T Bone Burnett Live Disc Features Elton John, Jeff Bridges + More

Oscar-winning songwriter and producer T Bone Burnett is preparing to release a new live album entitled 'T Bone Burnett Presents: The Speaking Clock Revue,' on October 18, featuring selections from a benefit concert he organized at New York's Beacon Theatre last fall.

Dubbed the Speaking Clock Revue, the October 2010 event featured a star-studded lineup including Elton John, Elvis Costello, Jeff Bridges, Gregg Allman, Neko Case, John Mellencamp, Leon Russell, Ralph Stanley, Jim James, Punch Brothers, Karen Elson and The Secret Sisters. The performers were supported by T Bone's hand-picked house band, led by music director and guitarist Marc Ribot.

The concert was organized in partnership with Participant Media, in an effort to support the inclusion of music and arts education in public school systems. T Bone's collaboration with Participant was inspired by the production company's public education documentary 'Waiting for 'Superman'' by Davis Guggenheim, the Academy-Award-winning filmmaker who directed 'An Inconvenient Truth' and 'It Might Get Loud.'

T Bone had previously collaborated with the majority of the Speaking Clock Revue's performers, and chose the songs featured on the album in conjunction with the featured artists, including Neko Case and Gregg Allman's 'Midnight Rider,' and the rousing 'Fallin' & Flyin',' which he performs with Elvis Costello and Jeff Bridges.

"The privacy and the intimacy of the studio afford artists the freedom to create, but something thrilling happens in getting away from the machines and into the live communication of real-time storytelling in the larger community," T Bone says of the live album's recording. "The first tour I went on, my first job in show business, was on [Bob Dylan's] Rolling Thunder Revue, and I've come back to that type of collaborative and extraordinarily rewarding experience from time to time."

'T Bone Burnett Presents: The Speaking Clock Revue' will hit shelves on October 18.