This first critical appreciation of T Bone Burnett reveals how the proponent of Americana music and producer of artists ranging from Robert Plant and Alison Krauss to B. B. King and Elvis Costello has profoundly influenced American music and culture.

T Bone Burnett is a unique, astonishingly prolific music producer, singer-songwriter, guitarist, and soundtrack visionary. Renowned as a studio maven with a Midas touch, Burnett is known for lifting artists to their greatest heights, as he did with Raising Sand, the multiple Grammy Award-winning album by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss, as well as acclaimed albums by Los Lobos, the Wallflowers, B. B. King, and Elvis Costello. Burnett virtually invented "Americana" with his hugely successful roots-based soundtrack for the Coen Brothers film, O Brother, Where Art Thou? Outspoken in his contempt for the entertainment industry, Burnett has nevertheless received many of its highest honors, including Grammy Awards and an Academy Award.

T Bone Burnett offers the first critical appreciation of Burnett's wide-ranging contributions to American music, his passionate advocacy for analog sound, and the striking contradictions that define his maverick artistry. Lloyd Sachs highlights all the important aspects of Burnett's musical pursuits, from his early days as a member of Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Revue and his collaboration with the playwright Sam Shepard to the music he recently composed for the TV shows Nashville and True Detective and his production of the all-star album Lost on the River: The New Basement Tapes. Sachs also underscores Burnett's brilliance as a singer-songwriter in his own right. Going well beyond the labels "legendary" or "visionary" that usually accompany his name, T Bone Burnett reveals how this consummate music maker has exerted a powerful influence on American music and culture across four decades.

About the Author
A nationally known voice on popular culture, Sachs has written about pop music and jazz for many publications, including Rolling Stone, the Washington Post, DownBeat, the Village Voice, USA Today, and JazzTimes. He was a longtime music columnist and award-winning editorial writer at the Chicago Sun-Times and a senior editor at No Depression, the prized "alt-country" magazine.

Reviews
Sachs' fine book is a welcome addition to the living history of American music and a delightful read.

* Booklist *
A Life in Pursuit is the first bio of the now 68-year-old American and, smartly, author Sachs understands going in that Burnett's story is that of the music he's touched. . . . Rarely has a music biography been this jam-packed with names of artists and the records they've made-Burnett's footprint is enormous and the minutiae of that maze-like career is recounted expansively here. . . . Sachs has created what will likely remain a definitive account. * MOJO *
Sachs artfully weaves together news clips and original interviews to create a valuable context for the musician-producer's work. * Texas Monthly *
In telling this story, Sachs has done roots music a great turn, in fine style. * Songlines Magazine *



Book Information
ISBN 9781477326374
Author Lloyd Sachs
Format Paperback
Page Count 278
Imprint University of Texas Press
Publisher University of Texas Press
Weight(grams) 454g
Dimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 23mm