T-Bone Burnett
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T Bone Burnett, born Joseph Henry Burnett (January 14, 1948) in St. Louis, Missouri and raised in Fort Worth, Texas, is a songwriter and performer inspired by multiple traditions of America's musical heritage. He emerged from a self-imposed 14 year hiatus as a recording artist in 2006 to release two collections of music: The True False Identity, his first album of new original songs since 1992, and Twenty Twenty - The Essential T Bone Burnett, a 40 song retrospective spanning Burnett’s entire career of music-making.
T Bone’s time away from recording and performing led him to other undertakings. He produced various artists such as Tony Bennett and k.d. lang and the A Wonderful World album, and he won a Grammy award for the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. He worked as a songwriter, and was nominated for an Oscar for his contribution to the film Cold Mountain. He founded the indie record label DMZ Records, was involved with Mark Heard and Tonio K in the short-lived What? Records, and oversaw the music for the films Walk the Line and The Big Lebowski.
T Bone's songs have been covered by such artists as k.d. lang ("Till the Heart Caves In"), Los Lobos, Sixpence None the Richer ("Carry You"), Tonio K, Emmylou Harris, Mark Heard ("Power of Love"), Arlo Guthrie, Warren Zevon, Peter Case, B. J. Thomas and others.
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[edit] Early musical career
Burnett released his first album, The B-52 Band and the Fabulous Skylarks, in 1972. In 1975 and 1976, he toured with Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue. When the Revue ended, Burnett and two other members of Dylan's band, David Mansfield and Steven Soles, formed The Alpha Band. The Alpha Band released three albums, The Alpha Band in 1977, Spark In The Dark in 1977, and The Statue Makers of Hollywood in 1978.
[edit] Solo career
In 1980 he released his first post-Alpha Band solo album, Truth Decay, a roots rock album described by the Rolling Stone Record Guide as "mystic Christian blues."
In 1982 his Trap Door EP yielded the FM radio hit "I Wish You Could Have Seen Her Dance". Burnett toured after the release of Trap Door, opening several dates for The Who and leading a band that featured Mick Ronson on guitar.
His 1983 album Proof Through the Night (whose song "When the Night Falls" got some FM airplay) and his 1987 album The Talking Animals were more in the vein of 1980s new wave music, while his self-titled 1986 album was an album of conventional country music. His 1992 album The Criminal Under My Own Hat tended toward adult album alternative music. All were critically acclaimed but not big sellers commercially.
[edit] Producer and film scorer
Burnett has become best known as a music producer. Burnett began producing albums for artists like Counting Crows' August and Everything After, Los Lobos' How Will the Wolf Survive?, Elvis Costello's King of America and Spike, the Wallflowers' Bringing Down the Horse, Marshall Crenshaw's Downtown, Spinal Tap's Break Like The Wind, the BoDeans' Love & Hope and Sex & Dreams, Gillian Welch's Revival and Hell Among The Yearlings, David Poe's self-titled debut, the Roy Orbison tribute A Black & White Night Live, two albums for Bruce Cockburn, and nearly everything released by his former wife, Sam Phillips (previously known as Leslie Phillips).
In 1985, Burnett collaborated with Elvis Costello on a single called The People's Limousine, under the moniker "The Coward Brothers."
In 1987, Burnett produced Roy Orbison's two-record album, In Dreams: The Greatest Hits. After that, he was the musical director and a guitarist for Orbison's HBO television special, Roy Orbison and Friends, A Black and White Night.
In 1992, he worked some songs with his friend River Phoenix for the movie The Thing Called Love. He was the coach of Samantha Mathis
In 1997, Burnett created new songs for the Sam Shepard play "Tooth Of Crime: Second Dance," which premiered in New York City the same year in an off-Broadway production that featured Vincent D'Onofrio and Kirk Acevedo.
In 2000, Burnett produced the soundtrack for the Coen Brothers film, O Brother, Where Art Thou?. The award-winning score featured music from Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Ralph Stanley, Gillian Welch, and others performing traditional American folk music, blues and bluegrass - reminiscent of Burnett's 1986 self-titled release. The album was a smash, garnering numerous industry awards from the Grammys, Academy of Country Music, and the Country Music Association. The album was as much a commercial success as a critical one and has sold over seven million copies according to the Recording Industry Association of America. A documentary film, Down from the Mountain, was made of a benefit concert of the soundtrack performed by the artists on the album; Burnett figures prominently in the film. His production on the soundtrack albums for these two films, plus his wife Sam Phillips' Fan Dance album, led to his winning the 2002 Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical. Burnett went on to produce the less popular gospel soundtrack to the Coen's The Ladykillers.
In 2004, under his name "Henry Burnett", he wrote I Wish My Baby Was Born, Like a Songbird That Has Fallen, and The Scarlet Tide for the movie Cold Mountain. The Scarlet Tide, co-written with Elvis Costello and performed by Alison Krauss, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song and won the BAFTA Anthony Asquith Award for Achievement in Film Music.
In 2005, he worked with actors Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon for their singing roles as Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash in the film Walk the Line. He also produced that film's soundtrack album and wrote its score.
In 2006, he was nominated for the Anthony Asquith Award for Achievement in Film Music by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts (BAFTA). In April, 2006, he announced that his first concert tour in nearly two decades would begin on May 16 in Chicago at The Vic Theater. Around the same time, jazz singer Cassandra Wilson released an album of blues songs, Thunderbird (2006), which was produced by Burnett. He also wrote one of the album's songs and co-wrote another with Ethan Coen. Burnett also produced music for the remake of the film All the King's Men.
In early 2007, T Bone earned nominations for two 2006 Grammy Awards, one as Producer Of The Year for his work on Cassandra Wilson's Thunderbird album, the soundtrack to Walk the Line and his own The True False Identity. Walk the Line was nominated for Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media. T Bone earned another nomination for his efforts as Executive Music Producer and Album Producer on that soundtrack.
[edit] Discography
- The B-52 Band & the Fabulous Skylarks (as J. Henry Burnett), 1972
- Alpha Band (Alpha Band), 1977
- Spark In The Dark (Alpha Band), 1977
- Statue Makers Of Hollywood (Alpha Band), 1978
- Truth Decay, 1980
- Trap Door (EP), 1982
- Proof Through the Night, 1983 - Photography by Frank Gargani
- Behind the Trap Door (EP), 1984
- T-Bone Burnett, 1986
- The Talking Animals, 1987
- The Criminal Under My Own Hat, 1992
- The True False Identity, 2006
- Twenty Twenty - The Essential T Bone Burnett, 2006
[edit] Compilations
- Where the Pyramid Meets the Eye - Tribute to Roky Erickson Song Title - Nothing In Return, 1990
