Clinch Mountain Echo

OST - O Brother, Where Art Thou?

Music From The Motion Picture

(Mercury 170 069-2) 2000


O Brother, Where Art Thou?
CD Tray Promotional 'Dapper Dan' CD tin

Average Album Rating: 4
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T-Bone Burnett struck musical gold when he put together the soundtrack for the Coen Brothers comedy epic, 'Oh Brother Where Art Thou?'.

The soundtrack won 4 Grammy's in 2001: 'Album Of The Year'; 'Best Compilation Soundtrack Album for a Motion Picture, Television or Other Visual Media'; 'Best Country Collaboration With Vocals' (Dan Tyminski/Harley Allem/Pat Enright); and 'Best Male Country Vocal Performance' for Ralph Stanley's a cappella performance of Oh Death.[1]

It sold somewhere between 8-10 million copies...

To put that into context, Ralph's albums around that time are said to have sold around 5,000 copies,[2] and his first release afterwards 66,000.[3] Ralph apparently bought a Jaguar sports car shortly after the movie came out[4] and thereafter began playing auditoriums rather than smaller clubs...

The soundtrack has three Stanley related tunes:- Oh Death which The Stanley Brothers had cut for King in 1964, and which Ralph had re-recorded with Keith Whitley on Clinch Mountain Gospel;[5] one of Ralph's signature tunes, Man Of Constant Sorrow, which forms the musical backbone of the film, and the closing track, The Stanley Brothers' Angel Band.

There's a nice promotional version of the CD which is packaged in a 'pomade' (hair cream) tin, and a 10th anniversary release with a 2nd disc, which I think has music not included in the film, but no additonal Ralph Stanley content... It's a shame they didn't include one of the two takes Ralph recorded of Oh Death with banjo.[6]

Keep on the sunny side...

Track:
Title:
CD:
(60:37)
1
Po Lazuras
- James Carter & The Prisoners

P.D.
2
Big Rock Candy Mountain
- Harry McClintock

Harry Kirby McClintock
3
You Are My Sunshine
- Norman Blake

Jimmie Davis / Charles Mitchell
4
Down To The River To Pray
- Alison Krauss

P.D.
5
I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow
- Soggy Bottom Boys Feat. Dan Tyminski

P.D. arr C. Stanley
6
Hard Time Killing Floor Blues
- Chris Thomas King

Skip James
7
I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow
- Norman Blake

P.D.
8
Keep On The Sunny Side
- The Whites

A.P. Carter
9
I'll Fly Away
- Gillian Welch / Alison Krauss

Albert E. Brumley
10
Didn't Leave Nobody But The Baby
- Gillian Welch / Alison Krauss / Emmylou Harris

P.D. ?
11
In The Highways
- Sarah, Hannah & Lean Peasall

Maybelle Carter
12
I Am Weary (Let Me Rest)
- The Cox Family

Pete Roberts
13
I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow
- John Hartford

P.D. arr. Ed Haley
14
O Death
- Ralph Stanley

P.D.
15
In The Jailhouse Now
- Soggy Bottom Boys Feat. Tim Blake Nelson

Jimmie Rodgers
16
I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow
- Soggy Bottom Boys Feat. Dan Tyminski

P.D. arr C. Stanley
17
Indian War Whoop
- John Hartford

Hoyt Ming
18
Lonesome Valley
- Fairfield Four

P.D.
19
Angel Band
- The Stanley Brothers

Jefferson Hascall / William B. Bradbury

Go To Top Of Page [1] http://www.grammy.com/nominees/search?artist=&field_nominee_work_value=&year=2001&genre=All
[2] http://www.didaskalia.net/issues/vol3no3/wright.html
[3] Ken Irwin (Rounder Records) post to BGRASS-L email list 3rd May 2016. http://lsv.uky.edu/archives/bgrass-l.html
[4] Video included in this obituary:- http://www.richmond.com/entertainment/music/article_016a8768-7207-551c-a2f4-9e7c642ab952.html
[5] There's also a chiling live version on V/A - Berkshire Mountains Bluegrass Festival
[6] Before recording the a cappella take, Ralph had learned the Doc Boggs' version of Oh Death an two takes were recorded. Ralph Stanley and Eddie Dean's book 'Man Of Constant Sorrow' (p. 427)