Stephen Bruton
was a prolific songwriter, singer, recording artist, and
Grammy-nominated record producer who worked and collaborated with
Bonnie Raitt, Christine McVie, Kris Kristofferson, Elvis Costello,
Carly Simon, Eric Clapton, Alejandro Escovedo, T. Bone Burnett and The
Wallflowers among others. Notable artists that have recorded his songs
include Raitt, Kristofferson, Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Johnny
Cash, Patty Loveless and Martina McBride. He was a founding member of
the band The Resentments and has several solo albums out with the
record label, New West. His last projects included the collaboration
with Grammy-Award Winner, T. Bone Burnett, as a music producer and
composer on the soundtrack for the Jeff Bridges' movie, Crazy Heart
(2010) and sessions for Kristofferson's album "Starlight and Stone." www.stephenbruton.com
the interview
Stephen was my first official
on-camera interview for Epiphany. It happened to be very
interesting timing when I mentioned the project to him because his
epiphany had just happened to him only a few weeks before. He had been
battling tonsillar cancer for about eighteen months and, like so many
of my subjects, I was lucky to get his interview because the guy, even
fighting cancer, was extremely busy. We just went out in his backyard
in Austin and shot his story. Their dogs knocked the camera around and
airplanes and traffic zoomed by, but we somehow got it all under
control and knocked the interview out in about 15 minutes. He was so
present, strong, real, intense, funny and extremely compelling - the
quintessential Stephen. Stephen lost his battle with cancer about a
year later on May 9, 2009. An amazing musician, beautiful poet,
wonderful friend and great example of living every day to the fullest,
he stayed in the moment and did what he loved - playing, writing and
producing music - to the very end.
