Allentown Morning Call - May 27, 2006

A Touch Of T Bone

By John J. Moser

Singer T-Bone Burnett has spent more than a decade producing hit records for Counting Crows, The Wallflowers, Elvis Costello and others. He's also done movie soundtracks, such as ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?'' and ''Cold Mountain,'' that won him multiple Grammy Awards and got him an Academy Award nomination.

Now, 14 years after recording his last album of new material and 20 years after last going on the road with a band, Burnett's prepared to see whether his success with others can translate into success for himself.

''I feel like I've been going through a master's course in show business or something the last 10 years,'' he says in a telephone call this month from Los Angeles, where he was starting rehearsals for a tour to support his album, ''The True False Identity,'' and a companion two-disc, 30-year career perspective, ''Twenty Twenty: The Essential T-Bone Burnett.'' It's not that Burnett's own music hasn't been successful. After getting his break as guitarist on Bob Dylan's mid-1970s Rolling Thunder Revue tours, Burnett formed the offshoot Alpha Band, then released critically acclaimed solo albums such as 1983's ''Proof Through The Night.''

But around the time he had success producing wife-to-be Sam Phillips' 1991 album ''The Indescribable Wow,'' Burnett put his own recording career on hold while he produced others' with amazing success multi-platinum sales for Counting Crows' ''August and Everything After,'' The Wallflowers' ''Bringing Down the Horse'' and Costello's ''King of America.''

That success was capped by the soundtrack to ''O Brother, Where Art Thou?,'' which sold seven million copies and won Burnett four Grammy Awards (including album of the year and producer of the year) in 2002.

The ''Cold Mountain'' soundtrack got the Oscar nod, and he also did the soundtrack for the Johnny Cash biopic ''Walk The Line,'' going so far as to tutor stars Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon on their musical performances.

But Burnett, now 58, says the measure of whether his new disc, a collection of bluesy and country roots-rock with piercing lyrics sung in Burnett's almost spoken-word style, is a success won't be whether it produces a hit.

''It's actually not important to me at this stage of the game,'' he says. ''It was important to [singers] Adam [Duritz] and Counting Crows and to Jakob and The Wallflowers because they had to get some toehold. And we actually tried to make both of those records very listenable to all ages, really.

''But for me, I just went ahead and let this be a pure exercise. I'd felt I'd earned the right, so to speak not that there is such a right that I had come to a point where I could just do what I wanted to do and let the chips fall where they may arrived at a place of freedom at this time in my life . I certainly wasn't thinking of getting anything on the radio or anything of that sort.''

And he says he thinks he succeeded. ''I feel that it's been something I've been working toward learning how to do for a long time and I'm actually happy with it,'' he says.

A long time, indeed. It has been 14 years since his ''Criminal Under My Own Hat.'' Burnett says the hiatus wasn't planned.

''For those 10 years I've been so busy working on films and plays and other things, there was a lot between me and the amount of time I needed to get them out there,'' he says. ''There has been sort of a constant stream of music arising for those 10 years,'' but he channeled it into other projects until, in the past couple of years, he began forming ideas to return to recording his own album.

One thing that didn't play into his decision to return to performing, he says, was the dissolution of his 15-year marriage to Phillips, who crossed over from Christian to mainstream pop when he began producing her records and provides backing vocals on ''The True False Identity.''

''Sam and I remain very close friends, [but] we found our family works much better when we live in separate houses,'' he says, laughing. ''I do want to say I hold Sam Phillips in absolutely the highest regard. I respect her deeply. ''

Once he had the songs, Burnett says, he assembled a band of friends '' I've been putting this band together for 37 years or so''

and played the songs essentially live in the studio, cutting the album in two weeks. He said he'll take the same band on the road, except he'll have one drummer rather than the three who play on the record.

He'll also share the bill on most dates with Jakob Dylan, who will play solo.

''I've known Jakob my whole life and he's not doing anything in particular right now writing and thinking about what he's going to do next, and it just came up as an idea,'' Burnett says.

Burnett was not only guitarist for Jakob's dad, Bob Dylan, but was a close confidante. In fact, Burnett, a Christian whose work often ruminates on ethics and spiritual concerns, has been credited with the father's 1980s conversion to Christianity.

''Bob and I stay in touch in some sort of very vague way,'' Burnett says. ''I haven't seen him for a while, but we're in good touch somehow. Bob and I have so many friends in common that even when we don't see each other, I kind of know where he is and can keep up with him without even trying.''

Burnett says he has no idea what type of audiences he'll see when he resumes touring.

'' I just hope there will be audiences,'' he says, laughing. ''It's like a kid throwing a party and not inviting anybody 'cause it's much safer. If you threw a party and didn't invite anybody, you don't have to be hurt when nobody shows up. This time, I'm putting myself out there and I'm inviting everybody and I hope some people show up.''