Music Described As “What Bad Blake Might Have Made If Bad Blake Had Been Able To Keep It Together”
Looks like Jeff Bridges‘ seemingly pie-in-the-sky plans to reunite with his “Crazy Heart” musical contributor T-Bone Burnett to record a country music album is actually coming to fruition.
The veteran actor’s deal with EMI‘s Blue Note Records has now reportedly come through with the work-in-progress album already eyeing a late summer release according to USA Today. The duo certainly have a lot to live up to, but both earned critical acclaim for their respective acting and musical contributions to Scott Cooper‘s aforementioned directorial debut, with Bridges taking home Best Actor and Burnett winning Best Original Song at the 2009 Academy Awards.
So, just what might the album sound like? Esquire has just profiled Bridges in their Music edition and described what he played to them as “what Bad Blake might have made, if Bad Blake had been able to keep it together. They’re songs about loneliness and love and beauty and despair… songs that would sound terrific with the windows rolled down and the desert flashing by the fins. They’re songs that rise and fall with the wail of gorgeous pedal steel and brushed snare drums and lilting, lovely guitar. They’re really good songs.”
One particular track though, titled “Gnat’s World,” reportedly features the actor ‘talking, like a stage-play mystic, like William Shatner, musing quite literally about the lives of the swarm of gnats he watched one day up on the mountain” which certainly didn’t impress the Esquire writer — they described it as “at best, it’s a weird bonus track that some hipster doofus will claim to like to seem different.” There’s also mention of a track titled “What a Little Love Can Do,” by his late friend Stephen Bruton, which shows Bridges “really singing through the speakers now.. singing with his big full heart, and everything feels good.”
Sounds like a fascinating listen, one way or another. Last we heard, the album was also going to feature fellow “Crazy Heart”-er Ryan Bingham and, while there’s no mention of it in the latest development, we’re sure the alt-country star will pop up somewhere in the tracklist.