O Brother, Where Art Thou?
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Music CD Cover
Brand: VARIOUSEdition: Music CD
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Format: Soundtrack
Published: 2000-12-05
CD Release Date: 2000-12-05
Music Label: Lost Highway
Soundtracks:
- Po Lazarus - J. Carter & Prisoners
- Big Rock Candy Mountain - Harry McLintock
- You Are My Sunshine - Norman Blake
- Down In The River To 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
- Man Of Constant Sorrow (Instrumental) - Norman Blake
- Keep On The Sunny Side - The Whites
- I'll Fly Away - Gillian Welch & Alison Krauss
- Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby - Gillian Welch, Alison Krauss & Emmylou Harris
- In The Highways - The Peasall Sisters
- I Am Weary - The Cox Family
- I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow (Instrumental) - John Hartford
- O Death - Ralph Stanley
- In The Jailhouse Now - The Soggy Bottom Boys featuring Tim Blake Nelson
- I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow (With band) - The Soggy Bottom Boys featuring Dan Tyminski
- Indian War Whoop (Instrumental) - John Hartford
- Lonesome Valley - The Fairfield Four
- Angel Band - The Stanley Brothers
Free Music Notes for O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Free Music Review: Yes, my dad brought me up with this stuff...
Hit: 5 Stars
I bought this album for Dad, then got fond of it myself. Occupational hazard of being the family's designated gadget operator (e.g. for DVD players).
The songs on the album are presented in the order in which they appear in the film; they appear in full here even when only excerpts are included in the film. They're mostly very traditional songs, sometimes decades-old recordings that were incorporated into the soundtrack as they stood; the notable exception is "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow".
WARNING: If you listen to this with a fanatical bluegrass fan, you may have to put up with a lot of complaining during the film itself about the actors talking across the music. Talk about the plot getting in the way of the story...
"Po Lazarus" (James Carter & the Prisoners) is a 1959 recording of a real Mississippi chain gang singing a capella while chopping wood. The recording is used as part of the chain gang sequence as the trio escape during the opening credits, with an overlay of stone-breaking sounds since that's what the prisoners on screen are doing.
"Big Rock Candy Mountain" Harry McClintock's 1928 recording of this hobo anthem accompanies McGill, Pete, and Delmar through the opening credits as they flee across country after their big break.
"You Are My Sunshine" (Norman Blake) which really was a Depression-era campaign theme song, though in Louisiana rather than Mississippi.
"Down to the River to Pray" (Alison Krauss, with others including the First Baptist Choir of White House, TN) Sung a capella during the Delmar-and-Pete-get-saved scene.
"I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" - first arrangement, sung by the trio at the radio station, as a guitar and voice arrangement. Although Clooney rehearsed a great deal for it (and is from Kentucky as indicated by the song), Dan Tyminski actually sings the lead vocals, which are lip-synched by Clooney in the film.
"Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" (Chris Thomas King, vocals and guitar)
"I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" Guitar arrangement without vocals, quite different from the first and fourth arrangements sung by Tyminski (slower tempo, rather reflective).
"Keep on the Sunny Side" (Sharon, Buck, and Cheryl White; mandolin and guitar arrangement) appears in the film as the 'reform' candidate's competing 'sunshine' campaign song.
"I'll Fly Away" I believe most every 20th century church-going Protestant from the deep South has heard (and probably sung) some arrangement of this song. This version is for mandolin and guitar, sung by Alison Krauss and Gillian Welch. Very plain 4/4 arrangement, but good.
"Didn't Leave Nobody But the Baby" is the lullaby accompanying the siren scene at the river (the spooky women who attempt to seduce the trio). The actual singers are Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, and Gillian Welch.
"In the Highways" is the piece sung by McGill's little girls during the contest when the audience first sees his family. The very high pitch and nasal overtones set my teeth on edge, so I can't stand to listen to more than the opening line before flipping to the next song. (The actual young singers are from the same town as the choir singing "Down to the River to Pray".)
