Length 61:24 Release date 23 October 2000 | Producer T Bone Burnett Label Lost Highway Records | |
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Released December 5, 2000 (2000-12-05) Movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? Genres Soundtrack, Country music, Bluegrass, Old-time music Awards Grammy Award for Album of the Year Similar Raising Sand, Across the Universe, Pitch Perfect 2, Pitch Perfect, Live | ||
O brother were art thou candy mountains
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is the soundtrack album of music from the 2000 American film of the same name, written, directed and produced by the Coen Brothers and starring George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, and John Goodman.
Contents
- O brother were art thou candy mountains
- Down to the river to pray
- Development and sound
- Reception and legacy
- References
With the film set in Mississippi during the Great Depression, the soundtrack, produced by T Bone Burnett, uses bluegrass, country, gospel, blues, and folk music appropriate to the time period. With the exception of a few vintage tracks (such as Harry McClintock's 1928 single "Big Rock Candy Mountain"), most tracks are modern recordings.
The soundtrack was reissued on August 23, 2011, with 14 new tracks that were not included in the original album, "including 12 previously unreleased cuts from music producer T Bone Burnett's O Brother sessions."
Down to the river to pray
Development and sound
The soundtrack was originally conceived as a major component of the film, not merely as a background or support. For this reason it was decided to record a soundtrack before filming. T Bone Burnett was invited to design collections of music. One member of The Stanley Brothers, Ralph Stanley, personally took part in recording the music for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, singing a cappella folk song O Death.
There is a notable use of dirges and other macabre songs, a theme often recurring in Appalachian music, such as in "O Death," "Lonesome Valley," "Angel Band," and "I Am Weary", in contrast to the bright, cheerful songs, like "Keep On the Sunnyside" and "In the Highways", in other parts of the film.
"I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" has five variations: two are used in the film, one in the music video, and two in the soundtrack. Two of the variations feature the verses being sung back-to-back, and the other three variations feature additional music between each verse. The voices of the Soggy Bottom Boys were provided by Dan Tyminski (lead vocal on "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow"), Nashville songwriter Harley Allen, and the Nashville Bluegrass Band's Pat Enright.
Reception and legacy
The soundtrack CD became a best seller, certified eight times platinum as of October 2007 with sales of 7.9 million copies in the United States as of January 2015. It won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2002, the Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals (for singer Dan Tyminski, whose voice overdubbed George Clooney's in the film on "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow", Nashville songwriter Harley Allen, and the Nashville Bluegrass Band's Pat Enright), and the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance for "O, Death" by Ralph Stanley.
In 2001, the album spent over 20 weeks on the Billboard Top Country Chart. It won an award for album of the year and "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" won an award for single of the year from the Country Music Association.
Some of the artists on the soundtrack played a concert at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, which was recorded in the documentary film, Down from the Mountain.
In 2006, the album ranked #38 on CMT's 40 Greatest Albums in Country Music. In 2009, Rhapsody ranked it #8 on the "Country's Best Albums of the Decade" list. Engine 145 Country Music Blog ranked it #5 on the "Country's Best Albums of the Decade" list. In 2010, All Songs Considered, a program on NPR, included the soundtrack on their list of "The Decade's 50 Most Important Recordings."
On August 23, 2011, a 10th anniversary edition was released featuring a bonus disc with 14 new tracks that were not included in the original album, all but two of which were previously unreleased songs from Burnett's original sessions.