Grammy-winning musician T Bone Burnett has an unusual mission when he comes to perform in Minneapolis this week: Visit the St. Louis Park house where the Coen brothers grew up.
That’s because he is their longtime collaborator who produced soundtracks to such Coen brothers movies as “O Brother, Where Art Thou?,” “The Big Lebowski” and “Inside Llewyn Davis.”
“I’d love to see where they grew up,” said Burnett, who performs Wednesday at the Parkway Theater. “Do you remember a few years ago [Bob] Dylan got arrested in New Jersey walking around with a hood on? The reason he was there is he was looking for the house where Bruce Springsteen wrote ‘Born to Run’ at. Everybody who is in show business, so to speak, is a fan first. As a fan of the Coen Brothers, I’d love to see where they grew up.”
Better known as a producer than a performer, Burnett is on tour for the first time in 18 years to promote his 2024 solo album, “The Other Side.” It’s a familiar yet fresh collection of folkie Americana tunes about love and longing, with shades of the Burnett-produced Robert Plant and Alison Krauss collaborations.
On the record, he is joined by vocalists Rosanne Cash and Weyes Blood as well as the harmonious duo known as Lucius, who appear on five of the 12 songs.
“I feel like they made the record,” he said of Lucius, namely Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig. “They orchestrated it with their voices. They added this incredible mystical layer to it. They make up sounds. They’re tone masters.”
In concert, Burnett will play the entirety of “The Other Side” as well as a 10 or so songs from his solo catalog. His accompanists include country-blues guitarist Colin Linden and mandolinist/fiddler David Mansfield, who has worked with Burnett for 50 years.
“The band I’m on the road with we’ve been playing together collectively for over 100 years,” said the singer/songwriter who seldom tours. “When I was a kid, I wanted to be Burt Bacharach. I never wanted to be a performer. Springsteen has done over 3,000 concerts and that doesn’t include all the honky-tonks he played as a kid. Dylan is over 3,000. I’ve played well under 100. I played like the average of two a year. I’ve never had an ambition to be a performer. I wanted to write songs and music for movies.”