Sometimes a really good album comes totally unexpected, right out of no where. I heard the O Brother Where Art Thou? Soundtrack before I saw the movie or even heard of the movie. We were in Aric’s truck and hew was driving us up to Strawberry for another fishing weekend. This would have been October of 2001. We were on 131 a few miles north of Grand Rapids when I first heard the rock breaking opening of what I now know to be Po Lazarus. As they song went on I couldn’t help but wonder what the heck I was listening to. Aric had already begun to dabble in country music. This seemed to take it a step further. He had only been living in North Carolina for 5 months but it appeared to be already taking its toll.
As the song continued he explained that it was from a movie based on Homer’s The Odyssey, called O Brother Where Art Thou? It seemed hard to explain and hard to comprehend. Fortunately, Big Rock Candy Mountain soon followed and from that point on, it was amazingly cool to listen to.
It carried this vintage feel that blended Old Timey music with Bluegrass and Appalachian music. It is a really good album. It made me want to explore more mountain music. It sent Scott on an Alison Krauss Odyssey. Isn’t it cool how such a small event as listening to this in the truck altered Scott’s Musical Evolution?
I eventually saw the film but it happened in an unorthodox Tarentino way. It was running on the Starz network that winter. The first time, I came in at the point where the Soggy Bottom Boys were on stage performing Man Of Constant Sorrow. I had recognized the song but I think the whole Odyssey aspect threw me off. I was trying to figure out how this was The Odyssey. A few days later, I saw it gain only I started watching it from about half an hour before where I came in the previous time. This happened 4 or 5 times. Each time I’d start from a little closer to the beginning and watch to the end. I finally wised up and set the VCR to get the whole thing.
It is a very entertaining film and like other period films like Mandingo, the vernacular is a character. They way they speak and the words they use are very interesting. I still think the Odyssey thing is a stretch.
James Carter And The Prisoners – Po Lazarus Imagine hearing this with no idea what it means.
Harry McClintock – Big Rock Candy Mountain
Alison Krauss – Down To The River To Pray
Chris Thomas King – Hard Time Killing Floor Blues
The Whites – Keep On The Sunny Side
Alison Krauss – I’ll Fly Away
Alison Krauss – Didn’t Leave Nobody But The Baby
Pesall Sisters – In The Highways
The Soggy Bottom Boys – In The Jailhouse Now
Soggy Bottom Boys – Man Of Constant Sorrow