by Lloyd Sachs
During his long association with Burnett, Ribot has influenced his colleague’s guitar playing with his skewed approach. But he is never looking to stand out. “I don’t want to impose some agenda on a song,” Ribot said in a Downbeat interview. “I respect the ability to read the song, to figure out the song’s intentions.”
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
First and foremost, thanks to T Bone Burnett, whose remaining on the sideline, as disappointing as it was, in no way diminished the quality of his company these many months. I can’t imagine spending time with a more fascinating subject, or one who is more inspiring in his refusal to settle for less. (That includes helping me to obtain better photos for this book.)
Neither did Burnett’s nonparticipation preempt his generosity in allowing me to reach out (as they say these days) to those close to him. Sam Phillips removed a weight from my shoulders with her early blessing of the book (the McCarthy salad was really good, too) and made herself available for all follow-up queries. I am also indebted to the impressive and well-spoken Simone Burnett for sharing her thoughts so openly.
Joe Henry, a prince of insight and instant articulation, was steady with his support, friendship, and enthusiasm. I can honestly say that all the people in Burnett’s circle with whom I talked were exceptionally friendly and helpful. Special thanks go to David Mansfield, Rosanne Cash, Bob Neuwirth, Jay Bellerose, Darrell Leonard, and David Graves.
Though I didn’t know it at the time, A Life in Pursuit began as a cover profile I wrote for No Depression. While putting that piece together, I spent a fair amount of time cussing and moaning about the ridiculous deadline and nonexistent budget, both of which ruled out any chance of me talking with my subject in person. But those feelings were overcome by my gratitude to the magazine and its editors, Peter Blackstock and Grant Alden, for the opportunity to look into the phenomenon that was and remains Joseph Henry Burnett.
I am also beholden to David Menconi, editor of the University of Texas Press American Music Series, for helping make it possible for me to return to the Burnettian landscape to conduct a wider and deeper investigation, and to my UTP editor, Casey Kittrell, for all his support. To manuscript reviewer Dan Durchholz, thanks for saving me from citing Friday Night Fever, among other fluffs.
A heartfelt grazie to my spiritual advisers for the project, Ann Chaney and Chris Stacey; my Steppenwolf friends Martha Lavey and Terry Kinney; my gracious studio connection Juanita Copeland; my pressed-into-service archivist Bill Cochran, who did some serious digging through old cassettes (whatever they are); and the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Becky Miley, who helped me explore their archive.
Paul Natkin, a Windy City institution, was his usual giving self in providing photos he took of Burnett. Jean Sievers came through in the clutch in helping me to score a great shot taken by her client Jeff Bridges. And I am not sure what I would have done in terms of acquiring images without the generosity of Don Duca, Sherry Rayn Barnett, Frank Ockenfels, Joseph Guay, Nancy Lamb, Rick Benedict, Tate Wittenberg, Randall Michelson, Mark Nobles, Bob Shaw and Tom Cording.
Next to last, but in no way next to least, a round of appreciation for my agent, Lynn Johnston, and for the dear friends, noted authors all, who lifted this project through their readings of the manuscript and/or the inspiration they have provided. I bow to my cornerman par excellence, Don McLeese, who never loses faith; Mike Lenehan, the best writer-editor I know; John Milward, who set an early standard in Chicago for rock criticism; and my former WNUR “Lightning Round” partners, the jazz eminences Kevin Whitehead and John Corbett.
Finally, where would I be without my soul and my heart’s inspiration—Marianne, Willa, and Genevieve.
SELECTED DISCOGRAPHY
PRIME T BONE
The Alpha Band, The Arista Albums (Arista, 2005)
A collection of the three albums recorded in the late 1970s by the collective trio, in all their eccentric, prophesizing glory. The most easily dismissed of them, The Statue Makers of Hollywood, is one of Burnett’s real ear-openers.
