BURNETT, T BONE (18 JAN 1945 [SOME SOURCES GIVE 1948]–)

Born John Henry Burnett in St. Louis, Missouri, but raised in Fort Worth, Texas, Burnett was a folk-rock performer in the 1970s and 1980s then graduated to become a producer, scoring big as the producer for the soundtrack to the film, O Brother Where Art Thou?, in 2000, a surprise major country hit. Burnett’s own recording career was spotty at best, although he did gain a cult audience and toured in the 1970s, most famously as part of Bob Dylan’s Rolling Thunder tours in mid-decade. From the 1980s, he specialized in producing left-of-center rock acts, including Elvis Costello (King of America [1986],and Spike [1989]), Los Lobos (By the Light of the Moon [1987]), his wife Sam Phillips, the Wallflowers, and Gillian Welch. His success producing the O Brother soundtrack recording led to his forming a label with the Coen Brothers (distributed by Sony/Columbia) to record traditional music.