Tag Archives: T Bone Burnett

music

CD Review: Jeff Bridges

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So I listened to the new Jeff Bridges album this afternoon while I did my chest workout at home today. Yes, the star of movies such as “Starman”, “TRON” and his most famous role as the Dude in “The Big Lebowski”, finally releases an album after all these years. What took him so long to find out that he had musical talent and to show it to the public? I have no idea, but I’m sure the film, “Crazy Heart” in which he plays a country musician gave him the idea to start a music career of his own.

I would have to say that I was pretty impressed with his debut album. It was actually very good for a country album. Surprisingly enough, Jeff Bridges new album sounds like old school classic country. Stuff that you would hear in the 60’s and 70’s. Most of the album is mostly mellow songs. There maybe like one or two upbeat songs, but they still have this classic sound. I was also impressed that this album has longer guitar solos and most country albums of today don’t have guitar solos.

Let me ask you a question. Do you like old time Kenny Rogers, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings or even Hank Williams Sr.? Then you would probably love this album. If you’re a country music fan and if you only like that mainstream country pop/rock like Toby Keith or Keith Urban, then you wouldn’t like this album.

Back to Jeff Bridges, it’s not just country music on it. There’s a little bit of everything on the album. Some of it can be rock and some can be a little jazzy. The songs can be a little dark and haunting at times. When Jeff sings, you can really hear the emotion and passion in his vocals. He can really sing good.

Over the years, there have been many actors turned singers like that list I did in this blog before, but I think Jeff is one that actually has real talent. If he wanted to, he could probably quit doing movies and concentrate on his music career. I have this feeling he’s going to do that soon. I’m sure his album will be a huge seller, I predict it will be no. 1 in the Billboard 200 for a few weeks. We’ll see it how the album sells. I’m sure it will do well. I’m sure this album will land him a bunch of nominations for the Country Music Awards as well.

This album is a true country record. The way country music is supposed to sound. Jeff and T. Bone Burnett probably heard all of this mainstream country pop/rock crap and thought to themselves, “This isn’t real country music, we gotta make a real country album”. And they did.

Even if you’re not a country fan, I suggest you listen to this album. You don’t even have to be a country fan just to listen to the Dude sing, because it’s fuckin’ awesome. He’ll probably concentrate on his movie career more than music, but who knows, maybe he will retire movies for music. I’d love to see him go on tour ’cause I would see The Dude in concert for sure.

Kev

movies, music

Report: Jeff Bridges set to release debut solo album with producer T-Bone Burnett…

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There have been a lot of actors turned musicians over the years. They all start off with their careers in their movies, but their success in the movies have helped them get record deals. There are plenty of “actors turned musicians” such as Billy Bob Thornton, Steven Seagal, Kevin Costner, Bruce Willis, Kevin Bacon, Dan Aykroyd, Jack Black, Jared Leto, Will Smith, Jamie Foxx, Steve Martin, Russell Crowe, etc. Jeff Bridges will join that bandwagon.

Actress Gwyneth Paltrow recently just turned into a singer for her film, “Country Strong”, but will she release a solo album too after all the recognition she’s getting for her music? Wouldn’t surprise me if she has an album coming too.

Jeff will release several of his own original songs he wrote himself and he will sing some cover songs on his album.

The Hollywood Reporter, reports.

How much do you want to bet that Jeff is going to land a bunch of Grammy awards for this album since T-Bone is producing. Wouldn’t surprise me either.

Kev

movies

“Crazy Heart” starring Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal

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Last night, I watched the movie, “Crazy Heart”, the drama starring Jeff Bridges and Maggie Gyllenhaal. Collin Farrell and Robert Duvall also have roles in this film. I bought the DVD for this movie over the weekend and I never saw the film before until now. Yes, the reason I wanted to watch is because Jeff Bridges won an Oscar for this role. It turned out to be a very good film. Beautiful I must say. Told a great story.

It’s about this famous country star, Bad Blake (Bridges role) who is trying to have a better and bigger career in music. Bad Blake keeps playing the small bars and bowling alleys when he should be getting bigger deals playing bigger places. He is strictly a country and western singer. Bad Blake is an alcoholic who has a bad attitude with people, he swears & cusses a lot, which is how he got the nickname, “Bad Blake”. Blake finally gets a good gig in Sante Fe by not playing in a bowling alley but playing in a big arena. While there he meets this woman named Jean (Maggie Gyllenhaal’s role), who is a journalist for a newspaper that wants to interview him about his music career. Of course, they ended up falling in love after Jean noticing Blake becoming friends with her 4 year old son, Buddy. Later on, Blake’s romance with Jean begins to fall apart and so does Blake’s life & music career.  That’s when Blake finally realizes he needs to go to AAA to get sober. Do Bad Blake and Jean get back together after getting sober? Watch the film yourself and find out.

I’m not into romance and love stories that much, but I didn’t find this a romance movie. It’s about a guy suffering alcoholism and trying to deal with it in life. It’s a film about alcoholics trying to become a better person. There are plenty of alcoholics out there in the real world, and I think this film was meant to help them too. Maybe that’s the point of this film being made is helping real alcoholics to get sober.

Jeff Bridges maybe well known for his role as the Dude in the “Big Lebowski”, I agree that’s a great role, but his role as Bad Blake is better in my opinion. Bad Blake is similar to the Dude but Jeff played Blake better. Jeff Bridges has always been an amazing actor. Some of my other favorite movies he’s been in are: “Starman”, “K-Pax”, “King Kong” and “Tron”. I find “Crazy Heart” to be his best film. Seriously,  check it out if you haven’t yet. You may not be a country music fan but you don’t have to be. Just watch it for the story and the acting.

Kev