AI
Thursday, September 05, 2002 11:26:43 PM
Soggy Bottom Boys Play Carnegie Hall!
by Mark Armstrong
Apr 7, 2001, 11:05 AM PT
Move over, Backstreet Boys. America's newest boy-band phenomenon has a criminal record, can't afford fashionable cityfolk duds--and the only thing slick about their pop songs is the Dapper Dan hair pomade that accidentally drips onto their microphones.
And to top it all off, they're completely fictional.
No, we're not talking about O-Town--Try the Soggy Bottom Boys, George Clooney's crooning jailbird trio from O Brother, Where Art Thou? While the Coen Brothers' quirky film tribute to roots music has been a mild success by box-office standards (it's their best showing yet, but ticket sales have only hit $38.8 million), the soundtrack to their loose adaptation of The Odyssey has turned into one of this year's surprise hits, topping the country album charts and creeping its way to platinum status.
Despite its odd fit on pop-country radio, stations have been spinning its catchy single, "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow." And, in turn, O Brother's collection of heartfelt bluegrass twang, angelic gospel and foot-stomping folk tunes has sold more than 772,500 copies--all without a major marketing push from its label. The Mercury Nashville disc, produced by T. Bone Burnett and featuring performances by Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch and Dan Tyminski (the gravelly voice behind Clooney's Soggy Bottom Boys), currently sits at number 14 on Billboard's album charts.
Its success has left the music industry dumbfounded. "We like to call this a phenomaly--a phenomenon and an anomaly," says Michael Powers, senior v.p. of promotions for Mercury Nashville. "You look at a movie soundtrack that's about music, and it just sort of reacts with people."
And now, the Soggy Bottom Boys are getting ready to take their music to the people.
Starting with a concert at New York's Carnegie Hall in June, tour organizers have confirmed that O Brother, Where Art Thou? is indeed moving forward with its summer tour plans. An official announcement is expected in the coming weeks and it's still unclear, logistically, which artists from the soundtrack will be able to participate in the tour. (The Hollywood Bowl also was reportedly hoping to schedule a tour stop for the end of September, but no word yet on whether that will happen.)
Whatever happens, tour organizers say they hope the O Brother road show will build on music fans' newly discovered appetite for "real" music.
"It really is about cultural zeitgeist, and tapping into a collective unconscious," says Janet Billig of Immortal Entertainment, which is producing the tour. "People are just reacting to something that's real."
Well, make that real music--from a fake band. Clooney won a Golden Globe as Depression-era slickster criminal Ulysses Everett McGill, who escapes from prison with two partners (John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson, who does his own singing) only to end up the biggest-selling fugitive recording artists since Ol' Dirty Bastard. The Coen brothers developed the soundtrack as framework for the movie itself and O Brother, Where Art Thou? is, at its core, a musical.
Much like traditional American folk music inspired O Brother, the idea for a live show came along before the movie hit theaters. Last May, Joel and Ethan Coen staged a sold-out, live benefit concert in Nashville featuring music from the movie. The event was filmed by famed documentarians D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hedgedus and the end result, Down From the Mountain, is currently hitting the film-festival circuit.
When O Brother does go on tour, expect a diverse audience. Jim Rainwater, a manager at Long Beach, California's Fingerprints record store, says the soundtrack, which has consistently ended up in his store's top 10, is selling to more than just "traditional" country fans.
"What's funny is that we don't have country at all and we've sold a ton of 'em," he says. "It's definitely that intelligent, over-30 crowd, and those are the people that are looking for something new. The timing is just right and it's kind of a new, old thing."
It appears the roots-music craze is just getting warmed up. Country artists like Dolly Parton and Iris DeMent are set to appear on the soundtrack to the upcoming Lions Gate film, Songcatcher, which hits record stores May 8. Or, for those not yet willing to give up on mainstream rock, there's always Hayseed Dixie--a bluegrass AC/DC cover band whose guitar-pluckin', fiddle-friendly renditions of "Highway To Hell" and "You Shook Me All Night Long" hit record stores April 17.
O Brother, indeed.
