T-Bone Burnett – Truth Decay…album

I hope all of you are doing well. While on break getting things done I have written up a few posts because I like to stay ahead. For the first time, I probably wrote up more movies than music. I was emailing CB and he mentioned this album to me by T-Bone Burnett which I’ve known more as a producer. He produced artists like Elvis Costello, John Mellencamp, Gregg Allman, Alison Krauss and Robert Plant, Elton John, Leon Russell, Los Lobos, Roy Orbison, The Counting Crows, and many more.

When I started to listen to the album it surprised me. I was expecting more of a straight blues feel but I got everything. Rock, country, blues, soul, rockabilly, and most of all…Americana. I’ve listened to the entire album around 5-6 times this week. CB doesn’t steer me wrong…an outstanding album. The song that really stood out at first was I’m Coming Home…that one hooked me. He wrote all the songs on the album and co-wrote two of them.

Truth Decay was his second album and it was released in 1980. He did release an album in 1972 under the name J. Henry Burnett called The B-52 Band & the Fabulous Skylarks. He has released 15 albums in total and one this year called The Other Side. None of them were commercial blockbusters but his work received critical acclaim though…and it’s just flat-out great.

He was born in St Louis but was raised in Fort, Worth Texas. He began his career in the 1960s. His first big break came in the mid-1970s when he joined Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder Revue, a traveling concert tour that introduced him to a wider audience and connected him with other rising musicians.

Recently, Burnett has been involved in developing a new form of high-fidelity analog music recording technology, which he calls“Ionic Originals.” He wants to develop an alternative to digital formats for preserving and sharing music.

Give this album a listen. I’ll pick out a couple of songs that I like but here is the entire album on YouTube. Spotify doesn’t have this one. In order from the top there Boomerang, Pretty Girls, and my favorite I’m Coming Home.

I’m Coming Home

I been lost and all alone
Like a statue made of stone
But now I’m coming home

I fell for a painted face
Thought I’d fallen out of grace
But now I’m coming home

I’m coming home
Hold me to your breast
Let me stay and rest
In your tenderness

I’m coming home
Back where I belong
Still you’re love is strong
Roll away the stone
I’m coming home

I said my prayers, made my plan
Set out for the promised land
And now I’m coming home

I saw how you pay the price
For some distant paradise
And now I’m coming home
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Author: Badfinger (Max)

Power Pop fan, Baseball, Beatles, Alternative music, old movies, and tv show fan. Also anything to do with pop culture in the 60s and 70s... I'm also a songwriter, bass and guitar player. Not the slightest bit interested in politics at all.

53 thoughts on “T-Bone Burnett – Truth Decay…album”

  1. I’ve been a fan of his music for years. Many years ago I had assigned a Sam Sheppard play, “Tooth of Crime,” to my H.S. English class and found out that Burnett had written songs for a production of the play. He had never released these songs at that point, but when I reached out to him on “My Space,” (remember that?), and told him I was teaching the play, he had a tape of the songs delivered to my school the next day!

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    1. Wow!!! That is really cool of him to do that….to reach out to you. He seems like a guy
      I knew him as a producer and I heard a few tracks but this is the first time I dived into his music…really impressive. He seems to never rest either with those “Ionic Originals” which is interesting in itself…
      Thanks for that story…not many artists would do that.

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  4. This all sounds pretty neat, Max. While I knew T. Bone Burnett has put out own albums, like you, I primarily associate him with producing. Looks like he might be a good candidate for my recurring feature about producers and sound engineers. I’m writing down his name! 🙂

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    1. Yea man…he is a great producer of course…his record, so to speak, speaks for itself but I never thought his music was like this…some of this reminds me of the Byrds country period… he is great at having a variety of sounds.

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  7. Surprised to see this this morning. You’re hooked now and will be swimming in a deep pool of creativity on both sides of the mich. You’re first sentence of second paragraph gives a good summary of his music. You packed a lot of info into your take. Well done. He did a very cool doc “American Epic”. Pretty sure being an “audiophile” you would get a lot out of it.

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    1. Yea it was going to be next weekend but I’ve listened to it so much I felt comfortable with it. I’m checking out his next album after this one right now with “Trap Door.”
      Thanks again CB for the recommendation… I never expected songs that sounded in the Burrito Brothers and Byrds vein. The hard part in these is keeping them short.
      I’ll check out American Epic.

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      1. It’s funny you should mention the “silence” thing in the Birds take because T Bone talks about “experimenting in silence” as he progressed in recording. Vert interesting guy. Some of the albums he has produced by others are in my pile, everywhere. Costello’s ‘King Of America’ is one of the first I can remember. Love it.

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      2. He is right…silence can frame dynamics really well…or set them up. Bruce is good at that also live.
        Marshall Crenshaw was the first time I heard his name when he produced him in the 80s…probably around the time of the Elvis album.

