T Bone Burnett

Director & actor · born 14 January 1948 · St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Joseph Henry "T Bone" Burnett III (born January 14, 1948) is an American record producer, guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He was a guitarist in Bob Dylan's band during the 1970s. Burnett has won several Grammy Awards for his work on film soundtracks, namely O Brother, Where Art Thou? (2000), Cold Mountain (2004), Walk the Line (2005), and Crazy Heart (2010). He won another Grammy for producing the album Raising Sand (2007), in which he united the contemporary bluegrass of Alison Krauss with the blues rock of Led Zeppelin lead vocalist Robert Plant.

Burnett has been credited with early career mentorship of musical acts such as Counting Crows, Los Lobos, Sam Phillips, and Gillian Welch, and with revitalizing the careers of Gregg Allman and Roy Orbison. He produced for television programs including Nashville and True Detective. He has released several solo studio albums as a producer, including Tooth of Crime (2008), which he wrote for a revival of the namesake play by Sam Shepard.

Where to start: Heaven's Gate (1980).