Music & nightlife | Jeff Bridges sings 'Crazy Heart' songs at Ste. Michelle on Astini News
He's a man up for a challenge and down with the down-and-out.
On screen, Jeff Bridges has transformed himself into the grizzled, one-eyed marshal in "True Grit," the stoned slacker The Dude in "The Big Lebowski" and the alcoholic country crooner Bad Blake in "Crazy Heart," which won him his first Academy Award.
No matter the character, Bridges — who plays with his "Crazy Heart" band at Chateau Ste. Michelle winery Sunday — brings a well-worn vulnerability. And that goes for playing himself, too.
On his self-titled major-label debut album, the actor/musician delivers a meditative, eclectic collection of rootsy tunes that showcase what Bridges does best: speak from the heart and shoot from the hip.
It's not easy to successfully cross from big screen to recording studio. Many actors have tried, only to quickly find themselves in the record store bargain bin (Russell Crowe, David Hasselhoff, Steven Seagal ... ).
Bridges himself has even suffered that fate. In 2000 he self-released "Be Here Soon," a fairly bland mix of rock, R&B and blues, missing the gritty, plain-spoken honesty that makes his new album work so well.
Music has always been a creative outlet for Bridges. He grew up fiddling with his brother's guitar as much as he dabbled in acting, but followed his father Lloyd's path to Hollywood. Along the way he's kept an instrument close at hand. He jammed with Kris Kristofferson and Stephen Bruton on the set of the western "Heaven's Gate."
Now, at 61, Bridges is one of Hollywood's coolest, most respected and least pretentious actors. And he can really do whatever he wants.
Though his album carries his name, clearly what Bridges wants now is to collaborate with some of the best, sharing the spotlight.
There's a host of top-notch musicians on the disc, including guitarist Marc Ribot, bassist Dennis Crouch, pedal steel guitarist Russ Pahl and drummer Jay Bellerose. The leader is also joined by vocalists Rosanne Cash, Sam Phillips, Benji Hughes and Ryan Bingham (who won an Oscar for cowriting "Crazy Heart's" "The Weary Kind").
Though Bridges' faded-denim vocals are what make the album distinctive, producer T Bone Burnett (longtime friend and the man who put together the "Crazy Heart" soundtrack) settles Bridges' voice comfortably in a cradle of guitars.
The actor's experience working on "Crazy Heart" is what convinced him to make the album. In the film, he plays a downtrodden country singer trying to turn his life around, and Bridges did his own singing and guitar playing. But despite the twang of the movie's soundtrack, "Jeff Bridges" is more Tom Waits or Harry Nilsson than Waylon Jennings.
But you'll find Bad Blake here, too. The opening track and first single "What a Little Bit of Love Can Do" is a train-track-chugging toe-tapper with a Buddy Holly smirk. And "Maybe I Missed the Point" is self-effacing barroom honky tonk.
Just two of the songs' lyrics are credited solely to Bridges, the quiet, lush "Falling Short" and the jazzy head trip "Tumbling Vine." But speaking someone else's words seems to come naturally to him. "Nothing Yet," penned by his friend Bruton, who died in 2009, is heartbreakingly delivered.
Bridges sings with the ache of someone who has been through a lot (and he has, including lots of serious benders in the '70s): "Well I'd like to think that I gave my best/But I had to learn like all the rest/Until you've seen it all, well you ain't seen nothing yet."
Bridges closes the album with this cowboy meditation: "Now my posse is waiting out to the west/Yes it's time to get back to the quest." It's the mantra of a man about to tackle the next big thing, with an open heart.
Joanna Horowitz: jbhorowitz@gmail.com
