T-Bone Burnett http://www.bmi.com/affiliate/rss/C891 This BMI RSS feed contains news articles, events, and musicworld articles for a specific affiliate or group. en affiliates@bmi.com Copyright 2008 2008-11-19T19:24:00-05:00 BMI Legends Kris Kristofferson, Waylon Jennings Inducted Into Hollywood RockWalk http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/334889 Artists, Black Crowes, The, Burnett, T-Bone, Guy, Buddy, Hancock, Herbie, Hayes, Isaac, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Hooker, John Lee, Jennings, Waylon, Kristofferson, Kris, Musical Styles, Country Kris Kristofferson and the late Waylon Jennings into the Hollywood RockWalk in Los Angeles. BMI country singer/songwriter Jessi Colter, Jennings' wife, accepted the posthumous induction in his honor.

Shown at the induction ceremony are Waylon Jennings' wife Jessi Colter, BMI's Barbara Cane, RockWalk inductee Kris Kristofferson, BMI's Tracie Verlinde, BMI songwriter/producer T-Bone Burnett and BMI's Joe Maggini. 

The ceremony included an endearing speech by celebrated BMI singer/songwriter T-Bone Burnett about his long-time friends and colleagues, Kristofferson and Jennings. Kristofferson, one of country music's most influential songwriters, is best known for hits like "Me and Bobby McGee" and "Sunday Mornin' Comin' Down." Jennings' musical legacy is a staple in American country music, with credits that include the hit "Mamas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up To Be Cowboys." Jennings died in 2002 in his home in Chandler, Ariz.

Founded in 1985, Hollywood's RockWalk is a sidewalk gallery on Sunset Boulevard that pays homage to those musicians and innovators who have made a significant and lasting impact on rock 'n roll, including such creatively diverse individuals and groups as Isaac Hayes, Holland-Dozier-Holland, Aerosmith, Herbie Hancock, Queen, The Black Crowes, Dick Clark, Willie Dixon, Buddy Guy, Jimi Hendrix, KISS, Les Paul, John Lee Hooker and Smokey Robinson.]]> 2006-07-09T18:00:00-05:00 Warren Zevon Offers a Lesson in Living http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/233771 Burnett, T-Bone, Harris, Emmylou, Henley, Don, R.E.M., Thornton, Billy Bob, Yoakam, Dwight, Zevon, Warren, Pop, Rock, Feature As a songwriter, Warren Zevon is one of the most articulate and witty observers of the vicissitudes, absurdities and ironies of modern life. He's given us glimpses at the "Werewolves Of London, the "Excitable Boy" and "Roland The Headless Thompson Gunner." He has called for "Lawyers, Guns and Money, done time in the "Detox Mansion, and shown us what it's like to be "Poor Poor Pitiful Me." And now the man who sang "I'll Sleep When I'm Dead" is giving us all a lesson, tragic as it may be, in how to die with dignity and purpose.

Diagnosed with incurable lung cancer in August of 2002, Zevon promptly set out to do what he has done all along: take the tragicomedy of existence and fashion it into musical art. Given three months to live, he has already stuck around for close to a year in order to give us The Wind, likely his final album. "I was more prolific than I'd ever been, notes Zevon. "I had this goal and it kept me going." As a measure of the esteem his peers feel for Zevon, the set includes guest appearances by Bruce Springsteen, Don Henley, Joe Walsh, Timothy B. Schmit, Tom Petty, Jackson Browne, Emmylou Harris, Dwight Yoakam, Billy Bob Thornton, Ry Cooder, T-Bone Burnett, Tommy Shaw, David Lindley and John Waite.

Such admiration is the just due for one of the bravest songwriters of his day, maybe ever. Zevon explored the dark side in song like a film noir private eye — and became friends with such crime fiction masters as Ross MacDonald and Carl Hiaasen — which seems only natural for a Los Angeles-reared artist who reveled in complexity and contradiction.

