The left-field hit soundtrack to the Coen Brother's less-than-blockbuster Depression-era film, O Brother Where Are Thou? will come alive at New York City's Carnegie Hall on June 13th. The event will be only the second time the collection of songs have been performed live, as they received a showcase in Nashville Ryman Auditorium last May.

Alison Krauss and Union Station, Ralph Stanley, Gillian Welch, Norman Blake, the Fairfield Four, John Hartford, the Whites, the Cox Family, Chris Thomas King and the Peasall Sisters have all signed on for the performance as has Dan Tyminski, Union Station guitarist and singer, who provided the vocals for George Clooney's Ulysses Everett McGill (of the Soggy Bottom Boys) on "A Man of Constant Sorrow," the soundtrack's unlikely hit. The performers, along with some unannounced special guests, will run through the collection of mountain and folk music that was weaved into the film.

In its fifteenth week of release, the T Bone Burnett-produced O Brother soundtrack remains in SoundScan's Top Twenty (it climbed as high as Number Fourteen, two weeks ago), and as of this week's figures, the album has sold 888,238 copies.

The Nashville performance was shot by D.A. Pennebaker (who filmed the famous Bob Dylan documentary, Don't Look Back) and Chris Hededus for the film Down From the Mountain, which combined concert footage with interviews with Joel and Ethan Coen and members of the film's cast. The film had its world premiere last month at the South by Southwest Film Festival in Austin, Texas.

Though the Carnegie Hall date is the only confirmed show thus far, the roving soundtrack has plans to plot an itinerary for additional dates across the U.S. Tickets for the New York City date go on sale on April 30th.

ANDREW DANSBY
(April 20, 2001)