Tyminski, who provided the "singing voice" for George Clooney in O Brother, Where Art Thou, added a gutsy Man of Constant Sorrow, along with an enthusiastic treatment of Woody Guthrie's Pastures of Plenty, while Jerry Douglas showed off his virtuoso dobro work on an inspired, free-wheeling improvisation inspired by bluegrass, Paul Simon and Chick Corea.
And "A Man of Constant Sorrow" began with a lumbering phrase for all the bass-clef instruments in the band, then swung into gear as a Celtic-Appalachian testimonial, tangled with cross-talk.
But it was "I'm a Man of Constant Sorrow" that chilled to the bone, with Mr. Stanley fluttering through major and minor scales, stuffing melisma into each syllable.
Dear, dear brother, my existence has been diminished by the constant sorrow of your leaving.
TWO weeks ago, Lost Highway re-released "Man of Constant Sorrow" as a single.
Along with a dozen other carefully selected tunes -- some newly recorded for the film, some preserved in their traditional arrangements -- "Man of Constant Sorrow" provides "O Brother" with an emotional resonance that would otherwise be missing.
All of this blowback reminds me of the scene in Oh Brother Where Art Thou when a popular band burst onto the stage with In Constant Sorrow.
It starts with "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" (the best-selling version from the soundtrack to "O Brother, Where Art Thou?"), which proclaims, "I've seen trouble all my days".
Collaboration With Vocals: "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow," Dan Tyminski, Harley Allen and Pat Enright (the Soggy Bottom Boys).
At the end of the set, Holcomb duets with Jean Ritchie, a singer and dulcimer player from Viper, Kentucky (another rugged little coal town, just northwest of Daisy), on "Wandering Boy," an unaccompanied ballad with a melody vaguely similar to "Man of Constant Sorrow".
The Coens and their musical adviser T-Bone Burnett made further connections with Stanley by using his arrangement of Man of Constant Sorrow, a song threaded through the movie, and by closing on a Stanley recording of Angel Band.
