Jeff Bridges

It was not widely recognized that actor Jeff Bridges, the son of Lloyd Bridges, also wrote songs, even after portraying a musician in The Fabulous Baker Boys, until his acclaimed performance as the washed-up country singer Bad Blake in Crazy Heart. In reality, Bridges had already issued his debut album, Be Here Soon, in 2000 on the independent Ramp Records. That collection blended pop, rock, country, and blue-eyed soul tracks that he wrote or co-wrote, and it was co-produced by Bridges alongside Chris Pelonis and Michael McDonald, who contributed keyboards. Guest vocal appearances came from Bryan Ferry and David Crosby. The release garnered mixed notices, largely for its glossy production, and soon slipped from sight. While playing Bad Blake in Crazy Heart, Bridges performed several numbers on the film’s soundtrack, some of them self-penned, under the supervision of longtime associate T-Bone Burnett. Shortly afterward he joined the roster of Blue Note Records and again collaborated with Burnett and the producer’s regular session musicians. The resulting self-titled album Jeff Bridges appeared in summer 2011. Bridges subsequently performed and toured with his group the Abiders—named for his character the Dude, who abides, in the 1998 cult film The Big Lebowski—whose lineup comprised Bridges on vocals, guitar, and keyboards, Chris Pelonis on guitar, keyboards, and vocals, Bill Flores on pedal steel and guitar, Randy Tico on upright and electric bass, and Tom Lackner on drums and percussion. Performing as Jeff Bridges & the Abiders, the ensemble played a series of summer concerts at the Red Rock Casino in Las Vegas in 2014; those shows were recorded and later yielded the fourteen-track live album produced by Pelonis.