Dick,

You're mistaken. The soundtrack CD is not all new recordings. There's a field recording of a prisoners group led by James Carter singing "Po' Lazarus" that comes from the Alan Lomax Collection. There's Harry McClintock's 1928 recording of "Big Rock Candy Mountain" and there's the Stanley Brothers's recording of "Angel Band" from 1955.

Most of the music used in the movie was recorded specifically for it. "I'll Fly Away" was the only song used in the movie that has a different version on the CD. I'm told that it was because of some sort of licensing problem.

BTW, I'm not sure why you think the Alison Krauss-Gillian Welch version is "more commercial" than the Kossoy Sister version. Both versions are two singers and two instruments. The Kossoys use guitar and banjo, Welch and Krauss use guitar and mandolin. I don't think Erik Darling's banjo playing makes the song any more or less commercial sounding than Mike Compton's mandolin playing. The recording quality is better on the new version.

The whole point of the "O Brother" phenomenon is that it has been such a great success without bending to the commercial contstraints that are normally imposed by the suits in Nashville and Hollywood. So far, it has sold more than 5 million copies, without the benefit of commercial radio play. However, it has had a lot of play on Folk Roots/Folk Branches, so I guess that explains its tremendous success.

Mike Regenstreif