Truth Decay (Takoma, 1980)
Widely regarded as Burnett’s solo debut, this album of garage-style rockabilly and spiritual expression established him as a songwriter who mattered. One time through “Driving Wheel,” “Boomerang,” and “Shake Yourself Loose” and you are hooked.
T Bone Burnett (Dot, 1986)
A favorite among many fans, this career outlier is a beautiful, heartfelt exercise in spiritual self-reflection, lifted by its exquisite acoustic playing. “River of Love” started here.
The Criminal under My Own Hat (Columbia, 1992)
Half acoustic, half electric, half angry, half hopeful, the album has the immediacy of automatic writing and atmospheric touches that provide comfort even as they unsettle.
The True False Identity (Columbia, 2006)
Burnett’s first album in fourteen years, his boldest ever, tells you where he has been with its tribal rhythms, thick swamp sound, and lancing lyrics.
Twenty Twenty: The Definitive T Bone Burnett (Columbia/DMZ/Legacy, 2006)
Not your ordinary overview, this two-disc collection includes all manner of remixed and redone songs—seven from his 1983 Warner album Proof through the Night. It is worth having all the alternate versions.
PRIME PRODUCTIONS
Los Lobos, How Will the Wolf Survive? (Slash/Warner Bros., 1984)
The great East LA band’s 1987 follow-up, By the Light of the Moon, also produced by Burnett (with Steve Berlin), may be deeper and more cohesive. But this was the baby that launched Los Lobos, and it has lost little of its rhythmic bite or anthemic power.
The Costello Show, King of America (Columbia, 1986)
Elvis in the land of plenty (aka Los Angeles), where he hit it off so well with the American stalwarts with whom Burnett teamed him that his own band, the Attractions, barely made it onto the record. An acoustic high-water mark in 1980s rock.
Sam Phillips, Martinis and Bikinis (Virgin, 1994) and Fan Dance (Nonesuch, 2001)
The first album is the culmination of the immaculate popcraft practiced by Burnett and his former wife. Fan Dance is a work of minimalist magic, streaked with lyrical shadows and lifted by acute poetic insight.
Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, Raising Sand (Rounder, 2007)
Who would ever have guessed that the Led Zeppelin wailer and the bluegrass thrush (as Variety liked to call female singers) had the makings of a great duo? Burnett, of course, but it took his genius in the studio to achieve such transcendence.
John Mellencamp, Life, Death, Love and Freedom (Hear Music, 2008)
Stark meditations on mortality, treated to the earthiest, most doom-tuned sound Burnett has come up with as producer. “If I Die Sudden,” one of the highlights, trips toward infinity with some Burnett’s most freakishly resonating guitar playing.
Elton John, The Diving Board (Capitol, 2013)
A throwback album in the best sense, this beautifully framed masterpiece captures John in the classic piano man mode with which he first thrilled the masses. He has never sung or played more deeply or more affectingly.
SCREEN GEMS
THE Big Lebowski: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (Mercury, 1998)
Burnett’s first soundtrack for the Coen Brothers uses the Dude’s trippy visions as an excuse to program artists as oddly far-ranging as the legendary street musician Moondog, the Hollywood composer Henry Mancini, and the sultry folk-jazz singer Nina Simone.
O Brother, Where Art Thou? Music from the Motion Picture (Lost Highway/Mercury, 2000; deluxe edition, 2011)
Americana starts here—at least it does if that is what you want to call the music of Ralph Stanley, Dan Tyminski, Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, the Fairfield Four, and the many other artists introduced to millions of listeners by this endlessly enriching soundtrack. To never hear Stanley’s “O Death” is not to live.
COLD Mountain: Music from the Miramax Motion Picture (Sony, 2003)
The mega-budgeted film was a commerc
ial disappointment, and the soundtrack did not get nearly the attention of O Brother’s. But with its mix of deep tradition and pop professionalism (Burnett and Costello wrote “The Scarlet Tide” in the ballroom of the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles—“an ideal place to write a lament about the American Civil War,” writes Costello in his memoir), this album offers its own unique lesson in musicology.
