Features
O Brother Goes To Carnegie Hall
Alison Krauss & Union Station, John Hartford, Gillian Welch, Ralph Stanley, Norman Blake, Dan Tyminski, Chris Thomas King, Fairfield Four, The Whites, The Cox Family, and The Peasall Sisters all contributed to make the soundtrack a sleeper hit.
A May performance at Nashville’s historic Ryman Auditorium proved so successful that the encore at Carnegie Hall was added, and more dates are expected to be announced in the near future. A full-blown 2002 tour is said to be in the planning stages.
The soundtrack has become an unlikely hit – holding steady on the Billboard Top 20 album chart and certified platinum by the RIAA since its December release.
“O Brother, Where Art Thou?” is a re-working of Homer’s “Odyssey” as a Depression-era jailbreak tale set against a collection of classic songs from America’s rich musical history.
Brothers Ethan and Joel Coen, along with musical producer T-Bone Burnett, selected each track after extensively researching music from the era, and listening to the various performers before selecting them to play for the film.
The Ryman Auditorium show was filmed by famed documentarian D.A. Pennebaker (“Monterey Pop,” “Don’t Look Back,”) as a concert film and part of a documentary on the making of “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” The documentary debuted at last month’s South By Southwest Film Festival in Austin.
Tickets for the Carnegie Hall concert go on sale April 30.