Some people may remember the old adage, “Actors want to sing
and singers want to act.” Well, that’s certainly true today, with thespians like
Jeff Bridges, Billy Bob Thornton, Taylor Momsen and Scarlett
Johansson crafting highly-produced and polished albums.
In the 1960s, TV and movie stars often branched out into the
music biz with mixed and often unintentionally comical results. Who could
forget William Shatner’s classic interpretations of Mr. Tambourine Man and Lucy in
the Sky with Diamonds? During the 1970s,
teen TV heartthrobs like Anson “Potsie” Williams and John “Barbarino” Travolta released
solo albums to capitalize on their popularly with teenage girls. These albums
are remembered now mostly as pop culture time capsules.
Today’s actors turned musicians are in it for creative
expression and respect, not just kitsch value and a quick buck. Jeff Bridges
performance in Crazy Heart as down-on
his luck country singer Bad Blake surely inspired his second real-life turn as
a country vocalist/songwriter. (His first album, Be Here Soon, was released in 2000.) The self-titled album,
contains 11 original songs that evoke With longtime friend and legend T-Bone Burnett
producing, Roseanne Cash helping out on vocals and a cadre of notable Nashville
sidemen, Bridges’ authentic, amiable voice evokes Gordon Lightfoot crossed with
a gritty, seen-it -all-but- kept-on-going Americana charm. The album shines on hopeful
cuts like the Stephen Bruton penned What
a Little Bit of Love Can Do.
Billy Bob Thornton began making music in junior high and
played in several local bands in Texas
and Arkansas before hitting in
big in Hollywood as an
actor/screenwriter with Sling Blade. Thornton
rekindled his music career in 2001, with a solo album Private Radio. Three more solo
albums followed, as well as
session work on albums by Earl
Scruggs and Warren Zevon. The Boxmasters, Billy Bob’s Americana /rockabilly
band released their self-titled debut
CD in 2008, followed by a Christmas album later that year. The rowdy two-disc
set Modbilly followed in 2009
Zooey Deschanel branched out into indie music via her role
in the 2007 film, The Go-Getter.
After recording a cover of the Linda and
Richard Thompson song, When I Get to the
Border with musician M.Ward for the soundtrack, she and Ward began working together on some of her
original songs. The project resulted in the duo’s ongoing indie-pop band, She and Him, has garnered positive
reviews from critics for its breezy, Mamas & Papas influenced retro sound.
Former Gossip Girl
Taylor Momsem set the celebrity sites ablaze with her recent revelation that
she was quitting acting to devote time to her music career. While some might
chalk this move up to youthful experimentation, Taylor
is only 16, but her band’s music has been compared to Led Zepplin with a female
singer. Taylor wails like a
grunge-era Courtney Love with ‘80s Goth thrown in for good measure. She has a
strong, rock ‘n’ roll voice, not a trained theatrical voice like a lot of young
actors, and one could never mistake her for an actress moonlighting as a :rock
star.” Pretty Reckless formed in 2009, and Interscope Records signed them in
2010. The band’s first album Light Me Up was just released, with the band playing tour dates in Australia,
England, Germany
and the U.S. They even played the Montreux Jazz Festival in Switzerland
this past July. Her route is similar to that of quirky actress turned
hard-rocker Juliette Lewis, whose female Iggy Pop music and stage persona
seemed almost a natural extension of her roles in Kalifornia and Natural Born
Killers.
Boasting a marquee name can lead
fans to listen, but won’t necessarily make them-or critics-approve. Anywhere I Lay My Head, Scarlett Johansson’s ambitious album of Tom Waits covers,
featured guest appearances by David Bowie and members of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs,
but even musical star power and lush orchestrations couldn’t set the project on
a winning course with fans, and the album faded away. Johansson’s subsequent
musical project, Break Up, with indie
musician Pete Yorn, fared better. Yorn enlisted Scarlett to play the modern-day
Brigette Bardott to his updated version
of French songwriter Serge Gainsbourg, and the result is a melancholy tale
of a sputtering romance told by two soon to be ex-lovers.
Of course, this is just a partial
listing of recent singing actors. Minnie Driver has a country singing career; Nicole Kidman did a duet of Something Stupid with Robbie Williams,
and so on and so on. Most of the celebrity albums are well-produced and have
some artistic merit. Whether their musical efforts will resonate emotionally
with fans as much as their dramatic performances is an open question. Fans have
fond memories of the musical blips by Potsie and Barbarino, if only for the
camp value Will today’s thespian musical
releases be remembered by fans in a few decades-or even a few months? Only time
will tell.
Milla Jovovich channels Maya Deren in the video for Gentleman Who Fell, 1994
