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.	Artist	Title	Album	Buy
1	Estil C. Ball	Lonesome Valley	Sounds of the South [Disc 3] – Negro Church Music & White Spirituals
2	The Carter Family With Special Guest Johnny Cash	Lonesome Valley	Keep On The Sunny Side
3	Harry McClintock	Big Rock Candy Mountain	O Brother, Where Art Thou?
4	Jimmie Davis With Charles Mitchell's Orchestra	You Are My Sunshine	Decca Country Classics 1934-1973 [Disc 1]
5	Alison Krauss	Down To The River To Pray	A Hundred Miles Or More: A Collection
6	Peasall Sisters	Fair and Tender Ladies	Home to You
7	Roberta Martin Singers	The Old Ship of Zion	Halleluja Gospel & Prayers
8	The Stanley Brothers	A Life Of Sorrow	Stanley Brothers & Clinch Mountain Boys
9	Dan Tyminski/Soggy Bottom Boys	Man of Constant Sorrow	O Brother, Where Art Thou?
10	W. Lee & His Hillbilly Boys	Please Pass The Biscuits Pappy	Western Swing Chronicles Vol. 4 1933-1938
11	Country Gentlemen	I Am Weary (Let Me Rest)	1963 (Warped 6305)
12	The Stanley Brothers & The Clinch Mountain Boys	Clinch Mountain Backstep	Constant Sorrow: Bluegrass From Root To Flower [Disc 3]
13	The Whites	Keep on the Sunny Side	O Brother, Where Art Thou?
14	Chuck Wagon Gang	I'll Fly Away	1941-1948 (Warped 4128)
15	Hannah Peasall/Leah Peasall/Sarah Peasall/The Peasall Sisters	In the Highways	O Brother, Where Art Thou?
16	Ralph Stanley	Oh, Death (Featuring Gillian Welch)	Clinch Mountain Sweethearts
17	Jesse Fuller	Amazing Grace	15 Down Home Gospel Classics
18	The Statler Brothers	Statler Brothers – Amazing Grace	Bless This House [Disc 3]
19	The Stanley Brothers	Angel Band	O Brother, Where Art Thou?
20	Bill Monroe & His Blue Grass Boys	Cryin' Holy Unto My Lord	Constant Sorrow: Bluegrass From Root To Flower [Disc 2]
21	Doc Watson	In the Jailhouse Now	Memories
22	Robert Johnson	They're Red Hot	ABC Of The Blues Vol 18
23	Lefty Frizzell	My Rough And Rowdy Ways	Songs Of Jimmie Rodgers
24	Jimmie Rodgers	Frankie And Johnnie	Recordings 1927 – 1933 [Disc 2]
25	Peerless Four	Trouble in My Way	Southern Journey Vol 8 (Velvet Voices: Eastern Shores Choirs, Quartets, and Colonial Era Music)
26	Chuck Wagon Gang/Jack Greene	Family Bible	70th Anniversary
27	J.E. Mainer's Mountaineers	Goin' Down To The River Of Jordan	Take Me To The Water
28	The Carter Family	River Of Jordan	Can The Circle Be Unbroken
29	W. Lee O'Daniel	O'Daniel radio show sign off	Western Swing Chronicles Vol. 4 1933-1938
30	The Carter Family	Can The Circle Be Unbroken	Can The Circle Be Unbroken
31	John Hartford	Indian War Whoop [Instrumental]	O Brother, Where Art Thou?