Songcatcher: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture
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CD Details
Edition: Music CDAudio: English (Original Language)
Format: Soundtrack
CD Release Date: 2001-05-08
Music Label: Vanguard Records
Soundtracks:
- Fair And Tender Ladies - Roseanne Cash
- Pretty Saro - Iri DeMent
- When Love Is New - Dolly Parton & Emmy Rossum
- Barbara Allen - Emmy Rossum
- Barbara Allen - Emmylou Harris
- Moonshiner - Allison Moorer
- Sounds Of Loneliness - Patty Loveless
- All My Tears - Julie Miller
- Wayfarin' Stranger - Maria McKee
- Mary Of The Wild Moor - Sara Evans
- Wind And Rain - Gillian Welch, David Rawlings & David Steele
- The Cuckoo Bird - Deana Carter
- Score Suite #1 - David Mansfield
- Conversations With Death - Hazel Dickens, David Patrick Kelly & Bobby McMillen
- Score Suite #2 - David Mansfield
- Single Girl - Pat Carrolls
Music reviews of Songcatcher: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture
Music Review: In The Time Of The Mountain Music Revival
Rating: 4 Stars
This review is being used to comment on both the soundtrack CD and movie DVD.
In a recent CD review of the music from the now mountain music movie classic, George Clooney's "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?", I mentioned in passing that the movie from which the CD under review is taken was also a contributing factor to the revival of interest in the mountain music genre. I also noted there that the CD and film were worthy of a separate review of their own. I make amends here and I think that this settles all debts.
That said, the following excerpt from that above-mentioned review can be used here to set the tone for a look at this "Songcatcher" (and a couple of words on the movie, as postscript) here:
"Sometimes a revival of a musical form, like the "talking blues", that highlighted the urban folk revival of the early 1960's is driven by a social need. In that case it was to provide a format for the "glad tidings" that a new political and social movement was a-bornin'. In the case of the revival several years ago of what is called "mountain music" it was the films "The Song Catcher" and, more importantly, the very popular movie starring George Clooney, "O Brother, Where Art Thou?". The CD under review is a compilation of music from that movie, a not unnatural tie-in in the modern entertainment business. The movie deserves a separate review, however, this CD can stand on its own as a very nice cross section of "mountain music", some familiar most not so.
Without straining credulity "mountain music" is the music of the simple folk of Appalachia, those who worked hard in the coal mines, on the hard scrabble farms and in the isolated mills of the region. This was their Saturday night entertainment and with the advent of radio was a unifying cultural experience. The songs "speak" of hard and lonely lives, the beauty of the then pristine countryside, the usual vagaries of love and lost and the mysterious ways of a very personal, if arbitrary, god. Throw in a few upbeat tunes reflecting the love of "corn" liquor, women and the sometimes funny side of coping with life's trials and tribulations and you have the mountain version of the folk experience. Sound familiar? Sure it does, except, it is done with simple guitar, a blazing fiddle and, hopefully, a full-bodied mandolin."
With that in mind there only remains the need to highlight some of the better efforts here. For starters, apparently, I knew the work of Iris Dement long before I consciously knew her work. I have mentioned in reviews of her work that I had become enamored of her music through her rendition of "Jimmy Rodgers Going Home" on a Greg Brown (now her husband) tribute CD. From the copyright date here (and on Ralph Stanley's "Clinch Mountain Sweethearts" where she also does a couple of tracks) that is now incorrect. What is not wrong is that her lyrics and vocal range have led me to dub her my "Internet Sweetheart" (Sorry, Greg). And she does not fail here on the traditional "Pretty Saro". Needless to say no country music/folk music/ folk rock music presentation of any kind is complete these days without a contribution form Emmylou Harris. Here she does a split version of the traditional Child Ballad "Barbara Allen". Of course, when one talks of mountain music in its 20th century incarnation then the name The Carter Family is front and center. Thus, naturally, one of the representatives from that extended clan, Roseanne Cash, is a welcome addition here doing the old traditional "Fair And Tender Ladies" (a version of which that I first heard way back in the early 1960's done by Dave Van Ronk). Finally, of necessity again, no "hard" mountain music themed production can be complete without a piece from Hazel Dickens who, as a woman of those mountains, has probably done more to popularize this art form than anyone else. So listen up to a genuine piece of Americana.
Note: Although I am mainly interested in the `Songcatcher" film for its soundtrack the movie itself is worth seeing. The plot line revolves around an English woman's search for authentic American music from the mountains (naturally enough as much of the music crossed over from the British Isles). Sound familiar? Along the way she learns, perhaps more than she wants to know, about this milieu as she collects her music. Naturally, in such a commercial effort there s a little love interest thrown in with a real live mountain man musician wary of "city ways" from his own earlier experiences. Other themes touched upon, although in some cases obliquely, are the isolation of rural life, that just- mentioned conflict between rural and city values, religious fundamentalism and the, seemingly obligatory, nod to same sex issues (here, in a dramatically compelling way, lesbianism and the local reaction to it) that feature in many modern movies. Put the music and those themes together and you have a passable couple of hours. If you have to choose though, get the CD.
More Songcatcher: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture free music reviews:
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Description of Songcatcher: Music from and Inspired by the Motion Picture
Wonderful 16 song soundtrack for the film includes score segments by David Mansfield. Dolly Parton, Julie Miller, Gillian Welch etc. Scuff on disc will not affect play.Country CDs
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