CRAZY Heart: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack (New West, 2010; deluxe edition, 2013)
Ryan Bingham’s “The Weary Kind” got much of the attention, and an Oscar. But the story of faded country star Bad Blake (played by Jeff Bridges, who does his own singing) draws deeper meaning from the parcel of songs Burnett co-wrote with his lifelong friend Stephen Bruton. The soundtrack led to Jeff Bridges, a Burnett production released in 2011 on the storied Blue Note label.
TRUE Detective: Music from the HBO Series (Harvest, 2015)
This collection of vocal performances, most of them recorded for the hit crime series, doesn’t represent Burnett’s superb archival work or his eerie electronic score. But listening to the album assures that you will return to the show to appreciate the full scope of his achievement.
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Appleford, Steve. “Exile’s Return: T Bone Burnett’s Feverish Mixed Emotions Permeate a New Album Tinged with Idealism and Outrage.” Los Angeles Times, October 18, 1992.
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Belth, Alex. The Dudes Abide: The Coen Brothers and the Making of The Big Lebowski. “Kindle Single,” Amazon Digital Services, 2014.
Berkery, Patrick. “T Bone Burnett: A Producer with Teeth.” Modern Drummer, October 2008.
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Bruton, Stephen. Interview in Tone Quest Report, November 2002.
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. In conversation with Greg Kot, Future of Music Coalition Policy Summit, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C., October 4, 2010. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1s8zpB3ABh4.
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. Interview with David Dye. World Cafe. National Public Radio, October 31, 2011. http://www.npr.org/2012/05/21/141863684/t-bone-burnett-on-world-cafe.
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. Review of Truth Decay. Robert Christgau, Dean of American Rock Critics, n.d. http://www.robertchristgau.com/get_artist.php?name=T-Bone+Burnett.
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. Rumours of Glory. New York: HarperOne, 2014.
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De Barros, Paul. “Jazz Singer, Pianist Diana Krall Fulfills Decades-Old Prophecy.” Seattle Times, April 11, 2014.
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. Review of Walk the Line. Chicago Sun-Times, November 17, 2005.
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Ferman, Dave. Review of T Bone Burnett at Caravan of Dreams, Fort Worth. Dallas Morning News, December 6, 1986.
Flanagan, Bill. “Counting Crows Learn to Fly.” Musician, May 1994.
. “First Let’s Kill All the Drummers.” Musician, September 1987.
. U2: At the End of the World. New York: Delacorte Press, 1995.
Fricke, David. Review of Low Country Blues. Rolling Stone, January 18, 2011.
Friskics-Warren, Bill. “Orphan Girl of the Hollywood Hills Finds a High Lonesome Musical Home in the Heart of the Appalachians.” No Depression, July 1996.
Gallo, Phil. “Inside Move: T Bone Burnett Returns.” Variety, July 28, 2002.
Gleiberman, Owen. Review of Cold Mountain. Entertainment Weekly, December 22, 2003.
Gold, Adam. “T Bone Burnett on ‘Nashville,’ Elton John’s Comeback and Retiring as a Producer.” Rolling Stone, December 18, 2012.
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Granger, Thom, ed. The 100 Greatest Albums in Christian Music. Eugene, OR: Harvard House, 2001.
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Gritten, David. “T Bone Burnett Interview: I Work with the Coen Brothers Any Chance I Get.” The Telegraph, December 14, 2013.
Guarino, Mark. �
��Famed Producer T Bone Burnett Reclaims His Songwriting Roots.” Chicago Daily Herald, May 19, 2006.
Guinn, Jeff. Review of T Bone Burnett at Caravan of Dreams, Fort Worth. Fort Worth Star-Telegram, December 6, 1986.
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Hampton, Howard. “The Edge of the Country.” Village Voice, December 16, 1986.
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