Yesterday’s honky-tonk hero, Bad Blake, arrives at a Clovis, New Mexico, bowling alley. It’s another in a string of low-pay, low-turnout gigs with pickup bands half his age, grinding the greatest hits ...

Watch a clip from the movie "Crazy Heart," starring Jeff Bridges as a country singer, Maggie Gyllenhaal and Robert Duvall. Video courtesy of Fox Searchlight Pictures.

Crazy Heart, one of my favorite films of 2009, is in theaters. Bad Blake isn’t striking a pose. His life and his music are all of a piece. To my taste and temperament, most country music sounds ...