O Brother Revisited

O Brother Revisited

Roots music found commercial success in 2000 with the release of the movie O Brother Where Art Thou, a finely crafted but outrageous tale of Depression-era America with fantastical imagery of hair wax, baptisms, and chain gangs woven into a tapestry built from Homer’s Odyssey. The music, assembled by T-Bone Burnett, was a major component of the film and recorded before the film even began with Burnett working with the Coen brothers while the script was in its working phases. It would become an effort that elevated a genre at the turn of the century called Americana. This week’s show will share some of the period-specific music that helped to propel the notion that blues, jazz, bluegrass, country, and gospel could be used to put that time and a ghostly familiar culture into focus. We’ll use O Brother’s musical sensibilities to take us somewhere quite familiar (and at the same time quite terrifying) as we pay homage with Americana roots, featuring sounds from The Carters, Jesse Fuller, Dan Tyminski, Jimmie Rodgers, W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel & His Hillbilly Boys, among others.

No.
1Artist Title Album Buy
2Estil C. Ball Lonesome Valley Sounds of the South [Disc 3] – Negro Church Music & White Spirituals Amazon
3The Carter Family With Special Guest Johnny Cash Lonesome Valley Keep On The Sunny Side Amazon
4Harry McClintock Big Rock Candy Mountain O Brother, Where Art Thou? Amazon
5Jimmie Davis With Charles Mitchell's Orchestra You Are My Sunshine Decca Country Classics 1934-1973 [Disc 1] Amazon
6Alison Krauss Down To The River To Pray A Hundred Miles Or More: A Collection Amazon
7Peasall Sisters Fair and Tender Ladies Home to You Amazon
8Roberta Martin Singers The Old Ship of Zion Halleluja Gospel & Prayers Amazon
9The Stanley Brothers A Life Of Sorrow Stanley Brothers & Clinch Mountain Boys Amazon
10Dan Tyminski/Soggy Bottom Boys Man of Constant Sorrow O Brother, Where Art Thou? Amazon
11W. Lee & His Hillbilly Boys Please Pass The Biscuits Pappy Western Swing Chronicles Vol. 4 1933-1938 Amazon
12Country Gentlemen I Am Weary (Let Me Rest) 1963 (Warped 6305) Amazon
13The Stanley Brothers & The Clinch Mountain Boys Clinch Mountain Backstep Constant Sorrow: Bluegrass From Root To Flower [Disc 3] Amazon
14The Whites Keep on the Sunny Side O Brother, Where Art Thou? Amazon
15Chuck Wagon Gang I'll Fly Away 1941-1948 (Warped 4128) Amazon
16Hannah Peasall/Leah Peasall/Sarah Peasall/The Peasall Sisters In the Highways O Brother, Where Art Thou? Amazon
17Ralph Stanley Oh, Death (Featuring Gillian Welch) Clinch Mountain Sweethearts Amazon
18Jesse Fuller Amazing Grace 15 Down Home Gospel Classics Amazon
19The Statler Brothers Statler Brothers – Amazing Grace Bless This House [Disc 3] Amazon
20The Stanley Brothers Angel Band O Brother, Where Art Thou? Amazon
21Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys Cryin' Holy Unto My Lord Constant Sorrow: Bluegrass From Root To Flower [Disc 2] Amazon
22Doc Watson In the Jailhouse Now Memories Amazon
23Robert Johnson They're Red Hot ABC Of The Blues Vol 18 Amazon
24Lefty Frizzell My Rough And Rowdy Ways Songs Of Jimmie Rodgers Amazon
25Jimmie Rodgers Frankie And Johnnie Recordings 1927 – 1933 [Disc 2] Amazon
26Peerless Four Trouble in My Way Southern Journey Vol 8 (Velvet Voices: Eastern Shores Choirs, Quartets, and Colonial Era Music) Amazon
27Chuck Wagon Gang/Jack Greene Family Bible 70th Anniversary Amazon
28J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers Goin' Down To The River Of Jordan Take Me To The Water Amazon
29The Carter Family River Of Jordan Can The Circle Be Unbroken Amazon
30W. Lee O'Daniel O'Daniel radio show sign off Western Swing Chronicles Vol. 4 1933-1938 Amazon
31The Carter Family Can The Circle Be Unbroken Can The Circle Be Unbroken Amazon
32John Hartford Indian War Whoop [Instrumental] O Brother, Where Art Thou? Amazon