The Soggy Bottom Boys I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow

The Soggy Bottom Boys with their Man of Constant Sorrow haunted me for over a week now! And I cannot begin to tell you how hard it’s been to save it for today! I wanted to break the Friday anyday with this song!

But no, here goes now: I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow! George Clooney leading backed by the brilliant John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson made it big just by dubbing the song for O Brother, Where Are Thou? (the original soundtrack song Man of Constant Sorrow was actually performed by John Tyminski and Union Station – John’s is the voice attributed to George in the film’s musical piece). Thank you for such an amazing week, for your wise and insightful comments! I hope you have the best weekend yet! Enjoy The Man of Constant Sorrow! (more info right after the jump!)

The Coen Brothers may have released O Brother, Where are Thou? movie in 2000 but the original soundtrack for the above mentioned movie, released in 2002 won 3 Grammy Awards: the Album of the Year, the Best Country Collaboration with Vocals and the Best Male Country Vocal Performance.

The Soggy Bottom Boys, the band featured in the movie, though it doesn’t actually exist, it became so famous after the film’s release that the actual band playing the songs from the movie had to tour with the pieces from the original soundtrack. Dan Tyminski’s voice (I really thought it was Clooney’s voice when I first heard the song!) had to work five times the Man of Constant Sorrow because several variations are used both in the movie and on the original soundtrack.

Man of Constant Sorrow is a well known bluegrass song first recorded by Dick Burnett in 1913 (though it is not certain that the song was actually written by Dick Burnett). The song became popular in 1951 when it was recorded by the Stanley Brothers. Covered numerous times (even by Bob Dylan – you can watch him perform here), this traditional American folk song is still fascinating for many artists, country performers or not. (I’m still waiting for a Miley Cyrus release!)