T Bone Burnett

[johnfoyle]

http://www.dfw.com/2010/09/13/333653/re ... rnett.html

Monday, Sep. 13, 2010

Review: In Dallas, T Bone Burnett opens up about life, music and movies

Preston Jones

DALLAS -- Whatever you do, don't call T Bone Burnett's body of work a "career."

The Fort Worth-raised producer, composer and musician prefers to think of his art as merely an extension of his life: "I just go along; there's no guide book," he said Sunday at the Winspear Opera House. In a wide-ranging chat that lasted nearly two hours, moderated by the Dallas Observer's Robert Wilonsky, Burnett touched on much of what has brought him acclaim over the last 40 years, including his stint in Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue, his work with the Coen brothers and his work on high-definition audio.

Burnett was drafted as a last-minute replacement for the Brinker International Forum's opener, after its initial event, "The Soundtrack of Our Lives," fell through. Fortunately, Burnett had plenty to discuss, so the night was a lively, if occasionally digressive, sojourn through one of Texas's and America's most vital artists. "It gets more magical all the time," he said early on, of his life and work.

Before Burnett really got going, Wilonsky played a clip of 18-year-old Burnett, performing a John Lennon-aping track titled He's a Nobody, recorded at Dallas' Sound City in 1966. From there, Wilonsky touched upon Burnett's work with Dylan, which begat arguably all of Burnett's career to date, putting him in touch with many creative types he'd collaborate with again and again. Amid sly anecdotes about the musicians who would spend all-nighters at Sound City, hopped up on speed, to his affinity for long-time friends like Sam Shepard and Jeff Bridges, Burnett proved an engaging interviewee.

That said, part of Burnett's charm is his tendency to wander away from the point -- he often becomes side-tracked by his own stories, and occasionally, Wilonsky appeared politely frustrated as he tried to rein Burnett back in, onto the topic at hand. If the slight audience noticed, there was no reaction. The talk was punctuated with clips from a handful of films for which Burnett assembled soundtracks: The Big Lebowski, O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Crazy Heart, as well as films that influenced Burnett, like Gilda ("Rita Hayworth doesn't move her hand [when playing guitar]; I've been trying to fix that ever since.") or the Elvis Presley vehicle Loving You.

Burnett became impassioned when speaking about the damage technology has done to music, both creatively and financially. His current project, of the seemingly endless array of jobs he has lined up, involves promoting a proprietary format known as CODE. Although he owns an iPhone and an iPad, Burnett was emphatic about that most prevalent of modern aural formats: "I don't listen to MP3s."

Stressing that his main focus was "bringing music to people that they might not have heard," Burnett has a full slate well into next year, including his revealations that the complete soundtrack to The Big Lebowski is in the offing, as is a 10th anniversary edition of the O Brother soundtrack. From the early days making discoveries in Record Town to reinvigorating the careers of folks like Jakob Dylan or Leon Russell, Burnett understands he's had a pretty great run to date. "I've gone so far beyond any dream," he said near the evening's conclusion.

[bambooneedle]

He's good and all, but he's a bit smug.

[Jeremy Dylan]

Tapes have begun rolling on the Jeff Bridges record that T-Bone is producing. Dennis Crouch is in the band.

Anyone else picked up THE UNION yet? It's growing on my quite speedily. Guess he'll have make some room for some more Grammys next year.