Trained as a classical pianist, Zevon first made his mark writing pop songs for The Turtles and playing with The Everly Brothers. The 1976 release of Warren Zevon brought him immediate critical acclaim, and '78's Excitable Boy album hit the Top 10. His stature was such that in the late 1980s, members of R.E.M. played on Zevon's Sentimental Hygiene and formed a side group with him, The Hindu Love Gods. In recent years, Zevon continued to prove his ongoing creative fire with the ironically titled albums Life'll Kill Ya and My Ride's Here (his ride being a hearse).

Being at death's door has taught Zevon "to value every moment, and do so with typically dark humor and aplomb. When David Letterman recently devoted an entire show to the singer/songwriter, Zevon noted how facing his own mortality showed him "how much you're supposed to enjoy every sandwich."

And as he presciently noted in 1983, "If you're lucky, people like something you do early and something you do just before you drop dead. That's as many pats on the back as you should expect." But thanks to his music and indomitable spirit, Zevon's legacy shall no doubt live forever.

]]> 2003-06-29T18:00:00-05:00 T Bone Burnett Builds on the Success of ‘O Brother’ http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/233315 Artists, Burnett, T-Bone, Counting Crows, Musical Styles, Bluegrass, Blues, Country, Film-TV, Rock, Musicworld, Feature, Type, Important It’s a story we all love: A quietly successful artist/songwriter/producer/guitarist becomes an “overnight” star by producing an album of traditional American music for a quirky, comic, moderately successful film. The record, however, sells six million copies with virtually no commercial radio airplay, wins six Grammys, that many more bluegrass and country awards, and lodges itself at the top of the Billboard country charts for over 80 weeks — so far. By all accounts, the man and the music set the struggling music industry on its ear.

The record, of course, is the soundtrack to the Coen Brothers’ O Brother, Where Art Thou, and the man, T-Bone Burnett.
Even if country biz executives are scratching their heads and calling it a fluke, six million people find the music worth paying for, which indicates something much more substantial. Burnett laughs a gentle laugh at the nay-sayers and you know it makes perfect sense to him.

“Music is a collectible thing, and it’s important to have the actual piece if it’s something people care about. The problem with music these days has to be looked at more in the area of the kind of music being made rather than in the way it’s being broadcast or disseminated. If musicians make great music, people go get it.”

Joseph Henry Burnett, born in St. Louis and reared in Ft. Worth, has been making great music for 30-some years. He cut his musical teeth on Texas blues and after high school opened a recording studio. By 1975, he’d already become a producer of note and had the guitar chops to be invited along on Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue tour. A couple of rock bands later, Burnett released his first solo album, the acclaimed Truth Decay, in 1980.

Despite a heavy studio schedule throughout the ’80s and ’90s producing some 40-plus records for such diverse artists as Bruce Cockburn, Counting Crows, Los Lobos, Jackson Browne, Natalie Merchant, Tony Bennett, Elvis Costello and the Wallflowers, Burnett released several more solo projects, including 1992’s heralded Criminal Under My Own Hat.

Recent projects include the soundtracks for The Divine Secrets of the Ya Ya Sisterhood, which was the first release on Burnett’s very own label, DMZ Records, and for Cold Mountain, out next year. For several years Burnett has been writing music for theatre, including the Sam Shepard plays Tooth of Crime and The Late Henry Moss. The music for these will become his next solo record, slated for release in 2003.

Where will he find the time? This Grammy Producer of the Year swears he’s not going to produce any more records but will concentrate on his solo project and on building DMZ, where he hopes to “create an environment where musicians are encouraged and supported; where they are free to . . . soar.” Burnett says he looks for “non-genre-specific” artists. “I’m only interested in records that don’t fit anywhere. Like O Brother didn’t fit anywhere.”

What makes things fit for T-Bone Burnett, it seems, is his belief that the song is the center of it all. He considers himself, above all, a songwriter and says his work for film and theatre has changed the way he writes. “Every one of the arts is story telling, you know,” he says. “Writing for plays is very liberating because you’re writing for a character. It’s been an experience learning to write in different voices, learning to say things I might not have been able to say — or wouldn’t have let myself say — when I was more constricted as a character and maybe more self-conscious about who I was.”

