Hollywood Reporter - June 22, 2006

T Bone Burnett Reorders Familiar Sounds

By Tom Roland

True False Identity." The phrase was projected in orange against a black curtain behind T Bone Burnett as he closed out a tour Tuesday at the El Rey Theater.

Not only did that legend serve as promotion for Burnett's like-titled current album, it also provided a sort of overview of his performance.

The words are a weird clash of conflicting values, yet when combined, they create an idea of complex simplicity. Burnett's musical identity is likewise a melting pot of sundry influences, yet when combined, they create a melange that's both unique and familiar.

Burnett leaned heavily on the new album, playing all but two of its dozen tracks, many of them left-leaning examinations of sociology, religion and politics.

The viewpoints were there for anyone who cared to seek them out, though Burnett didn't exactly flash them in neon. Instead, he couched messages of delusion and consequence in oblique-but-acerbic images, some of them delivered with a Dylan-istic rap.

Addressing the crowd only sporadically, Burnett waxed a rather anachronistic image, dressed in a baggy suit and modified accountant haircut as uncurrent as the 1920s characters in "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" -- the movie that generated his biggest sales and a Grammy Award as soundtrack producer.

Similarly, the concert's songs drew stylistically from such previous-generation acts as Bo Diddley, the Rolling Stones and Johnny Cash. But Burnett refashioned those roots in a manner that felt fresh and energized, partially through the veiled topicality of the lyrics but also through the inspired playing of his four backing musicians.

In particular, drummer Jim Keltner and upright bass player Dennis Crouch kept an often-tribal pulse going, while Marc Ribot practically held a clinic on guitar.

Ribot deftly balanced heavy rhythms, atmospheric melodies, nimble dexterity and an array of sound effects in his numerous solos, managing to fashion unique passages without ever becoming gimmicky.

Which is what Burnett accomplished as well in his mix of experimental rock, hipster verbiage and talking blues. While none of what he offered was truly groundbreaking, he did rethread some existing motifs in new ways, in essence using a tried-and-true platform to forge an identity all his own.