True Detective Season 3: Soundtrack
True Detective’s world is built by multiple things – the city in which it is set, the complicated people who inhabit it, and, of course, the soundtrack.
For season three, Joseph Henry ‘T Bone’ Burnett returned for a third time as the show’s music supervisor and composer, collating a soundtrack and creating music that builds an eerie, southern tone.
Much like the previous two seasons, Burnett ensured that season three had its own specific sound, crediting show creator Nic Pizzolatto’s writing for inspiration behind each theme.
“He's one of the most inventive television writers ever. [The] score always grows right out of the character,” he told Esquire. “There was something about this episode, about this season in particular, that once I started playing something, I couldn't stop.”
Here’s what you need to know about the soundtrack - including all the songs and the theme that captured the minds of viewers.
What’s the True Detective Season 3 Theme Song?
Continuing the show’s tradition of having strong theme songs, Season 3 of True Detective is led by ‘Death Letter’ by Cassandra Wilson, from her album ‘New Moon Daughter’.
The song was chosen to depict the eerie tone of the season.
Originally created in 1965 by musician Son House, the song tells the story of someone who has to grapple with the death of a loved one, after receiving a letter about the passing in the post.
Burnett praised Wilson as "the greatest living jazz singer, and maybe the greatest singer living right now in the United States” to Esquire at the time of the season’s release.
He explained of the theme choice: "We're starting and ending the season with deep, deep classic American vernacular.”
Other songs by Wilson are therefore used repeatedly throughout the season.
What songs appear in True Detective Season 3?
The songs that appear in True Detective season three are:
- Just Dropped In – Mickey Newbury
- Nights When I Am Sane – Mickey Newbury
- Sugarlight – X
- 1970 – The Stooges
- Billie’s Blues – Cassandra Wilson
- She Even Woke Me Up To Say Goodbye – Jerry Lee Lewis
- Polly – Dillard & Clark
- My Foolish Heart – Bill Evans
- Blood – Algiers
- When I Go Away – Levon Helm
- Desperados Under the Eaves – Warren Zevon
- Ramblin’ Blues – Mickey Newbury
- Chopinesque – Jon Batiste
- Good Morning Heartache – Cassandra Wilson
Saint James Infirmary Blues – Jon Batiste