"I Am Weary (Let Me Rest)" Sung by the Cox family, who appear on screen.
"I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow", this time as a solo fiddle arrangement performed by John Hartford, differing yet again from the instrumental guitar arrangement and either of the vocal arrangements.
"O Death" is the same recording as that used in the film. However, the film overlays the recording with a chorus not included here (a parody of the Wizard of Oz scene where Dorothy's friends infiltrate the Witch's guards, involving a lot of marching and bass-voiced harmony). The unvarnished recording here is sung a capella by Ralph Stanley (it was lip-synched in the film).
"In the Jailhouse Now" - the Soggy Bottom Boys sing this as their first song at the political rally late in the film.
"I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" - final arrangement, sung at the political rally late in the film, this time arranged more elaborately for mandolin as well as guitar, and sung at a slower tempo than the radio station scene's arrangement.
"Indian War Whoop" (vocal, fiddle, mandolin, and guitar, heavy on the fiddle) The minor key aspects of this may turn some listeners off; this is the kind of old-timey song that people either love or skip completely. No lyrics, although a kind of singing is going on.
"Lonesome Valley" Members of the Fairfield Four sing this on screen as gravediggers, as the "man with no eyes" prepares to hang the fugitives.
"Angel Band" (Stanley Brothers) "My latest sun is sinkin' fast, my race is nearly run..."
O Brother, Where Art Thou? Poster
It has been a decade since one of the most unlikely successes in music history was released. O Brother, Where Art Thou? is one of the 10 top-selling soundtracks of all time (according to the RIAA), the No. 1-selling soundtrack and the 17th biggest album of the 21st Century, with more than nine million albums sold. On August 23, UMe will celebrate this 10th Anniversary with an expanded two-CD set, O Brother, Where Art Thou? - Deluxe Edition, with legendary original producer T Bone Burnett personally involved in all aspects of this release.The album that rocketed bluegrass, roots and even Americana music from the 20th Century into the new millennium features a 14-track bonus disc. Twelve of these newly-released songs were recorded during original sessions for the film, most of which went unheard on-screen. This release marks the first time these tracks have been made available in any format.
Produced by 12-time GRAMMY® Award- and Academy Award-winner T Bone Burnett, the original O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack from the 2000 film--written, directed and produced by the Coen Brothers and starring George Clooney--shot to No.1 on the Billboard Top 200 and Country charts and became a bona fide music phenomenon, despite scant radio airplay. Along with ALBUM OF THE YEAR honors, the album won GRAMMYs® for "I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow" performed by Dan Tyminski, Harley Allen and Pat Enright, and "O Death" by the legendary Dr. Ralph Stanley.
The second disc of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? - Deluxe Edition features artists who appeared on the original album (John Hartford, Norman Blake, the Fairfield Four, the Cox Family and the Peasall Sisters) plus some who did not (Colin Linden, Alan O'Bryant, Ed Lewis and Van Dyke Parks). The disc's previously recorded tracks are "Tom Devil" by Ed Lewis and the Prisoners, and "I'll Fly Away" by the Kossoy Sisters.
The best soundtracks are like movies for the ears, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? joins the likes of Saturday Night Fever and The Harder They Come as cinematic pinnacles of song. The music from the Coen brothers' Depression-era film taps into the source from which the purest strains of country, blues, bluegrass, folk, and gospel music flow. Producer T Bone Burnett enlists the voices of Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, Ralph Stanley, and kindred spirits for performances of traditional material, in arrangements that are either a cappella or feature bare-bones accompaniment. Highlights range from the aching purity of Krauss's "Down to the River to Pray" to the plainspoken faith of the Whites' "Keep on the Sunny Side" to Stanley's chillingly plaintive "O Death." The album's spiritual centerpiece finds Krauss, Welch, and Harris harmonizing on "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby," a gospel lullaby that sounds like a chorus of Appalachian angels. --Don McLeese
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