T-Bone Burnett interview: 'I work with the Coen brothers any chance I get' What strikes you immediately about the film is the extent to which its music plays a central part. It opens with Isaac as Llewyn, sitting on stage in a club playing Hang Me, Oh Hang Me, a traditional song arranged by Burnett. Unusually for film, it was recorded live - and Isaac sings it all the way through. "That was a conscious decision, because this is a movie about a musician," says Burnett. The most detail you can get about a musician is when you're close to him while he's performing live. This was pure and raw - one performer, one guitarist, playing a song. That's where you meet him, learn about him, get to know him. At preview screenings, audiences have started to applaud when the song finishes, as though they're watching it live. "They're pulled into that club," Burnett says, smiling. That's the Coens' alchemy. How do they do that? They know where to put the camera. For Burnett, the big attraction of Inside Llewyn Davis was the Coens' script, with its diffident, self-centred hero. He clearly won't amount to much in the music business; Llewyn finds it hard to think beyond whose couch he'll be crashing on the next night. But when he picks up his guitar to sing, there's a purity and authenticity about him that's undeniable. Llewyn's story asserts that music, irrespective of its commercial success, has intrinsic value - something Burnett believes needs reaffirming. "I'd say internet culture has wiped out the middle class of musicians," he says. Music has been badly devalued. There's a whole bunch of smart kids today who are already stepping away from that internet culture, because it makes no sense. They see it for what it is - it's a surveillance mechanism. It'll have to change. He comes to these views through his evangelical championing of American music - country, blues, jazz and bluegrass among them. "Music is to us as wine is to France, an important part of our national identity," he says. We've defined ourselves through music from the beginning of our country. It was a great act of democratisation in the States, when we went down south, recorded the poorest people in our country and broadcast their voices round the world. So music to us is central to whatever the American character is. Burnett cuts an imposing figure. He's 6ft 4in, a slender man who stands tall. He has strong, craggy features, topped off by a shock of thick fair hair. He wouldn't look out of place as a stern patriarch in a sepia-tinted Victorian family portrait. Yet he is genial, amusing company. "I never wanted to be a public performer," he admits. I've never been comfortable on stage. With the Rolling Thunder Revue I stood at the back of the stage and didn't move. It's inhibiting when you're a foot taller than anyone else and you have to bend down to the mike. I wasn't made for that. When I was young and starting out, I thought Burt Bacharach had the best life of anybody. He was good-looking, he owned horses, he wrote songs for movies. A beat: "And he was married to Angie Dickinson." But I loved the studio, and recording. I loved the idea that you could go in and nothing was there, but you come out and something is there, something beautiful. I guess I devoted my life early on to that notion. I certainly didn't leave myself any Plan B. He laughs: "There's much more Llewyn Davis in me than I'd like to admit." The Coens' movie won't add to his collection of awards; Burnett's work is ineligible for Oscars or Baftas, as its songs are not original. But he'll happily work with them again: "Any chance I get," he says. Oscar Isaac and Justin Timberlake in Inside Llewyn Davis Meanwhile, he has a full dance card. He's recording an album with Jerry Lee Lewis, as famous for his chaotic, errant life as for his career as a rock 'n' roll legend and country artist. "We're doing songs that feel like a biography," he explains. Because of Jerry Lee's history, you can put a lyric in his mouth, it changes a song completely. He's done the music for the TV series Nashville, created by his wife, screenwriter Callie Khouri (Thelma and Louise); he left after one season due to "knock-down, bloody" fights with network bosses. Next he starts work on another new TV series, HBO's True Detective, starring Matthew McConaughey and Woody Harrelson. An Elvis Presley biopic, Last Train to Memphis, is in the works, with Mick Jagger producing. How does Burnett bring out the best in so many artists? By reminding them of what they do best, it seems. It worked with Elton John, whose fame and celebrity often seem to overshadow his music: "He's a piano player, that was the deal. I told him: 'Forget that other stuff. You're a piano player, go play piano. Burnett sighs: "Its all about the music, in the end." T-Bone Burnett - The Killer Moon on MUZU.TV. Inside Llewyn Davis opens on Jan 24