]]> 2002-09-30T18:00:00-05:00 Film, TV Music Conference Offers Discount Rate to BMI Composers http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/200072 Artists, Burnett, T-Bone, Golubic, Thomas, Musical Styles, Film-TV, Musicworld, Feature, Type, Licensing The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard have joined forces for a 2-day event examining the role of music in film and television. The Hollywood Reporter/Billboard Film & TV Music Conference, scheduled for October 10-11 at the Renaissance Hollywood Hotel in Hollywood, California, will provide a dynamic networking opportunity for executives who create film and television content to meet and exchange ideas with suppliers of music for future projects. BMI composers will receive a special discounted registration rate of $199 through October 4. This represents a substantial savings from the full rate of $399.

Some event highlights include a Q&A session with Grammy-winning BMI producer and songwriter, T-Bone Burnett, who will discuss the creative and commercial aspects of developing music for film. Other programming highlights include the "Anatomy of a Film" where Robert Kraft from Fox Music will examine the upcoming Fox feature film Drumline, deconstructing the creative process from start to finish. The Primetime TV: The New Radio panel will explore the success stories and identify how music can be used to the greatest benefit for both the artists and the shows. Panelists include Lew Goldstein, The WB; Thomas Golubic, Super Music Vision; Evan M. Greenspan, EMG Inc.; John Kirkpatrick, Elektra Entertainment; and Jennifer Pyken, Daisy Music. The Getting In Sync' panel will examine the fundamentals of music licensing with panelists Ron Broitman, BMG Music Publishing; Ron Mendelsohn, Megatrax Production Music, Inc.; and Tom Rowland, Universal Music Enterprises. This event provides a unique networking opportunity with other engaging panels and a Composer/Songwriter Workshop where composers and songwriters will share their experiences and ideas on creating for film and TV.

To register for the Hollywood Reporter/Billboard Film & TV Music Conference, contact Phyllis Demo or for more information, please visit BillboardEvents.com.

]]> 2002-09-23T18:00:00-05:00 Summer on the Silver Screen: Sounds Like a Hit http://www.bmi.com/musicworld/entry/233380 Artists, Arnold, David, Burnett, T-Bone, Clinton, George S., Edelman, Randy, Elfman, Danny, Goldsmith, Jerry, Julyan, David, Lopez, Jennifer, Mansfield, David M., Newman, David, Newman, Thomas, Musical Styles, Film-TV, Musicworld, Feature Going to the movies this summer? Of course you are. A good deal of the music you'll be hearing has been written and recorded by BMI composers.

Leading the pack are two veterans, Danny Elfman and John Williams, who, between them, have scored four of what are expected to be the biggest-grossing movies of the season.

Elfman, this year's Richard Kirk Award winner for career achievement in film and TV music, is riding the crest of success with a mammoth opening for Spider-Man, the big-screen adaptation of the Marvel Comics classic. Over the July 4th weekend, fans will be treated to his new music for Men in Black 2, the sequel to the 1997 blockbuster that brought Elfman an Oscar nomination for Best Comedy Score.

Williams, a five-time Oscar winner, returns with music for his two favorite collaborators: Steven Spielberg and George Lucas. Lucas's Star Wars Episode II: Attack of the Clones marks his fifth score in the legendary "Star Wars" canon, while Spielberg's Minority Report, a Tom Cruise action vehicle, reaches theaters June 21.

Another action-movie veteran and fellow Oscar winner, Jerry Goldsmith, is represented this summer by the new Jack Ryan thriller The Sum of All Fears, due over the Memorial Day weekend. British composer David Arnold - who will be back with his third James Bond thriller, Die Another Day, at Christmastime - has written the music for the latest Jennifer Lopez film, Enough.

