Various Artists - O Brother, Where Art Thou? (Soundtrack)
(Mercury)
Do you like the Coen brothers? Well, I don't really care because that is
not actually germane to the topic at hand. However, since you asked my
opinion, they are genius.
This soundtrack offers a rare gift, an experience of a time and
place--pre-World War II America--which is gone forever. Gone not just in
the sense that time has progressed, but in the sense that so much about
the world changed in such a fundamental away around the midpoint of the
last century, that we are further removed from the world our grandparents
were born into than by just a couple of generations. Some of the stuff is
pretty sappy, but that's OK because it was composed back before the
Post-Modernists turned irony into a lifestyle, when people weren't afraid
to be genuine. So it's sappy, but it's genuinely sappy.
Case in point, Harry McClintock's "Hard Rock Candy Mountain" is comprised
of a hobo's tale of a hobo paradise, where the cops all have wooden legs,
where the jails are made of tin so you can walk right out again as soon as
you get in, where the little streams of alcohol come trickling down the
rocks and where they hung the Turk that invented work. It is hard to
imagine this kind of romantic fancifulness about being unemployed and
homeless. However, my grandpa was riding the boxcars when he was just
fourteen and has many a charming anecdote to tell about his adventures.
Every song, however, is tempered by either fear, pain, hopelessness, or
sometimes all three. For instance, the main theme of the film is the song
"I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," which appears in four different versions
and is basically comprised of the idea that life is an ordeal spent alone
which culminates in death. Also, if you have never really listened to
"You Are My Sunshine" you may be surprised by the sense of loss and depth
of pain that is reflected in that song. Though the chorus is bright and
hopeful, those notions are compromised, if not canceled by the despair of
the verses. The real prize here, though, is "Hard Time Killing Floor
Blues," performed by bluesman Chris Thomas King, just his voice and
acoustic guitar, and is the closest thing to the sound of an aching heart
I have ever heard.
Many of the songs are about finding some kind of respite from the
suffering and difficulty that was everyday life during hard
times. Sometimes it is sought in religion, as in the beautiful,
transcendent "Down to the River to Pray" performed by Alison
Krauss. Sometimes, though, it is sought merely in the thought that at
least being alive is better than being dead, as in the stark, chilling
rendition of "O Death," by Ralph Stanley. Each song, though simple in
presentation, has a subtle emotional and thematic complexity, which, when
discovered, reveals the treasure within the music.
Some of the songs are traditional numbers redone specifically for the
film. Some, like "Big Rock Candy Mountain," are the original recording
(particularly impressive is the song, "Po Lazarus," which is an actual old
recording of a Southern chain-gang singing while they chop
wood). However, there was no new music composed for the film, it is all
authentic to the period. For anyone interested in American roots music
or that enjoys the work of Will Olham or that bought the John Denver
tribute record last year, do yourself a favor and pick up this soundtrack.
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