#board-1066 (OUTDR) Outdoor Adventures
#board-1124 (Rock) Rock n Roll
#board-1142 (CNTRY) Country Music
#board-1148 (NFL) Pro Football
#board-1293 (NCAA) College Football
#board-1078 (GIF) Gif Testing
by Mark Armstrong
Apr 7, 2001, 11:05 AM PT
Move over, Backstreet Boys. America's newest boy-band phenomenon has a criminal record, can't afford fashionable cityfolk duds--and the only thing slick about their pop songs is the Dapper Dan hair pomade that accidentally drips onto their microphones.
And to top it all off, they're completely fictional.
No, we're not talking about O-Town--Try the Soggy Bottom Boys, George Clooney's crooning jailbird trio from O Brother, Where Art Thou? While the Coen Brothers' quirky film tribute to roots music has been a mild success by box-office standards (it's their best showing yet, but ticket sales have only hit $38.8 million), the soundtrack to their loose adaptation of The Odyssey has turned into one of this year's surprise hits, topping the country album charts and creeping its way to platinum status.
Despite its odd fit on pop-country radio, stations have been spinning its catchy single, "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow." And, in turn, O Brother's collection of heartfelt bluegrass twang, angelic gospel and foot-stomping folk tunes has sold more than 772,500 copies--all without a major marketing push from its label. The Mercury Nashville disc, produced by T. Bone Burnett and featuring performances by Alison Krauss, Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch and Dan Tyminski (the gravelly voice behind Clooney's Soggy Bottom Boys), currently sits at number 14 on Billboard's album charts.
Its success has left the music industry dumbfounded. "We like to call this a phenomaly--a phenomenon and an anomaly," says Michael Powers, senior v.p. of promotions for Mercury Nashville. "You look at a movie soundtrack that's about music, and it just sort of reacts with people."
And now, the Soggy Bottom Boys are getting ready to take their music to the people.
Starting with a concert at New York's Carnegie Hall in June, tour organizers have confirmed that O Brother, Where Art Thou? is indeed moving forward with its summer tour plans. An official announcement is expected in the coming weeks and it's still unclear, logistically, which artists from the soundtrack will be able to participate in the tour. (The Hollywood Bowl also was reportedly hoping to schedule a tour stop for the end of September, but no word yet on whether that will happen.)
Whatever happens, tour organizers say they hope the O Brother road show will build on music fans' newly discovered appetite for "real" music.
"It really is about cultural zeitgeist, and tapping into a collective unconscious," says Janet Billig of Immortal Entertainment, which is producing the tour. "People are just reacting to something that's real."
Well, make that real music--from a fake band. Clooney won a Golden Globe as Depression-era slickster criminal Ulysses Everett McGill, who escapes from prison with two partners (John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson, who does his own singing) only to end up the biggest-selling fugitive recording artists since Ol' Dirty Bastard. The Coen brothers developed the soundtrack as framework for the movie itself and O Brother, Where Art Thou? is, at its core, a musical.
Much like traditional American folk music inspired O Brother, the idea for a live show came along before the movie hit theaters. Last May, Joel and Ethan Coen staged a sold-out, live benefit concert in Nashville featuring music from the movie. The event was filmed by famed documentarians D.A. Pennebaker and Chris Hedgedus and the end result, Down From the Mountain, is currently hitting the film-festival circuit.
When O Brother does go on tour, expect a diverse audience. Jim Rainwater, a manager at Long Beach, California's Fingerprints record store, says the soundtrack, which has consistently ended up in his store's top 10, is selling to more than just "traditional" country fans.
"What's funny is that we don't have country at all and we've sold a ton of 'em," he says. "It's definitely that intelligent, over-30 crowd, and those are the people that are looking for something new. The timing is just right and it's kind of a new, old thing."
It appears the roots-music craze is just getting warmed up. Country artists like Dolly Parton and Iris DeMent are set to appear on the soundtrack to the upcoming Lions Gate film, Songcatcher, which hits record stores May 8. Or, for those not yet willing to give up on mainstream rock, there's always Hayseed Dixie--a bluegrass AC/DC cover band whose guitar-pluckin', fiddle-friendly renditions of "Highway To Hell" and "You Shook Me All Night Long" hit record stores April 17.
O Brother, indeed.
#board-1066 (OUTDR) Outdoor Adventures
#board-1124 (Rock) Rock n Roll
#board-1142 (CNTRY) Country Music
#board-1148 (NFL) Pro Football
#board-1293 (NCAA) College Football
#board-1078 (GIF) Gif Testing
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