it's not a nostalgic downer: when an era ends, it seems to suggest, there's a new one coming. And if you don't end up with Angie Dickinson, life might offer compensations you could never have predicted.