A decade on, the Coen brothers' woefully underrated
O Brother, Where Art Thou? [alt] is remembered for
a lot of things: its sun-drenched, sepia-rich
cinematography (a pioneer of
digital color grading), its
whimsical humor,
fluid vernacular, and
many subtle references to Homer's
Odyssey. But one part of its legacy truly stands out:
the music.
Assembled by
T-Bone Burnett, the soundtrack is a cornucopia of American folk music, exhibiting everything from
cheery ballads and
angelic hymns to
wistful blues and
chain-gang anthems. Woven into the plot of the film through radio and live performances, the songs lent the story a
heartfelt, homespun feel that echoed its cultural heritage,
a paean and uchronia of the Old South.
Though the multiplatinum album was recently
reissued, the movie's medley is best heard via famed documentarian
D. A. Pennebaker's
Down from the Mountain, an
extraordinary yet
intimate concert film focused on a night of live music by the soundtrack's stars (among them
Gillian Welch,
Emmylou Harris,
Chris Thomas King, bluegrass legend
Dr. Ralph Stanley) and wryly hosted by
John Hartford, an accomplished
fiddler,
riverboat captain, and
raconteur whose struggle with terminal cancer made this his last major performance. The film is free in its entirety on
Hulu and
YouTube -- click inside for individual clips, song links, and breakdowns of
the set list's fascinating history.
[more inside]
posted by Rhaomi
on Dec 22, 2011 -
107 comments
Pinetop Perkins survived being hit by a train.
Bukka White was a
professional boxer, a
Negro League pitcher, and
hobo.
Sunnyland Slim was a hustler.
Johnny Shines toured with Robert Johnson, and
Honeyboy Edwards saw Johnson poison himself.
Skip James was a
laborer and
bootlegger.
Son House started out as a preacher but went to prison for
killing a man.
R.L. Burnside also killed someone, but said "
I didn't mean to kill nobody, I just meant to
shoot the sonofabitch in the head."
Big Boy Crudup's songs were stolen by Elvis Presley.
Mississippi Fred McDowell did not
play no
rock 'n roll. To get more recording contracts,
John Lee Hooker also called himself
John Lee Cooker,
John Lee Booker,
Texas Slim,
Birmingham Sam & His Magic Guitar,
Delta John and
Sir John Lee Hooker. Big Joe Williams was
King of the 9 String Guitar.
Snooky Pryor began his musical career as an Army bugler.
Mississippi John Hurt learned to play guitar in secret.
Paul Pena wrote Jet Airliner, knew
Tuvan, and could
throat sing. After a severe case of polio,
Cedell Davis learned to play guitar left-handed using a kitchen knife.
Earl Hooker was so good he never had
a day job.
Hound Dog Taylor, who was
born with six fingers on each hand but
cut off one of the extras with a razor blade, said his epitath should be "
He couldn't play shit, but he sure made it sound good!"
[more inside]
posted by swift
on Dec 31, 2008 -
37 comments
Well respected as a player, instructor and scholar, Adam Gussow teaches blues harmonica online at
Modern Blues Harmonica. For a fee.
On YouTube, as
KudzuRunner, he also gives lessons. For free. He's put up around 145 videos now--145 videos with like about a million hits in return...
via Tom Muck's Blog
posted by y2karl
on Mar 7, 2008 -
12 comments
Can three happy kids (15, 13, 9) REALLY play the blues? (and without knowing how to read music). Hell yeah! They placed 2nd (out of 157 bands) at this spring's International Blues Challenge in Memphis. (Featured: CBS Sunday Morning
video) Even
BB King is impressed. More
YouTubery (this has to be a parent's posting page) - not the place for high fidelity, but you'll get the idea:
Harvest Blues Festival performances.
posted by spock
on Dec 5, 2007 -
7 comments
Consider
Aaron Thibeaux Walker--if anyone ever deserved the title
Godfather, King or Present at the Creation, it would be
T-Bone Walker. Without T-Bone, there would be no B.B. King, Albert King, no Clarence Gatemouth Brown, no Pee Wee Crayton, Johnny 'Guitar' Watson ad infinitum to every blues guitarist whoever bent a tube amplified string thereafter. For rock and blues, electric lead guitar begins with him--he invented the language and then wrote the book and style manual, too. And he wrote the
performance manual as well--dancing, doing splits, playing guitar behind his back while alternating betwen slow and smoky after hour blues and swinging combo and jazzy big band jumps. For examples of him at the height of his powers, give these Coralized mp3s--
Cold Cold Feeling and
Strollin' With Bones--a listen.
[more inside]
posted by y2karl
on Nov 14, 2007 -
8 comments
John Fahey - Fare Forward Voyagers
John Fahey - Dance Of The Inhabitants Of The Palace Of King Phillip XIVClips from a 2 hour performance at
the Euphoria Tavern in Portland, Oregon from 1976. Among the cognoscenti at
FaheyGuitarPlayers, the consensus is that these clips display Fahey in rare form on a very good night.
Apart from Fahey,
Bohemia Visual Music aka Mike Nastra, the contributor of these clips, provides an interesting assortment of way too hip YouTubery offerings including, among others, Spike Jones, Dimandas Galas, Gene Krupa, Tuxedo Moon, Sun Ra, Pere Ubu and the Holy Modal Rounders.
posted by y2karl
on Oct 16, 2007 -
9 comments
NickCaveFilter: Fifty years ago this very day,
Nicholas Edward Cave [
previously] crawled from the womb and started to plot. At 16 he formed his first band which evolved quickly into the
Boys Next Door [
Shivers]. This in turn mutated into
the Birthday Party (1980) who terrorised the post-punk soundscape in Australia and the UK [
Release the Bats |
Nick the Stripper]. The
Birthday Party relocated to England and in 1984 the band imploded in an orgy of drugs and booze. Shortly after
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were born [The Ship Song -
video &
solo live | The Mercy Seat -
video &
live |
Where the Wild Roses Grow], and 23 years and 11 studio albums later (not to mention a
best selling book, a
great screenplay,
some acting and several soundtrack projects) he is still going strong. But, instead of sitting on his musical laurels he decided to get back to basics and, in 2006,
grew a huge moustache and formed
Grinderman – a four piece with a primeval hybrid Birthday Party/Bad Seeds sound [
No Pussy Blues |
Honey Bee]. Fellow Mefites, I ask you to raise a glass to
Mr. Cave… And, especially if you are not familiar to his work, don’t forget to “look inside” for my primer on the enigma that is Nick Cave, one of the
finest song-writers on the face of this miserable planet.
[more inside]
posted by the_very_hungry_caterpillar
on Sep 22, 2007 -
98 comments
