T Bone Burnett

Latest Articles

Jeff Bridges | Jeff Bridges

Blue Note (2011)
Jeff Bridges hit on a successful formula with the rich country sound of the Crazy Heart soundtrack, and he doesn't vary it much on his self-titled major-label debut.
By NICK A. ZAINO III | August 16, 2011

Review: Elvis Costello | National Ransom

Hear Music (2010)
Back in the late '70s and early '80s, Elvis Costello would plot his cosmic knowledge of music history into his own songs, as if they were booty for like-minded music geeks.
By ZETH LUNDY | October 26, 2010

Buzz not loud enough for Burnett's spectacular 'Speaking Clock Revue'

Supposed they gave a splashy benefit show and almost nobody knew about it?
Supposed they gave a splashy benefit show and almost nobody knew about it? This appeared to be the case when artist/producer T Bone Burnett brought his "Speaking Clock Revue" to the Wang Theatre over the weekend.
By BY BRETT MILANO | October 18, 2010

Rick Berlin | Paper Airplane

Hi-N-Dry
Hi-N-Dry
By JON GARELICK | October 12, 2010

Jakob Dylan | Women + Country

Columbia (2010)
“Boring” is the sort of adjective used by music snobs (hi there!) to describe the Wallflowers, the band who brought Jakob Dylan’s hoarse and unexcitable voice into the mainstream.
By ZETH LUNDY | April 21, 2010

Review: Crazy Heart

Country discomfort: Jeff Bridges can't be beat
Every great actor has at least one washed-up, alcoholic, award-winning-country-singer role in him. For Jeff Bridges, it's "Bad" Blake, a former C&W legend now reduced to playing bowling alleys and dive bars in tiny towns in the Southwest.
By PETER KEOUGH | January 26, 2010

Delayed gratification

At long last, Autolux returns
"It's the most bizarre, perverse thing," admits guitarist Greg Edwards over the phone from LA. "I don't understand why people haven't abandoned us completely."
By MATT PARISH | September 02, 2009

Elvis Costello | Secret, Profane and Sugarcane

Hear Music (2009)
There are few genres into which Elvis Costello hasn't delved over the years, but he's always seemed particularly comfortable within the traditional back-porch country that occupies this latest session.
By JEFF TAMARKIN | June 08, 2009

Heartless Bastards | The Mountain

Fat Possum (2009)
"I made a lot of choices, most have not been wise," sings Erika Wennerstrom on the third album by her Ohio-based garage-rock trio.
By MIKAEL WOOD | February 09, 2009

Year in Jazz: Playing for keeps

By JON GARELICK | December 22, 2008

B.B. King

One Kind Favor | Geffen
This is his best since his 2000 collaboration with Eric Clapton, Riding with the King .
By TED DROZDOWSKI | September 10, 2008

John Mellencamp | Life Death Love and Freedom

Hear Music
The arrangements are sparse compared with those of Mellencamp’s pop hits — many don’t even allow drums — but they’re rich with textural detail.
By MIKAEL WOOD | July 15, 2008

Cassandra Wilson | Loverly

Blue Note
Blue Note
By JON GARELICK | June 09, 2008

T Bone Burnett

Tooth of Crime (Second Dance) | Nonesuch
The follow-up to Burnett’s 2006 masterpiece The True False Identity (Sony) is a dark, cynical, vaguely futuristic song cycle triggered by a Sam Shepard play.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | May 27, 2008

Marc Ribot

Asmodeus: Book of Angels Volume 7 — Marc Ribot Plays Masada Book Two | Tzadik
If you know Ribot only through his brilliant sidemanning with Burnett and Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, you don’t really know Ribot.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | November 27, 2007

Straight Man Versus Jokerman

Elvis Costello and Bob Dylan, DCU Center, October 2, 2007
Those expecting a night of Sinatra-style duets when Bob Dylan and Elvis Costello shared the bill at the DCU in Worcester were sorely disappointed.
By STEVEN LEE BEEBER | October 08, 2007

Joe Henry

Civilians | Anti-
Joe Henry is an unlikely candidate for a protest CD, even one this subtle.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | September 12, 2007

Live To Tell

A year in blues
Two-thousand-six was a black year for blues.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | December 20, 2006

The 20 greatest concerts in Boston history: 16

Sense in the sound

When it comes to singing (jazz and otherwise), it's about more than words
In Stephen Sondheim’s old formulation, opera is about music and musical theater is about words.
By JON GARELICK | September 20, 2006

Art and politics

T Bone Burnett stakes his claim
The canny Texas-born songwriter T Bone Burnett hasn’t stepped into the footlights for — at least metaphorically — 14 years now.
By TED DROZDOWSKI | May 31, 2006

On the racks: May 16, 2006

T Bone and the Raconteurs show their roots
Plus new records by Radio 4, Rock Kills Kid, and Ben Folds.
By MATT ASHARE | May 16, 2006

Cassandra Wilson

THUNDERBIRD | Blue Note
Cassandra Wilson seemed to have settled into a steady state of artful, loose-tempo, dreamy jazz pop. Which is why it’s so refreshing to hear her singing over actual grooves on Thunderbird .
By JON GARELICK | April 24, 2006