O Brother,
Where Art Thou?
The Soundtrack
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Soundtrack/Various Artists Songs:Po Lazurus - James Carter and the Prisoners, Big Rock Candy Mountain - Harry McClintock, You Are My Sunshine - Norman Blake, Down To The RiverTo Pray - Alison Krauss, I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow - The Soggy Bottom Boys featuring Dan Tyminski, Hard Time Killing Floor Blues - Chris Thomas King, I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow - Norman Blake instrumental, Keep On The Sunny Side - The Whites, I'll Fly Away - Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss, Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby - Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, & Gillian Welch, In The Highways - Sarah, Hannah, and Leah Peasall, I Am Weary (Let Me Rest) - The Cox Family, I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow - John Hartford instrumental, O Death - Ralph Stanley, In The Jailhouse Now - The Soggy Bottom Boys featuring Tim Blake Nelson, I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow - The Soggy Bottom Boys (with full band) featuring Dan Tyminski, Indian War Whoop - John Hartford, Lonesome Valley - Fairfield Four, Angel Band - The Stanley Brothers Personnel: members of Union Station and The Nashville Bluegrass Band, all of the artists listed above, and others too numerous to mention here.
Bluegrass goes Hollywood! It has been a long time since a major motion picture had a lot of bluegrass music featured in the soundtrack -- Bonnie and Clyde and Deliverance come to mind -- and it is long overdue. Lucky for bluegrass and old-time fans that the Coen Brothers have made a film where the music is central to the story, and in O Brother, Where Art Thou? the music is one of the stars. And most of the music in O Brother is also in a second movie that will be released soon called Down From The Mountain, which is a documentary about the music from the O Brother film.So not only can you hear the great songs on the soundtrack, you can see the players play them in the second film. Produced by T. Bone Burnett, the soundtrack to O Brother has 19 songs and 15 performers, with most of them backed up by members of Union Station (Alison Krauss' band) and The Nashville Bluegrass Band. These guys also play the music of the Soggy Bottom Boys in O Brother. James Carter and the Prisoners sing the first song, "Po Lazurus," which kicks off the movie, and it is from a field recording by music historian Alan Lomax. Real prisoners sang it on a chain gang, and you can hear them swinging axes in unison. "Big Rock Candy Mountain," which was written and recorded by Harry McClintock in 1928, is a hobo's dream that has some very clever lyrics. Norman Blake sings the classic "You Are My Sunshine." The writer of "Sunshine," former Louisiana Governor Jimmie Davis, died in mid-November at the age of 101, just weeks before O Brother was released. The main song in O Brother is "I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow," and it is on the soundtrack four times. There are two different vocal versions of it with lead vocals by Dan Tyminski, and there are also guitar and fiddle instrumental versions of it by Norman Blake and John Hartford, respectively.The Whites do a lovely rendition of the Carter Family's "Keep On The Sunny Side," and the Cox Family covers "I Am Weary (Let Me Rest)," which was written by Pete (Kuykendall) Roberts. Alison Krauss delivers a divine version of "Down To The River To Pray" that features an all-star choir of Tim O'Brien, Maura O'Connell, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, and others. Alison and Gillian do a nice duet on the traditional gospel song "I'll Fly Away," and they team up with Emmylou Harris on an a capella song called "Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby," where if you listen close you can hear Emmylou sing the low harmony. Chris Thomas King, who has a plum of a part as Tommy Johnson in O Brother, plays the bluesy "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues," which he also sang in his film role. Tim Blake Nelson, who as Delmar is one of the stars of the film, does a hilarious rendering of the Jimmie Rodgers song "In The Jailhouse Now," and he is backed by The Soggy Bottom Boys, with Pat Enright providingthe yodeling. The youngPeasall Sisters almost steal the show on Maybelle Carter's "In The Highways," which June, Helen, and Anita Carter sang when they were kids. John Hartford, who also emcees the Down From The Mountain documentary, plays fiddle with the Cox Family on "SunnySide," and he is the artist on "Indian War Whoop." The Fairfield Four, a vocal group that spans a 77 year history, performs the song "Lonesome Valley." The legendary Ralph Stanley shines on a haunting a capella version of "O Death," and the final song on the CD and in O Brother is the Stanley Brothers classic recording of the song "Angel Band." The Coen Brothers are big fans of bluegrass and old-time music, so much so that O Brother, Where Art Thou? sometimes feelslike a musical. Which is great, as anytime bluegrass and old-time "star" in a feature film, it helps get the word out to the uninitiated. If this movie is a success, maybe the powers-that-be who have been accused of "Murder On Music Row" by singer LarryCordle, will come to their senses and discover where the real country music is. O Brother, wouldn't that be something? Larry Carlin, Sausalito, California | Write to | Web site |
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By Larry Carlin