JEFF BRIDGES "This album is a natural extension of the love of music I've had all my life," says Jeff Bridges. And, in fact, "natural" is as good a word as any to describe the feeling of Bridges' self-titled major label debut. Featuring a roster of magnificent songwriters and musicians, and produced by Bridges' friend of three decades, Grammy-award winner T Bone Burnett, the ten-song disc is soulful and heartfelt. It may mark a switch from the six-time Oscar nominee's usual day job, but the performances on Jeff Bridges consistently feel both comfortable and true. The album is a logical follow-up to Bridges' Academy Award-winning portrayal of grizzled former country music legend Bad Blake in the 2009 film Crazy Heart. "I actually passed on the movie at first because it had no music in it," says Bridges, "but when I found out that T Bone was interested, I was like, 'Let's do this thing.' There are numerous echoes of Crazy Heart to be found on Jeff Bridges. In addition to Burnett's participation, songwriters Stephen Bruton, John Goodwin, and Greg Brown contributed to both projects, and Ryan Bingham (who won an Oscar, a Golden Globe, and a Grammy Award for co-writing the film's “The Weary Kind”) adds vocals to the opening track, "What a Little Bit of Love Can Do." Bo Ramsay's "Either Way" had been considered for the movie, and "Slow Boat," co-written by Bridges and Burnett, is actually the title of a Bad Blake song that's mentioned in Thomas Cobb's original Crazy Heart novel.But Bridges' involvement in music goes back a lot longer, and far deeper, than just this one film. "I've been into music ever since I was a kid," he says. "My mother forced me to take piano lessons, maybe when I was around 8—I got as far as 'Fur Elise' and I bailed, and I've regretted it ever since." But then he discovered his brother Beau's Danelectro guitar, and starting in high school, joined up with his grade-school buddy Goodwin and a group of other friends for a Wednesday night jam session—which they continued, every week, for the next fifteen years. ("We recorded everything we did on a reel to reel," says Bridges. "We've talked about mining that stuff, seeing if there's anything worth polishing up.") Though his parents, actors Dorothy and Lloyd Bridges, encouraged their kids to pursue the thespian track, Jeff was more interested in music and art. But when he started to see some success in the movies at a young age, he says he was "drawn to the path of least resistance, and music took a backseat—but I was still writing all that time."