When Fort Worth-raised producer and singer-songwriter T Bone Burnett steps onto the Kessler Theater stage on Nov. 14, it will mark his first solo appearance in North Texas in more than 15 years.
The 76-year-old Grammy winner is touring behind his latest solo album, The Other Side, his first proper solo LP in nearly 20 years. The tour kicked off Sept. 7 in Berkley, California.
This run of dates features Burnett alongside a trio — Dennis Crouch, Colin Linden and David Mansfield — for what’s being billed in press materials as “an evening of songs from T Bone’s critically acclaimed new album, The Other Side, as well as selections spanning his entire career.”
Of The Other Side, KXT said upon its release: “This 12-track collection is, surprisingly, a foray into the 76-year-old’s more accessible side — Burnett’s eclectic solo catalog is defiantly original, and often challenging — leaning hard into his folk, country, and pop sensibilities.
“The cumulative effect helps listeners understand precisely why such diverse artists as Bob Dylan, Taylor Swift and Cassandra Wilson have sought his guidance as a producer — he has a gift for conjuring a vivid mood, blending tasteful instrumentation and luminous melody.”
Apart from his solo work, Burnett has stayed — as is his custom — extraordinarily busy, with a variety of projects. His upcoming works includes:
A country album with Ringo Starr: Burnett wrote nine songs for the Beatles drummer, who is releasing his first full-length LP in six years in January. Look Up, produced by Burnett, will feature contributions from Billy Strings, Larkin Poe and Alison Krauss.
Re-recording Willie Nelson classics: Burnett told the Houston Chronicle he recently worked with Nelson to record six of the legendary singer-songwriter’s works for Burnett’s archival “Ionic” format. “I realized so much of what I think of as music was learned from Willie, even going back to the ‘50s and ‘60s when he was kicking around Fort Worth, playing on the north side,” Burnett told the Chronicle.
Re-teaming with Elvis Costello: Burnett famously produced Costello’s folk-inclined “King of America” in the mid-1980s, a project which was recently re-released featuring a slew of additional, previously unreleased tracks. On top of that, Burnett and Costello’s side project, the Coward Brothers, will drop both a “scripted musical-comedy audio series” and an accompanying album on Nov. 21.
T Bone Burnett at Kessler Theater, Dallas. 8 p.m. Nov. 14. Tickets are $48-$704.
Preston Jones is a North Texas freelance writer and regular contributor to KXT. Email him at [email protected] or find him on X (@prestonjones). Our work is made possible by our generous, music-loving members. If you like how we lift up local music, consider becoming a KXT sustaining member right here.
