All these years I thought Labor Day was an ode to all those mothers who had just given birth. Well like I told you before I do not get out much..
SEPTEMBER…….Many things happening in this wonderful month of September. The NFL kicks off its long and winding road to the Super Bowl. ( Yawn) Major League Baseball is on its last legs before the World Series. Basketball is about to begin ( Yawn Yawn) and the NHL Hockey rinks are beginning to to freeze for the opening face off. ( No yawn here) Curling is always in season and we can thank the Good Lord for that. But ultimately the number one major event in September is that Sheila and I will be celebrating our 48th Anniversary this coming Wednesday September 11. I met Sheila at a De Molay dance in Hayward I went to with best friend Bill in February 1967. That makes over one half of a century this lovely young lady has put up with me, There has got to be a gold medal somewhere to be given out for putting up with me for over one half of a century, Sheila certainly deserves it. Happy Anniversary my dear.
By the way. October will begin with the annual Warren Hellman Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in Beautiful San Francisco.. October 4-6. A treasure to be experienced again and again.
Last week there was an entertaining special on PBS about the history of Bluegrass Music. I found it informative and well worth watching. It was a two hour special with the first twenty minutes devoted to Mr. William Monroe. Also on PBS. They will be airing the Burns special on the history of Country Music which by the excepts they have been showing will be a not to miss opportunity to see how America’s music was formed.
Because the bluegrass special was televised and since the history of country music is about to be televised thought a re-run of a column that was run eight years ago might be apropos.
Enjoy.
It’s been eighteen short years since the widely acclaimed movie “O Brother Where Art Thou, hit the theaters and blew the bluegrass community away. Not only did the movie give a shot in the arm to bluegrass folks, it opened the eyes to the general public to the joy of bluegrass music.
Recently there have been a few articles written about the movie and a newly released CD featuring all sorts of songs that were suppose to be on the CD but never made it. Bluegrass fans are in for a treat.
I would like to share an article written about the movie and a discussion with T Bone Burnett as he reflects on the movie and sound tract. (This is from Alan Suskind)
Plenty of films have soundtracks that surpass the critical success of their movie, but the album for “O Brother Where Art Thou” was a whole different monster. Not only did the record sell more than eight million copies worldwide, it won the 2001 Grammy Award for Album of the Year.
Recently, music producer/archivist T Bone Burnett sat down with HuffPost Culture to discuss his role in picking the music for the film, the process of recording it and, most importantly, whether George Clooney has a good voice.
A few of Burnett’s choice quotes are below. if you are a big “O Brother’ fan (of the film or soundtrack), head on over to Huff Post Culture to read the entire piece.
What it was like working on the film “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” became much more than a killer gig. It was a fulfillment of a life of chasing down the old music without ever knowing where it was leading m. We were tapping into a beautiful and powerful musical stream. What is often called Bluegrass may have been in the middle of this stream, but it’s all part of a long history that includes everyone from Duke Ellington to Lefty Frizzle, from Billie Holliday to Elvis Presley, and maybe most of all Louis Armstrong. This stream we explored is the extraordinary music of the last century-an incredible treasure that comes to us directly from an age when music was made by everyone. It was analogue. It was made before the rise of the machines.
On choosing the movies top song, “Man of Constant Sorrow”.
We recorded the music before the movie. The first song we had to get was “Man Of Constant Sorrow.” The song is, of course, a standard- there are probably fifty versions if it. The version we used for our template was the version the Stanley Brothers had done with the two singers answering the last line of every verse- which is, if course, comedic and paradoxical as the tine is about a tore-down., blown-out cat with these other voices attesting to the veracity of his tragic state of affairs. Somehow this song captured the tone of the movie-epic and dead serious on the one hand and comic and affable on the other.
On George Clooney singing “Man of Constant Sorrow”
As many people know, Dan Tyminski from Allison Krauss and the Union Station sang. “Man of Constant Sorrow” In an original and soulful way on the soundtrack. He also wrote and played the guitar [art that gave the song a new life. But just for the record, George Clooney is a very good singer. We’d already recorded Dan singing the song to find an arrangement and, at the very least, give George something to work with. If there had been more time to get George up to speed, he could have sung that song himself.
I suggest everyone to read the full article. It is a history of bluegrass, jazz, and blues.
Until October 4: Read a book, hug a child, pet a dog, stroke a cat, eat a bar of chocolate, and Ikiru!