Oh, Brother…

Anyone who knows me well can attest to the fact that I am not a movie-goer. Even before COVID hit, I was never a fan of sitting in a dark theater and watching a film.

For one thing, I am ultra-sensitive to depictions of violence of any kind, even if done for (alleged) humorous effect. And no matter how strongly friends assured me there would be no violent content in the film they thought I should see, invariably, there was.

That’s how numb to violence our society has come: most of us are blind to it.

But I am not here today to write about society’s ills. Back to the stuff about movies, i.e., one that I actually saw (and that had violence in it, BTW): “O Brother, Where Art Thou?”

Many of you have no doubt seen this film and probably enjoyed its weird, madcap, and sometimes mystical scenes and storyline. Yeah, for me, all that was OK (I hated the scene with the toad; I had to look away!). And, look, George Clooney is easy on the eyes, right? But what really stuck with me was the film’s music.

My interest in bluegrass music pre-dates the 2000 release of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” But I know for a lot of people outside of Appalachia, this movie was their first real taste of the genres of Southern folk, gospel and bluegrass music.

And what an illustrious showcase it is! The soundtrack album has cuts from Alison Krauss, Ralph Stanley, Norman Blake and others. There pretty much isn’t a song on this album that I don’t like.

What impresses me about this soundtrack is not just the quality of the tunes and performers, but also the range of songs in what some people might think are fairly restrictive music styles. There are funny, upbeat pieces like "In The Jailhouse Now”, beautiful hymns such as “Down In The River To Pray”, and a haunting a cappella dirge by Ralph Stanley, “O Death”. 

The movie plot is set in Mississippi in the 1930s, and the soundtrack beautifully reflects the cultural influences of the time and place. Honestly, if the movie hadn’t been made, I doubt that some of these songs would be known by more than a handful of aficionados of their genres. For me, I could take the music and leave the movie.

Yeah, I thought the movie was just OK (again… George Clooney!), but the music rocks, ya’ll! If you have not had the pleasure of experiencing this soundtrack, do yourself a favor and Google it or look it up on your fave streaming/downloading platform.