Soggy Bottom Boys reunion on the Grand Ole Opry – photo © Grand Ole Opry
The Grand Ole Opry in Nashville, along with producer T Bone Burnett and Lost Highway Records, put on a gala, all-star show this past Saturday at the Opry House in celebration of the 25th anniversary of the soundtrack album from O Brother, Where Art Thou?
The Coen Brothers film was released in 2000 to limited success, but was propelled into a cult classic when the soundtrack came out the following year. Music from such stellar artists as Alison Krauss, Dan Tyminski, Norman Blake, The Whites, Emmylou Harris, Ralph Stanley, and many others, put traditional Appalachian music in the forefront of the music industry’s consciousness in 2001. The Down From The Mountain tour that followed did so even more directly.
And who can forget the Soggy Bottom Boys, with Dan Tyminski providing the singing voice for George Clooney on Man of Constant Sorrow?
Many of these same artists were on hand Saturday at the Opry anniversary bash. They performed songs from the film, along with other, newer artists too young for the original, and still others just for good measure. Included were Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Del McCoury Band, Old Crow Medicine Show, and The Whites along with guests Alaskan Sunnyside Sisters, Mike Compton, Dennis Crouch, Jerry Douglas, Stuart Duncan, The Fairfield Four, Fisk Jubilee Singers, Sarah Jarosz, Chris Thomas King, Colin Linden, Tim Blake Nelson, Billy Strings, Dan Tyminski, and Molly Tuttle.
Quite a lineup.
Many thanks to the Opry’s photographers for sharing these images of the big night. It must have been a thrill to see it live.
