Jeff Bridges, who won an Oscar for portraying a rugged country singer in Crazy Heart, has signed with Blue Note Records/EMI Music Group for his major-label debut album, due in late summer. Bridges will work with producer T Bone Burnett, who served as a producer and music supervisor for Crazy Heart. They met when Kris Kristofferson introduced them while filming Heaven's Gate in 1980. In addition, Burnett selected the songs for the 1998 film The Big Lebowski, starring Bridges, and co-wrote the Oscar-winning song, "The Weary Kind," from Crazy Heart. Along with choosing outside material, Bridges will include some of his own compositions on the project, which will also feature guest vocalists Rosanne Cash, Sam Phillips and Benji Hughes. In 2000, Bridges released Be Here Soon, an album he co-produced with Michael McDonald.