David and Thomas Newman, the film-scoring nephews of longtime 20th Century-Fox music chief Lionel Newman - himself an early champion of BMI - have three more movies out this summer. Tom Newman already has out the dark drama The Salton Sea, and will be reunited with his American Beauty collaborator, director Sam Mendes, on the Tom Hanks drama Road to Perdition, due in July. David Newman, who has often worked in animation, returns to that genre in June with the live-action/animation combo Scooby-Doo.

T-Bone Burnett, fresh from his Grammy victory for the soundtrack of O Brother, Where Art Thou?, is collaborating with David Mansfield (Heaven's Gate) on the highly anticipated Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood, based on the popular Rebecca Wells novels, also in June.

On the comedic front, look for the latest Adam Sandler movie, Mr. Deeds, with music by Teddy Castellucci, in June, and a third installment of the Austin Powers series, Goldmember, with the usual clever spy music from George S. Clinton, in July.

Newcomer David Julyan has scored the Al Pacino-Robin Williams thriller Insomnia, due in late May. Edward Shearmur, the British composer whose Charlie's Angels and Wings of the Dove scores have helped to put him on the American movie-music map, has scored the post-apocalyptic dragon thriller Reign of Fire, due in July. August will bring XXX, a new film from the Fast and Furious duo of director Rob Cohen and star Vin Diesel, with music by the always-reliable Randy Edelman.

]]> 2002-05-31T18:00:00-05:00 Triple Winners Brooks & Dunn Move to Front of ACM Herd http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/233121 Artists, Allen, Harley, Brooks & Dunn, Burnett, T-Bone, Douglas, Jerry, Haggard, Merle, Hartford, John, Krauss, Alison, Lonestar, McBride, Martina, Stanley, Ralph, Stegall, Keith, Trick Pony, Tyminski, Dan, Awards, Industry Awards, ACM Awards, Musical Styles, Country Brooks & Dunn collected three "Hat" trophies at the 37th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards (5/22) to become the winningest act in the history of the ACMs. Their victories for top Entertainer, Vocal Duo and Video brought their total to16, surpassing Merle Haggard on the all-time list.


Dan Tyminski
Brooks & Dunn
Ronnie Milsap

Album of the Year went to the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack, produced by T-Bone Burnett. BMI affliates who performed on the project were Harley Allen, Norman Blake, Dub Cornett, The Cox Family, Pat Enright, Fairfield Four, John Hartford, Alison Krauss, Maura O'Connell, David Rawlings, The Soggy Bottom Boys featuring Dan Tyminski, Ralph Stanley, The Stanley Brothers and Gillian Welch. The win completes a sweep of album of the year categories in the Country Music Association, Grammy, and Academy of Country Music Awards. The soundtrack's "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," featuring Soggy Bottom Boys Dan Tyminski, Harley Allen and Pat Enright, and produced by Burnett, was named Vocal Event of the Year.


Jimmy Olander
Lonestar
Martina McBride

Ronnie Milsap was presented the Pioneer Award for career achievement. Thirty-five of his hits, including "It Was Almost Like a Song," "Any Day Now" and "Lost in the Fifties Tonight," have reached No. 1 on the Billboard country charts.


Keith Stegall
Trick Pony
Stuart Duncan

Martina McBride, Lonestar, Trick Pony, and musicians Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, John Hobbs and Jimmy Olander complete the list of ACM honorees.

BMI'S 2002 Academy of Country Music Award Winners

ENTERTAINER OF THE YEAR
Brooks & Dunn

TOP FEMALE VOCALIST
Martina McBride

TOP VOCAL DUO
Brooks & Dunn

TOP VOCAL GROUP
Lonestar

TOP NEW VOCAL DUO/GROUP
Trick Pony

VIDEO OF THE YEAR
"Only In America" -- Brooks & Dunn

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
O Brother, Where Art Thou? -- T-Bone Burnett (producer); Harley Allen, Norman Blake, Dub Cornett, The Cox Family, Pat Enright, Fairfield Four, John Hartford, Alison Krauss, Maura O'Connell, David Rawlings, The Soggy Bottom Boys featuring Dan Tyminski, Ralph Stanley, The Stanley Brothers and Gillian Welch

