January 28, 2002
'O Brother' sparks interest in down-home gospel
___By Steve Rabey
___Religion News Service
___LOS ANGELES (RNS)--Folks'll be fiddlin' in Philadelphia. They'll be yodlin' in New York. They'll be staying on the sunny side of life way out in cloudy Seattle. And they'll be dosey-doing to down-home-style bluegrass high up in Denver.
___All these goings-on started Jan. 25, when "Down from the Mountain," a North American concert tour that already has sold out most of its 19 dates, kicks off the latest surprising chapter in the continuing, confounding success of a music-filled movie called "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"
___It all began when brothers Joel and Ethan Coen, the talented and twisted minds behind movies like "Raising Arizona," "Fargo" and "The Man Who Wasn't There," set out to film the story of a trio of prison escapees in Depression-era Mississippi.
___Before filming began, the Coens called T Bone Burnett, the acclaimed musician and producer who Rolling Stone magazine once called "one of the few confessed Christians in rock."
___Burnett assembled thousands of vintage songs from the 1920s and 1930s. Many of those selected for "O Brother's" soundtrack were old-timey gospel classics. Most of the rest deal with the eternal battle between good and evil and the desire for paradise that always has been the poor person's daily bread.
___"Songs like 'I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow' and 'Keep on the Sunny Side' are a part of our history and heritage," said Burnett in a recent interview from a Los Angeles recording studio. "And as people become more electrified, more data-oriented and more immersed in the technological world, they are looking more and more for those parts of life that are connected to who we are and where we come from."
___Movie soundtrack recordings often are designed to achieve the same ends as Hollywood's licensing deals with fast-food restaurants and makers of action figures. Goal No. 1 is to sell movie tickets.
___Not the "O Brother" recording. When it was released in late 2000, the New York Times declared it "one of the least mainstream soundtracks ever offered for sale."
___But lo and behold, the album has confounded all expectations. So far it has sold more than 4 million copies. It won "Album of the Year" awards from the Country Music Association and the International Bluegrass Music Association and is nominated for five Grammys. Rolling Stone called it one of the best albums of 2001, and Entertainment Weekly named "The Musicians of 'O Brother'" as one of their Entertainers of the Year.
___Last year saw the release of "Down from the Mountain," a live recording and video featuring many of the "O Brother" musicians. Now the tour promises to expose concert audiences throughout North America to the glories of authentic, traditional music that predates the slick, pop-oriented product promoted by Nashville's country and Christian music industry establishment.
___"I don't think anybody could sincerely say we thought 'O Brother' was going to do any of this," said Sharon White, who sings lead vocals on "Keep on the Sunny Side."
___White, her sister Cheryl, and their daddy Buck make up the Whites, who have been performing gospel, country swing and bluegrass music for more than 30 years. In recent years, staying true to traditional music hasn't been easy.
___"There came a point for us when we felt that if we couldn't do the music we love in the way we feel called to do it, then we were just going to let it go," she said.
___"We got into this because we love the music. And when it gets to the place where you're spending all your time haggling with record companies and fighting to get your records played on the radio, that's not what we're all about."
___White hasn't had to haggle with record companies for years now. The Whites' latest album, "A Lifetime in the Making," was released on husband Ricky Skaggs' Ceili Music label, which the award-winning bluegrass musician created after he was dropped by major labels.
___Now, with the runaway success of "O Brother," the trio's career is taking off once again. They appeared on "Late Night with David Letterman" last Labor Day, and their concert bookings are up.
___White believes the "O Brother" phenomenon shows people are fed up with the music-by-the-numbers approach that reigns supreme in Nashville.
___"This music touches people on a level that we're not accustomed to being touched on in our culture today," she said. "Modern entertainment is all about arousal and sensuality. Even sports, in some weird way, is about getting you all revved up. But this music is honest and pure, and it moves you like a mountain stream moves you. It's something so deep it almost defies explanation."
___White, who describes herself as "loosely Southern Baptist," also believes there are spiritual forces at play.
___"God's in this," she said. "There's no doubt about it. We look at everything we do that way, and I hope the people at the concerts see this, because I, we are very unattractive, weak vessels."
___None of the "Down from the Mountain" concerts are slated for Texas. Venues range from Lexington, Ky. to Atlanta, Chicago to Boston and Seattle to Los Angeles.
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