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      3. That Crenshaw is a god one. Another that I remember was the Los Lobos debut. Ive been on a bit of a T Bone binge. The Allman, BB King are later ones that come to mind. Obviously Krauss and Plant.
        Yes on the Bruce thing.

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  9. Yes, I understand why he works, very easy on the ear. The spareness of the lyrics in ‘Coming Home’ is one of those cases where words turn and show a different facet when paired with the next line or word. Less is more- and that’s the alchemy a writer, especially a songwriter, loves to find.

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  10. I know that I bought this CD in a used shop a long time ago. I will have to revisit it because I don’t remember the songs. He also produced two albums for Bruce Cockburn in the ’90’s.

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    1. Yea…he surprised me on his music…I wasn’t expecting it. It’s like finding out George Martin was a really good singer/songwriter. I only knew him as a producer really.

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      1. Max on a completely other matter, if you have the time…. I wanted to tell you that an English music artist Joe ‘Asgard Raven’ reached out to me after seeing my blog saying he wanted me to write about his music. I told him I didn’t do that exactly, but I sure would like to hear his stuff. He sent me his songs from a soundcloud listing. We exchanged emails and his stuff is excellent and right up your alley with heavy vibes of ‘Oasis’. I told him he should get in contact with you since you are good guy and former musician and perhaps more tuned-in with his style.
        Below is a link to his soundcloud list. I told him I would like to write about his first song called ‘Light of my Life’ which reminded me of one of my favourite Australian bands ‘My Friend the Chocolate Cake’. The remainder of the songs seem right up your alley. He’s really good.

        I hope that link works.
        Cheers.

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      2. Well Matt I don’t mind donig it at all…I would love to help anyway I could! I wonder though if Jeff would have more of an effect? He is usually really busy though…but yea I will do it.
        Give him my email address if you don’t mind.

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      3. I was just throwing it out there. Joe ala ‘Asgard’ hasn’t responded to my latest email. I’ll wait for that in case it was AI haha. Jeff didn’t occur to me, but maybe that’s a sound option. To be honest this is all new to me. Did you hear his soundcloud songs?

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      4. Yea Jeff interviews and pushes new artists…I’ll do it but more people look at his for new artists…but I don’t mind at all.

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      6. I really like Oasis…so yea…just let me know man…if Jeff can’t I will! Christian does new music as well every Saturday.

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      8. lol…Christian would be a cool choice as well…from what I’ve heard from Sound Cloud…it sounds damn good! Crystal clear production.

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      9. That’s what I thought listening to it. It’s so darn good, but I might be hearing things. I told Joe about Chief Springs ‘Elastic’ a fellow English group who got no love. That song is monumental to my ears. A post 2000 gem with absolute no love.

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      12. Good article Jeff. In my last email to Joe ‘Asgard Raven’ which I forwarded to Max I suggested both you and Christian as potential go-to points based on Max’s sound advice. I will do a write up on his beautiful ballad ‘Light of my Life’ down the track and tell him about Jeff’s article when he replies again.

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      16. Tell me about it. Well not burnout so much, but decline in daily readership of my individual posts. It’s frustrating, but I am more than accustomed with slumps in ‘likes’. If it wasn’t for your good-self, Christian and Max I doubt I would have kept at it.
        The good news is my blog receives in the vicinity of 300 views a day, which is almost triple where it was even just a few months back.

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      17. That’s a healthy number of views per day, more than I receive on average. I suppose if I wrote about more mainstream artists, not to mention still wrote articles, I would possibly get more views, but I don’t care anymore. If it weren’t for the incredible response my Janet Jackson concert review has gotten (over 8,000 views and counting), my numbers would be abysmal.

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      18. 8000 views is incredible. I used to have a bit of thing for Janet Jackson back in the day, which reminds me I must try and find the song by her which I was so enamoured with.
        I think my post on Nick Cave’s ‘Bright Horses’ has perhaps the highest views on my site totalling over 5000.
        The post now which easily has the most popular daily view racking up at least 50 views is Kenny G’s ‘Forever in Love’ which I wrote as a bit tongue in cheek and partly in jest. Here’s the strange part…The majority of those views are from Africa – Nigeria and Tanzania specifically. I imagine it’s being used in classes of some sort. Dunno.

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  14. I’ve heard the name but didn’t know a lot about him. Nice pedigree. Don’t remember seeing him in Rolling Thunder Review but then again wasn’t looking for him. I like the Boomarang tune best.

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  16. First time listening to T-Bone Burnett, but it will not be the last. Has that lovely American rock punch whilst still being accessible for not quite USA natives like me. Awesome stuff!

    Thanks for sharing. 😊

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