We are giving away a pair of tickets to T Bone Burnett @ Aladdin Theater on September 11. To win, comment below on this post why you’d like to attend. Winner will be drawn and emailed September 3.
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From our sponsors:
September 11, 2024
Doors 7PM, Show 8PM | $60 | All Ages
More info: etix.com
Aladdin Theater
3017 SE Milwaukie Ave, Portland, OR 97202
When T Bone Burnett was making his new record The Other Side, he was thinking a lot about “you.”
“I was reading a news story that some shocking percentage of number one hit songs had the word you in the title,” says the Oscar -and Grammy-winning composer-producer-songwriter well known for his work with everyone from Robert Plant and Alison Krauss to Brandi Carlile to Elton John and on iconic soundtracks including O Brother Where Art Thou and Walk the Line.
Burnett started contemplating who all those “you”s are and what it means when an artist puts them in a song.
Burnett says he realized that for many years, when he worked on his own solo albums as a singer-songwriter — in between acclaimed stints of coaxing the best work out of a wildly diverse set of artists as a producer or curating ideal soundtracks for an equally disparate group of films and series —he had been “tough” on listeners.
“I view the purpose of art as creating conscience, so I was constantly appealing to people’s consciences,” he says of a solo career that stretches back to the mid-‘70s and includes several well-reviewed albums including 1992’s The Criminal Under My Own Hat. “But I realized when a songwriter use the word you, he is, of course, in the world of conscience, but he’s also in the world of people’s dreams. And when you enter into people’s dreams, you have to be very careful with them.”
“With this record, I tried to treat myself as kindly as I would try to treat other people,” says Burnett, who likens his producing approach to that of a photographer. “I try to find the person’s best angle and light them so they look the most like themselves or the best version of themselves. And this time, rather than staying in the romantic notion I previously had of myself—of a rebellious artist, a firebrand or whatever I thought I was trying to be—I just tried to be kind to myself.”
Ultimately, in looking for “you,” T Bone Burnett found himself on The Other Side.