O Brother, Where Art Thou? (soundtrack)

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O Brother, Where Art Thou?
Soundtrack album by Various Artists
Released December 5, 2000 (2000-12-05)
Genre Country, bluegrass
Length 61:24
Label Mercury Records
Producer T-Bone Burnett
Various Artists chronology
The Big Lebowski
(1998)
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
(2000)
The Man Who Wasn't There
(2001)
Music sample

O Brother, Where Art Thou? is the soundtrack 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.

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."[1]

Contents

[edit] Reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
Source Rating
Allmusic 4.5/5 stars [2]

The soundtrack CD became a best seller, certified eight times platinum as of October 2007[3] with sales of 7,421,000 copies in the United States up to November 2008.[4] It won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2001, the Grammy Award for Best Country Collaboration with Vocals (for singer Dan Tyminski, whose voice overdubbed George Clooney's in the film on "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.

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.[5] The 9513 Country Music Blog named ranked it #5 on the "Country's Best Albums of the Decade" list.[6]

In 2010, All Songs Considered, a program on NPR, included the soundtrack on their list of "The Decade's 50 Most Important Recordings." [7]

[edit] Track listing

No. Title Writer(s) Artist Length
1. "Po' Lazarus"   traditional James Carter and the Prisoners 4:31
2. "Big Rock Candy Mountain"   McClintock Harry McClintock 2:16
3. "You Are My Sunshine"   Davis, Mitchell Norman Blake 4:26
4. "Down to the River to Pray"   traditional Alison Krauss 2:55
5. "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" (radio station version) Dick Burnett Soggy Bottom Boys & Dan Tyminski 3:10
6. "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues"   James Chris Thomas King 2:42
7. "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" (instrumental) Burnett Norman Blake 4:28
8. "Keep On the Sunny Side"   Blenkhorn, Entwisle The Whites 3:33
9. "I'll Fly Away"   Brumley Alison Krauss & Gillian Welch 3:57
10. "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby"   traditional Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch 1:57
11. "In the Highways"   Carter Leah, Sarah, and Hannah Peasall 1:35
12. "I Am Weary, Let Me Rest"   Roberts (Kuykendall) The Cox Family 3:13
13. "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" (instrumental) Burnett John Hartford 2:34
14. "O Death"   traditional Ralph Stanley 3:19
15. "In the Jailhouse Now"   Blind Blake, Rodgers Soggy Bottom Boys & Tim Blake Nelson 3:34
16. "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" (with band) Burnett Soggy Bottom Boys & Dan Tyminski 4:16
17. "Indian War Whoop" (instrumental) Hoyt Ming John Hartford 1:30
18. "Lonesome Valley"   traditional The Fairfield Four 4:07
19. "Angel Band"   traditional The Stanley Brothers 2:15
Total length:
61:24

[edit] Personnel

[edit] Chart performance

[edit] Album

Chart (2000–2002) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums 1
U.S. Billboard 200 1
U.S. Billboard Top Soundtracks 1
Canadian Albums Chart 3

[edit] Singles

Year Single US Country
2002 "Man of Constant Sorrow" 38

[edit] See also

[edit] References

[edit] External links

Preceded by
Under Rug Swept by Alanis Morissette
Billboard 200 number-one album
March 23 - April 5, 2002
Succeeded by
Now! 9 by various artists
Preceded by
I Need You by LeAnn Rimes
Inside Out by Trisha Yearwood
I'm Already There by Lonestar
Pull My Chain by Toby Keith
Greatest Hits by Martina McBride
Greatest Hits Volume III: I'm a Survivor by Reba McEntire
Scarecrow by Garth Brooks
Drive by Alan Jackson
No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems by Kenny Chesney
Top Country Albums number-one album
February 24 - April 27, 2001
June 30 - July 13, 2001
July 21 - September 14, 2001
September 22 - October 5, 2001
October 27 - November 9, 2001
November 17–23, 2001
January 19 - February 1, 2002
March 16 - May 10, 2002
June 29 - July 5, 2002
Succeeded by
Coyote Ugly by Various Artists
I'm Already There by Lonestar
Pull My Chain by Toby Keith
Greatest Hits by Martina McBride
Greatest Hits Volume III: I'm a Survivor by Reba McEntire
The Road Less Traveled by George Strait
Drive by Alan Jackson
No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems by Kenny Chesney
No Shoes, No Shirt, No Problems by Kenny Chesney
Preceded by
Greatest Hits by Tim McGraw
Top Country Albums number-one album of the year
2002
Succeeded by
Up! by Shania Twain
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