T Bone Burnett wants you to know who he is. He wants you to know that he isn't just an esteemed producer and collaborator for artists like Bob Dylan, Elvis Costello, Roy Orbison, Ry Cooder, and Ralph Stanley; and he certainly isn't the beard-stroking archivist type a lot of us probably began to envision him as in the fourteen years since his last record, during which he became better known than ever for his production and soundtrack work (think O Brother, Where Art Thou? and Cold Mountain) than for his own music. Perhaps that's why the simultaneous release of these two discs, a retrospective and a brand new album, has been given such hefty meaning by Burnett himself, who in his liner notes to the retrospective referred to the T Bone of 1972 to 1992 as "a dead man," while the T Bone of 2006 and presumably beyond sets out to begin a new life "after forty years of wandering in the desert." Perhaps this is just his way of clearing the air, getting out a blank slate, and at last, allowing the real T Bone Burnett to stand up.
Then again, perhaps not. Because the trouble with Burnett — and the trait which makes him so consistently fascinating — is his complexity; his seemingly absolute unwillingness to be second-guessed. One can see all the ingredients in this latest pronouncement, from the Old Testament symbolism of the number forty to the New Testament "born again" trope, of the enigma that is T Bone Burnett's public persona: archaic, prophetic, willfully obscure, like a traveler from the distant past and the distant future all at once. His categorical summation of the first twenty years of his career, and his simultaneous teasing at the concept of identity, dares us to dig into these records and find out who he really is. But does this rabbit hole lead anywhere, or is it just another riddle within a riddle?
Let's start with the basics: T Bone Burnett is a staggeringly versatile artist. For proof of that fact, one need look no further than the first disc of Twenty Twenty. Sure, there's plenty of the austere Americana one might expect from the guy behind Down from the Mountain; but there's also everything from seething, tuneful quasi-New Wave ("Monkey Dance") to stomping blues-rock ("Tear This Building Down") to white reggae (the Alpha Band's "Born in Captivity"), from the dark-hearted jangle pop of "Fatally Beautiful" to a whole load of atmospheric, ominous avant-roots music, calling to mind the Bob Dylan of Infidels and Time Out of Mind.
Article comments
1 - El Bicho
Very well-written. Usually when I disagree on a point or two, I tune out, but this kept my interest.
True False is so good that I wonder if I should skip The Essential and just get his other albums instead, so I don't miss anything.
"Best-ofs are for housewives and little girls"
- Bruce McCullough
2 - Joan Hunt
Perfectly done, Zach. Bravo!
3 - Andrew
The song "Palestine Texas" should not have a comma.
4 - Zach
Thanks for the compliments (and corrections - I can't make the change here but I did it on my own site). Another reason why critics don't seem to pay much attention to T Bone Burnett, which I neglected to mention in the review, is that he's an absolute bitch to write about. So I'm glad you guys think I did okay.
And yeah, El Bicho, I thought pretty much the same thing; there aren't even that many T Bone records out there, and the overall quality seems so high, so I'll probably be picking up the individual albums myself.
5 - Robin Riebe
Twenty-twenty has me outraged. Being a big T bone fan, when I heard it was coming out I got very excited. Mainly because I was looking forward to hearing many of the songs from Truth Decay (my favorite T Bone album) on CD for the first time. Then when I saw the song list I was stunned. So many throw aways (Disney and Hefner to mention one) instead of Talk Talk Talk Talk Talk. T Bone, I love ya, but ya let me down.
PS - Review, and thanks.
6 - El Bicho
Correction:
"greatest hits albums are for housewives and little girls"
- Bruce McCullough
7 - rocket kirchner
Zach , T-Bone Burnett is the Riddler . it takes real diligence and work to unravel his stuff. at the bottom of all his stuff is Christ . He makes us work . which is great ! T-bone deliberly left off the vital clues of what really counts in the body of his work in his 20 20 --the essential . like the movie Alphaville , where no means yes and yes means no , T-bone has witheld the essential songs like ''Interviews'' Madison avenue '' , The Sixties '' ''Strange case of Frank Cash and the morning paper''. aS well as songs that are pregnant with Egyptian imagery , and the songs that finally can bring us to a place were the body of the work of the Riddler is decoded.
i have spent over 30 years with a freind of mine working on this , and have met T-bone backstage playing the same clubs that we have played in NYC and K.C. i have talked to him on his influences , primarly writers. He turned me on to the work of G.K.Chesterton . Chesterton Father Brown mysterys is where Burnett gotthe terms ''the wild truth '' , and ''the criminal under my own hat''. theological murder mysterys . all for now .