Beautiful Door

The Boxmasters Billy Bob Thornton & The Boxmasters sound combines the influence of the Beatles, The Rolling Stones, Kinks, and the Animals, fused with Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens, Roy Acuff and Hank Williams. Fashioned after a 1960 s-era mod band (including matching suits and ties!),...	Private Radio You wouldn't expect the man behind Sling Blade to turn out a pedestrian album, but Billy Bob Thornton's country debut turns out to be surprising both for its risks and for its routine. To his credit, Thornton, with Marty Stuart producing, bypasses radio formula for a different ki...	Hobo	The Edge of the World	Raising Sand Perhaps only the fantasy duo of King Kong and Bambi could be a more bizarre pairing than Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. Yet on Raising Sand, their haunting and brilliant collaboration, the Led Zeppelin screamer and Nashville's most hypnotic song whisperer seem made for each othe...
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Who knew that this CD would be so awesome?!?!
I bought this after seeing Billy bob Thornton and the Boxmasters play. though this was not the songs played that night, I love them everybit as much and more then the Boxmaster music. I'm no music reviewer, I only know I like what I like, and Beautuful Door is unlike anything else I own, BUT, I love music that you can understand and says something, expresses something, speaks to you not only in words but music, and that is what I have found with this cd. It's a keeper that stays in the changer in the car and is a staple through the week.

BBT Beautiful Door
An excellent album-well-played and well-produced; avaialable at a great price and shipped with alacrity. How little life must you have that you're making VIDEOs of the reviews? (Because we CAN do something doesn't mean we should, really!)

In fine voice
I've only heard two songs from this, on Pandora, and I'm so excited to get the CD (I ordered it here last night), excited like I haven't been about music in a long time. Private Radio is still in my work playlist, four years on. When my heart hurts, when my soul aches, it never fails to soothe me. When my brain is numbed by moon/june overplayed country radio, it never fails to challenge me. When I'm lonely to the bone, hearing it feels like finding a cherished friend. Edge of the World and Hobo didn't strike those chords for me. But even so, I ordered this one just because it was only ten bucks and I was "voting with my card," so to speak. Even if one of BBT's CDs doesn't grab and hold me like Private Radio, I consider it money well spent to support an artist and his work. So today I was chopping veggies for some homemade marinara to use up a batch of tomatoes and dialed Pandora in for its lack of commercial crap. I called up Billy Bob and got two songs off this CD, Beautiful Door and Restin' Your Soul, and was struck by how his voice has improved. Cynics will say it's the production that's improved, but technotweaking can only go so far. It can't put something in a voice that isn't already there, and I hear resonance and confidence. I can't wait to hear the rest. Billy Bob, if you ever read these reviews, and I hope you do, thank you.

Who else would write a song about OCD?
Seriously! I learned about this CD via NPR and Mr. Thornton was saying "Always Counting on You" wasn't just the love song it sounded like--it was a song about dealing with his OCD concerning numbers. According to his own admission, Thornton got a lot of his music from his own life. Before he was an actor, he worked at a mill, as a waiter, and other jobs. He's definitely in touch with the common man. "Carnival Girl" talks about a life few of us see. Thornton touches subjects few artists would. "Restin' your soul" touches on suicide: I've always wondered if we black out and just go That has always been my fear If you're looking for the magic that's unknown Just know that you stole some magic here His voice isn't pretty, but what he sings about isn't always pretty, either. Guy Clark likes his diction, so we've got no "Louie, Louie" effect. The musicianship is very good. "Door" is definitely an eye-opener for me. I've been fond of Thornton's acting for a long time, but had no idea he was a musician as well. He's well worth listening to as well as watching on the big screen.

+1/2 -- Dark, thoughtful first-person Americana
It's hard not to think "dilettante" when a celebrity crosses over from one field of artistry to another. But in Thornton's case, music was a part of his life long before he found acting fame. He spent time in cover bands performing from the catalogs of Creedence Clearwater Revival and ZZ Top, and played is several high school and college groups. He left music for acting, but returned in 2001 with the solo debut, "Private Radio," written and produced with Marty Stuart. Additional albums followed in 2003 and 2006, and this fourth release, co-written with guitarist Brad Davis, is his most focused and personal yet. Thornton and Davis' country-tinged Americans is laid back, yet dramatic, hinged upon Thornton's deadpan delivery and rough low notes in the Dave Alvin vein. Graham Nash's harmonies provide sweetening on several tracks. Thornton's not a particularly artful or refined singer, but his directness fits the lyrics and the heavy topics that are on his mind. In "Restin' Your Soul" he contemplates the moment of death and the life of those left behind, he recalls the past on "In the Day" and questions those who hang on so tightly that they can't live in the here and now. He pines with a broken heart tortured by the never-ending appearances of a matinee idol former flame, detests the selling of human-scale tragedy as prime-time media soap, and laments the loss of youth. It's pretty gloomy, but comes up for air with "Carnival Girl," a surprisingly romantic song of the can't-tell-a-book-by-it's-cover variety, with a clever chorus that cleverly works "Tilt-a-Whirl" into rhyme. This is obviously much more to Thornton's musical career than an actor finding a creative outlet between film projects. Thornton writes with an openness that's almost unnerving, but his expression doesn't yet rank with those of his musical kin, and his vocals, though moving, can sound more like acting than singing. 3-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2007 hyperbolium dot com]