T Bone Burnett has toured with Bob Dylan, collaborated with Elvis Costello and written for such performers as Emmylou Harris, Arlo Guthrie and Warren Zevon. He's produced albums for an astonishing variety of artists, including Los Lobos, k.d. lang and Tony Bennett, Roy Orbison, Allison Krause and The Wallflowers. As executive music producer for the film Walk the Line, he coached Joaquin Phoenix and Reese Witherspoon on singing like Johnny Cash and June Carter.
But it has been more than a decade since Burnett offered his own music. That changes with the release of two CDs: The True False Identity, a compilation of new songs, and Twenty Twenty, a 40-song retrospective.
Burnett talks with Liane Hansen about his life in music.
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