T Bone Burnett

Joseph Henry "T Bone" Burnett III (born January 14, 1948) is an American record producer, guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band during the 1970s. Burnett has won several Grammy Awards for his work on film soundtracks, including O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Cold Mountain (2004), Walk the Line (2005), and Crazy Heart (2010).

As a producer, Burnett worked on formative or breakthrough albums by artists including Los Lobos, Counting Crows, Sam Phillips, and Gillian Welch, and later produced albums by Gregg Allman, Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, John Mellencamp, Elton John, Sara Bareilles, and Ringo Starr. He produced music for television programs including Nashville and True Detective. He has released several solo studio albums as a producer, including Tooth of Crime (2008), which he wrote for a revival of the namesake play by Sam Shepard.

Early life The only child of Joseph Henry Burnett Jr. and Hazel Perkins Burnett, Burnett was born in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1948, and raised in Fort Worth, Texas. His grandfather worked as secretary for the Southern Baptist Convention. His father wanted to be a pro athlete and was courted by the Brooklyn Dodgers, but instead, he got a job in Fort Worth with the Tandy Corporation. Burnett was brought up in the Episcopal Church of his mother.

Burnett learned golf at an early age. When he was seven years old, he played at the Texas Christian University course. He idolized golf pro Ben Hogan, who was from Fort Worth. Burnett and the other boys occasionally watched him practice at the driving range. Burnett was on the golf team at Paschal High School. In 2014 he participated in the professional tournament at Pebble Beach.

Burnett's musical roots Burnett discovered music through his parents' 78 RPM phonograph records of Louis Armstrong, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Mahalia Jackson, Dinah Washington, and the songs of Cole Porter. He was drawn to music that took him to unconventional places, and he felt no compulsion to stick to one genre. He heard Peggy Lee, Hank Williams, and the Beatles on the radio, was influenced by Buddy Holly, and revered Johnny Cash. He was smitten by the music of Howlin' Wolf, Skip James, the Stanley Brothers, and Jimmy Reed. He continued producing the work of other artists, notably Delbert McClinton. In 1975 and 1976, he toured with Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue. In 2006, he released two albums. The True False Identity was his first album of new songs since 1992, and Twenty Twenty – The Essential T Bone Burnett was a 40-song career retrospective.

In 2019, he released The Invisible Light: Acoustic Space with Jay Bellerose and Keefus Ciancia, which was followed in 2022 by The Invisible Light: Spells again with Bellerose and Ciancia, and in 2024 by The Other Side, featuring Lucius, Steven Soles, and Rosanne Cash.

Production and other professional activities

Producing Burnett's production credits include How Will the Wolf Survive? (Slash/Warner Bros., 1984) by Los Lobos, King of America (Columbia, 1986) by Elvis Costello,

In April 2006, he announced that his first concert tour in nearly two decades would begin on May 16 in Chicago at The Vic Theatre. Around the same time, jazz singer Cassandra Wilson released an album of blues songs, Thunderbird (2006), which was produced by Burnett. He wrote one of the album's songs and co-wrote another with Ethan Coen. He produced music for the remake of the film All the King's Men.

In 2006, he produced Brandi Carlile's The Story album, the title song of which became a minor hit and was featured on a special broadcast of ABC-TV's Grey's Anatomy. Carlile's guitarist and bassist, twins Tim and Phil Hanseroth, respectively, used instruments from Burnett's private collection during the "live" recordings in Vancouver, British Columbia.

In early 2008, Pete Townshend announced that Burnett was to go into the studio that fall to help produce an all-covers album for The Who. However, on a May 15, 2008, episode of the NPR radio show All Songs Considered, Burnett threw that project into question. He stated that Townshend had indicated in a blog that he was putting all his projects on hold.

In 2009, Burnett produced albums for Moonalice and Grace Potter and the Nocturnals. In that same year, he also produced Elvis Costello's album Secret, Profane & Sugarcane as well as co-writing the song "Sulfur to Sugarcane" with Costello.

Burnett produced a collaboration album by Elton John and Leon Russell. John, Russell, and Bernie Taupin (John's lyricist) wrote songs together in late 2009. The album, The Union, was recorded in January 2010 and released in October 2010.

In 2010, Burnett produced Gregg Allman's album Low Country Blues, released in January 2011.

From 2010 to 2012 Burnett produced Lisa Marie Presley's album Storm & Grace, released May 15, 2012.

In 2014, Burnett produced Punch Brothers' fourth studio album, The Phosphorescent Blues, which was released in January 2015.

In 2016, he produced the Italian bluesman Zucchero Fornaciari's album Black Cat.

In 2016, T Bone produced Jupiter Calling by the Corrs; a record that received mixed reviews, but encapsulated the core of their sound and songwriting ability.

In July 2018, he produced Sara Bareilles' Amidst the Chaos in Los Angeles. "Masters of War," "Simple Twist of Fate," and "Gotta Serve Somebody" were to be sold by Christie's through private sale in late 2023.

Burnett also produced and co-wrote Ringo Starr's January 2025 country music album Look Up.

Code In 2008, it was reported that Burnett "started a new venture called Code, which aims to do for music what THX did for movie-theater sound: set standards that ensure the best possible quality." He is opposed to the trend of brighter and more compressed processing to such an extent that he largely retired from the music business around 1995–1996 and pursued an opportunity to work in theater with Sam Shepard, which led to his work on several films.

