This Week In New York - May 24, 2006

Uber-producer T Bone Burnett, of O BROTHER WHERE ART THOU? fame, as well as a major part of Bob Dylan’s mid-’70s Rolling Thunder Revue, returns with his first album in fourteen years, the dark, foreboding, mesmerizing THE TRUE FALSE IDENTITY. On the new disc, the man behind such triumphant albums as TRUTH DECAY and PROOF THROUGH THE NIGHT takes listeners on a bleak journey from "Zombieland," where "Machines gonna stomp that devil beat," to "Palestine Texas," where, "when you come out of this self delusion, you’re going to need a soul transfusion," from "Hollywood Mecca of the Movies," where "honesty is the most subversive of disguises," to "Fear Country," where "Nobody knows what’s going to happen / Nobody knows what’s going on / Nobody knows what’s coming down / But it’s coming down," to "Earlier Baghdad (The Bounce)," where "Every word we say is crucial / A lie to avoid a lie."

Paying tribute to his mentor, Burnett’s compelling tale in the awesome "There Would Be Hell to Pay" is reminiscent of Dylan’s "Lily, Rosemary & the Jack of Hearts." In "I’m Going on a Long Journey Never to Return," he begins, "Oh this death / Moment by moment / Darker and darker / Down and down / I feel your cold breath," the morbidness offset by jangly stanzas. Burnett, a born-again Christian, doesn’t wear his religion on his sleeve, but neither does he shy away from the heated subject; in "Blinded by the Darkness," he proclaims, "Do we want to inject the concept of sin / Into the Constitution / Is this really necessary / Shouldn’t sin be left to the laws of God?" And "Every Time I Feel the Shift," which features a blazing guitar solo, includes Burnett and a background chorus repeating, "We’re marching up to Zion / that beautiful city of God."

THE TRUE FALSE IDENTITY is no mere comeback album for a famous folkie; it is a powerful, modern epic for the twenty-first century. Burnett will be appearing June 1 at the Town Hall, with special guest Jakob Dylan. Seats are still available, so act fast.