VOCAL EVENT OF THE YEAR
"I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow" -- Soggy Bottom Boys [Dan Tyminski, Harley Allen, Pat Enright]; T-Bone Burnett (producer)

SINGLE RECORD OF THE YEAR
"Where Were You (When The World Stopped Turning)" -- Keith Stegall (producer)

BMI'S ACM Instrumentalist Winners

FIDDLE
Stuart Duncan

GUITAR
Jimmy Olander

KEYBOARDS
John Hobbs

SPECIALTY INSTRUMENT
Jerry Douglas, Dobro

]]> 2002-05-30T18:00:00-05:00 Storytelling through his music http://www.bmi.com/podcasts/container/132819 T-Bone Burnett discusses Storytelling through his music Burnett, T-Bone, Film-TV, In Their Own Words, Video, 2002, BMI Film TV Awards 2002-05-14T18:00:00-05:00 Top Film, TV, Cable Composers Honored at BMI’s Annual Film/TV Awards http://www.bmi.com/news/entry/233117 BT, Burnett, T-Bone, Clinton, George S., Davis, Don, Elfman, Danny, Foster, David, Gibbs, Richard, Goldsmith, Jerry, Hagen, Earle, Holmes, David, Kamen, Michael, Kuo, Gary, Menken, Alan, Messenger, Dominic, Moby, Mothersbaugh, Mark, Newman, David, Newman, Thomas, Oakenfold, Paul, Post, Mike, Schifrin, Lalo, Sherman, Robert, Walden, W.G. Snuffy, Williams, John, Williams, Patrick, Wilshire, Young, Christopher, Film-TV, Rock, BMI Film TV Awards BMI honored the composers and songwriters of the music to the top-grossing films, the top-rated prime-time network television shows and the highest ranking cable television shows of the year at its annual Film & Television Awards dinner. Held at the Regent Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills on May 15, the black tie gala was hosted by BMI President and CEO Frances W. Preston. More than 65 awards were given out during the ceremonies by Preston and BMI Vice President of Film/TV Relations, Doreen Ringer Ross.


The BMI Family photo

The highlight of the evening was the presentation of the BMI award for Outstanding Career Achievement to Spider-Man composer Danny Elfman. Named after past BMI Vice President Richard Kirk, the prestigious award is given annually to the composer who has made significant contributions to film and TV music. Past recipients of the award include John Barry, Charlie Fox, Jerry Goldsmith, Earle Hagen, Michael Kamen, Alan Menken, Thomas Newman, Mike Post, Lalo Schifrin, Richard and Robert Sherman, W.G. “Snuffy” Walden, John Williams and Patrick Williams.


Spider-Man Composer Danny Elfman with BMI President and CEO Frances W. Preston

A highly prolific and influential musician, Elfman carries dual notoriety - that as a highly respected and revered composer and as the lead singer of seminal Southern California rock band Oingo Boingo. Elfman entered the world of film music in 1985, when director Tim Burton and star Paul Reubens called him to write the music for Pee-Wee’s Big Adventure. In addition to Spider-Man and Pee-Wee, other scores include the upcoming Men In Black II (opens July 3), Men In Black, Planet of the Apes, Proof of Life, Spy Kids, Sleepy Hollow, Family Man, A Simple Plan, Good Will Hunting, Mars Attacks!, Mission: Impossible, Dead Presidents, To Die For, Dolores Claiborne, Black Beauty, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Edward Scissorhands, Batman, Batman Returns, Midnight Run, Scrooged, Beetlejuice, The Simpsons, Tales From The Crypt, Alfred Hitchcock Presents, Amazing Stories, as well as songs for such diverse films as Ghostbusters 2, Weird Science and Fast Times at Ridgemont High.


BMI Richard Kirk Outstanding Career Achievement Award recipients past and present: W.G. Snuffy Walden, Thomas Newman and Danny Elfman

Elfman has also won a Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Composition for the theme to Batman, a Saturn Award for Best Score for The Nightmare Before Christmas, and has been twice nominated for an Academy Award.