The audio format known as Code involves the simultaneous release of multiple sound formats, thus avoiding much of the processing which happens when sound is converted from one format to another. The first album produced with Code was Life, Death, Love and Freedom (2008) by John Mellencamp. and the Country Music Association. The album was a commercial success and sold almost eight million copies, according to Billboard.

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. For producing the soundtrack albums for these two films, and for his wife Sam Phillips's album Fan Dance, Burnett won the 2002 Grammy Award for Producer of the Year, Non-Classical. Burnett went on to produce the less popular gospel soundtrack to the Coens' The Ladykillers.

In 2004, under the name "Henry Burnett", he arranged "I Wish My Baby Was Born" and wrote "Like a Songbird That Has Fallen" and "The Scarlet Tide" for the movie Cold Mountain. "Scarlet Tide", co-written with Elvis Costello and performed by Alison Krauss, was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Song and won BAFTA's Anthony Asquith Award for Achievement in Film Music.

In 2005, he composed the score for Wim Wenders' film Don't Come Knocking.

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. Witherspoon won the Academy Award for Best Actress for her role in the film, giving special thanks to Burnett in her speech for "helping her realize her lifelong dream of being a country music singer". He also produced that film's soundtrack album and wrote its score.

In 2009, Burnett collaborated on music for the movie Crazy Heart, winning a Golden Globe, an Academy Award, and a Grammy Award for the song "The Weary Kind", which he composed with Ryan Bingham. Burnett was also a producer of the film, along with Jeff Bridges and Robert Duvall.

In 2012, he was the executive music producer for The Hunger Games soundtrack, and wrote the track "Safe and Sound" himself. In 2013, he was the executive music producer for the Coen brothers' film Inside Llewyn Davis.

Personal life Burnett and female singer-songwriter Sam Phillips were married in 1989 and divorced in 2004. The proposed redevelopment of the site included music and art space, a community center, open park space and affordable housing. The Cloud Hill proposal was abandoned in January 2018 after archaeologists determined that undisturbed areas on the edge of the Greer property, but not part of the stadium itself, were the unmarked burial sites of slaves forced to build the adjacent Fort Negley.

Awards and honors

Grammy Awards Producer of the Year, Non-Classical (2001, 2004) Record of the Year: "Please Read the Letter" (2008) Album of the Year: O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2001), Raising Sand (2008) Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media: O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2001), Cold Mountain (2004), Walk the Line (2006), Crazy Heart (2010) Best Contemporary Folk/Americana Album: Raising Sand (2008) Best Traditional Folk Album: Down from the Mountain (2001) Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album: A Wonderful World (2004) Best Traditional Blues Album: One Kind Favor (2008) Best Song Written for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media: "The Scarlet Tide" (2004), "The Weary Kind" (2010) Best Song Written for Visual Media: "Safe & Sound" (2012) The song won them a Critics' Choice Award and won Burnett a Satellite Award from the International Press Academy. For the score, Burnett and Stephen Bruton won an award from Los Angeles Film Critics Association and Burnett won the Frederick Loewe award. He shared the award for Best First Feature at the Independent Spirit Awards with the producers (Robert Duvall, Rob Carliner and Judy Cairo) and director Scott Cooper. He was awarded an honorary doctorate in performing arts from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in May 2019.

Solo discography Album Release date The B-52 Band & the Fabulous Skylarks 1972 Truth Decay 1980 Trap Door 1982 Proof Through the Night 1983 Behind the Trap Door 1984 T-Bone Burnett 1986 The Talking Animals 1987 The Criminal Under My Own Hat 1992 The True False Identity 2006 Tooth of Crime 2008 T-Bone Burnett Presents The Speaking Clock Revue: Live from the Beacon Theatre 2011 A Place at the Table 2013 The Invisible Light: Acoustic Space with Jay Bellerose and Keefus Ciancia 2019 The Invisible Light: Spells with Jay Bellerose and Keefus Ciancia 2022 The Other Side 2024

Compilations Album Song Release dateWhere the Pyramid Meets the Eye: A Tribute to Roky Erickson Nothing in Return 1990Until the End of the World Humans from Earth 1991 Twenty Twenty – The Essential T Bone Burnett 2006

Alpha Band discography

Film and television discography Project Medium Credit Release dateMusic from The American Epic SessionsTelevisionProducer2017 True Detective Television Producer 2014 Another Day, Another Time: Celebrating the Music of Inside Llewyn Davis Television Producer 2013 Inside Llewyn Davis Film Executive Music Producer 2013 Nashville Television Executive Music Producer 2012–2013 The Hunger Games film score Film Executive Music Producer March 26, 2012 Tough Trade Television Executive producer, Music Producer, composer 2010 Crazy Heart Film Producer, songwriter, composer December 19, 2009 Across The Universe Film Music Producer December 10, 2007 All the King's Men Film Executive Music Producer September 22, 2006 Walk the Line Film Executive Music Producer, composer November 18, 2005 Don't Come Knocking Film Executive Music Producer, composer August 25, 2005 The Ladykillers Film Executive Music Producer March 26, 2004 Cold Mountain Film Executive Music Producer December 25, 2003 The Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood Film Composer July 6, 2002 O Brother, Where Art Thou? Film Music Producer, Original Music December 22, 2000 The Big Lebowski Film Musical Archivist June 3, 1998 Great Balls of Fire! Film Music producer, composer June 29, 1989 Roy Orbison and Friends: A Black and White Night TV special Musical Director March 1, 1988 Heaven's Gate Film Heaven's Gate Band (as T-Bone Burnett) November 18, 1980