White Heats Up “Cold Mountain”
For the soundtrack to the new Civil War movie Cold
Mountain, starring Nicole Kidman, Jude Law, and Renee
Zellweger, director Anthony Minghella gave producer T Bone Burnett
a monumental task. Burnett, who also compiled the Grammy-winning
O Brother, Where Art Thou soundtrack, needed to bring
together contemporary songs that could stand up next to the
centuries-old gospel standards also to be featured in the movie.
“Those songs are so profound,” Burnett says. “The difficulty is
to write something today that profound — especially when
there’s not a premium in the pop culture on that sort of
thing.”
Burnett wasn’t looking to make an all-star soundtrack, so
instead he enlisted a small, diverse circle of talent: Sting,
Alison Krauss and Jack White. White — who makes his acting debut
in Cold Mountain as Georgia, a traveling singer —
contributes five tracks to the soundtrack.
“We brought Jack in because he’s a great rock & roll
singer,” Burnett explains. “There’s no one who comes close in the
breadth of his knowledge, soul, generosity and courage.”
Burnett also points out that White has a history with the
American roots spirit and sounds of Cold Mountain. “He’s
not a kid who comes to this in this moment,” Burnett says. “He’s
been singing this music for a lot of his life.”
“T Bone brought me into this project,” White says, “so I thank
him for that forever. There are so many different things going on
— from blues to folk to country. I’m proud to be a part of
it.”
Sting contacted Burnett to ask if he could contribute to the
project after reading the novel by Charles Frazier on which the
film is based. He then wrote “The Scarlet Tide,” a song Burnett
calls “the voice of [the character] Ada calling Inman back to the
mountain.”
Krauss’ vocals transform the song into a haunting hymn. “I wrote
it for a woman,” Sting says. “I was trying to sing it, but I
couldn’t do it. So it was great to hear this perfect voice
translate my words.”
Krauss, who worked with Burnett on O Brother, Where Art
Thou?, also contributes “You Will Be My Ain True Love.” “T
Bone is a fan of traditional music,” Krauss says, “and he displays
it in the most pure way he can.”
White, Krauss and Sting and several bluegrass musicians
performed music from the film earlier this month in Los Angeles.
Kidman, Law, and other actors from the film read portions of the
book. Burnett is talking about mounting a tour based on the movie
and music in April.
“I love this music,” Burnett says. “I’ve always cherished it,
and I’m happy to share it with others.”