Dude can act, but can he sing?
Oscar winner Bridges laughs off critics of his music credentials
Why do so many of us smirk when a Hollywood movie star picks up a guitar and walks toward a microphone?
The question brought a sage smile to the 61-year-old face of Jeff Bridges, the Oscar winner who this week released his first major-label album, a self-titled 10-song collection.
“People like to put things in a box – and they do that with their own lives too, they limit things – but it’s all art to me,” Bridges says.
“People try to define things and make it easier for their mind to digest things, I guess. But music has been part of my life since I was a kid. Music meant more to me when I was young, but I went into acting because of family and because it was the path of least resistance.”
Bridges obviously inherited Hollywood opportunity from his movie-star father, Lloyd Bridges, but he proved himself quickly with an Academy Award nomination for his work in “The Last Picture Show,” a film that celebrates its 40th anniversary this October.
He has been a persistent presence in Hollywood ever since, and recent years have been especially kind with “True Grit,” “Tron: Legacy,” “Iron Man” and his Oscar win for “Crazy Heart.”
It was “Crazy Heart” and the portrayal of a battered and besotted country singer named Bad Blake that led directly to the “Bridges” project.
The soundtrack for the film was guided by T Bone Burnett – the same producer who has won top Grammy Awards for his work on “O Brother, Where Art Thou” and with Alison Krauss and Robert Plant – and the experience re-energized a friendship that dated three decades.
“Bone and I met back on (the 1980 Western) ‘Heaven’s Gate,’ and we would jam on the set with Kris Kristofferson and Steve Brouton and all their music friends,” Bridges recalls.
“There’s a lot of history that’s led to this, and I don’t think this is going to be the end of it, either.”
Bridges and Burnett began with a cache of 60 or 70 song possibilities and in the end recorded 17. Fans expecting a twang-heavy sequel to the “Crazy Heart” soundtrack will be surprised to find that the album is more beholden to the spirit of Tom Waits and Bob Dylan than it is to Waylon Jennings or Merle Haggard.
In addition to Burnett, the name of guitarist Marc Ribot will catch the eye of music fans, as will guest vocalists Rosanne Cash, Ryan Bingham, Sam Phillips and Benji Hughes.
“This is not a lark,” says Burnett. “Jeff is one of our true artists today, and I wanted to work with him.
“His view of the world is as an artist; everything he takes in, he takes in as an artist. I wanted to document this artist in a way, and I don’t mind the skepticism. This isn’t something you need to listen to with a different standard.”