Producer T Bone Burnett being interviewed for bmi.com

At the dinner, Elfman was feted by many of the directors with whom he has worked. Burton, who spoke about having seen Elfman with Oingo Boingo in clubs in Southern California before ever meeting him, described him as “�a real artist in the sense that he is like his music and his music is like him. From the very beginning it was always exciting for me to work with someone who was experiencing things new and coming at it from an interesting perspective. He brings that intuitive excitement to a project. He respects tradition without doing it exactly. He’s able to understand things people don’t understand on the surface and get underneath it, like a silent movie to where you’re part of the emotion of it without overstating it.”


George S. Clinton, Sam Phillips and T Bone Burnett

Calling Elfman’s music for Spider-Man “rousing and uplifting,” director Raimi said, “�I feel like he always waits for the film and the audience to create a feeling together, and I think what Danny does is he gently carries the audience to that next place - but he allows them to do the work. He has the unique ability to create a soul to his music. He’s a genius, he really is, that ‘can’t’ word can’t be thrown about it, but when you listen to his music and the diversity of it and how successful it is with the images, I don’t know if there’s a better word to describe him.”


Director Barry Sonnenfeld ("Men In Black," "Men In Black 2") and Danny Elfman

Also honored with BMI Film & Television Awards was composer John Williams, who received the most crystal statuettes during the presentation, with four for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone, Jurassic Park III, A.I.: Artificial Intelligence and the 2002 Winter Olympic Games. Composer Mike Post led the way for Television Awards, receiving three for Law & Order, Law & Order: SVU and NYPD Blue. Composer David Newman received two awards for Ice Age and Dr. Dolittle II. A number of recording artists who are making a name for themselves in the worlds of film and TV music received awards including BT for The Fast and The Furious, Moby for the 2002 Winter Olympics, Paul Oakenfold for Swordfish, David Holmes for Oceans 11 and Bob and Mark Mothersbaugh for Rugrats.


Danny Elfman and Director Brett Ratner ("Red Dragon")

Composer T-Bone Burnett received a special Certificate of Achievement for the five-time Grammy Award-winning O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack, as did the composers of the original music for the 2002 Winter Olympics, including the aforementioned Williams and Moby, as well as Kurt Bestor, Sam Cardon, David Foster, Michael Kamen and Linda Thompson.


BMI's Frances W. Preston, T Bone Burnett and BMI's Doreen Ringer Ross

This year also marked the first time BMI presented Cable Television Music Awards to the composers of the highest-ranking cable television shows of the year. Award recipients included Guy Moon for Chalkzone and Fairly Oddparents, Jim Johnston for WWF Monday Night RAW, Howlin’ Wolf for The Sopranos, Douglas Cuomo for Sex and the City, Michael Kamen for Band of Brothers and Thomas Newman for Six Feet Under.


Director Barry Sonnenfeld, Danny Elfman, BMI's Frances W. Preston, director Brett Ratner and BMI's Doreen Ringer Ross.

BMI’s Emmy Award winning composers were also honored, including Patrick Williams for “A Dream That Only I Can Know” from Yesterday’s Children; Buckwheat Zydeco for Pistol Pete: The Life and Times of Pete Maravich; Brian Siewert for “Where There Is Hope” from Guiding Light; Lolita Ritmanis, Michael Mc Cuistion and Kristopher Carter for Batman Beyond; and Gary Kuo, Robert Sands and Dominic Messenger for As The World Turns.

High-resolution photos of the 2002 BMI Film & Television Awards will be available for downloading on the BMI Media Relations web site at press.bmi.com.


BMI's Frances W. Preston and composer Patrick Williams


Danny Elfman and BT


Composer Richard Marvin, BMI's Doreen Ringer Ross and composer Richard Gibbs


Composer Mike Post, BMI's Frances W. Preston and composer W.G. Snuffy Walden


Director Brett Ratner, BMI's Frances W. Preston, composer Lalo Schifrin and BMI's Doreen Ringer Ross.
]]> 2002-05-14T18:00:00-05:00