O Brother Where Art Thou. Happy Anniversary!
James Akenson
August comes and goes. Then it comes and goes again. Since the death of LP (Life Partner) Mickie’s parents in the early 2000s we visited Vicksburg, Mississippi each August through 2018. Couldn’t make it in 2019 and COVID-19 stopped a planned 2020 Vicksburg visit. We cleaned up Mickie’s parents’ graves, saw LP Mickie’s cousins, and visited with her parents’ care-givers. Rituals like these keep people connected, give meaning to life, give meaning to death, and connected us to Vicksburg and a broader world in surprising ways.
Mississippi novelist William Faulkner once said that History isn’t dead. It isn’t even past. Did Faulkner ever know what he was talking about! Just try to live your life even if your parents are dead without having them influence the way you look and act in so many different times of your day and entire life!
The U.S. Civil War (1861-1865) still lives on in the fabric of American life in many ways. The graves of Mickie’s parents in Vicksburg’s Cedar Hill Cemetery connected us to her relatives, to her dance teacher, and to the Civil War. Just below the hill where Helen and Riley Alford lay at rest lies Soldiers Rest. in the Soldiers Rest section some 1,600 Confederate soldiers were given a final resting place after the defense of Vicksburg ended on 4 July 1863.
The nearby National Military Park also memorializes the entire Vicksburg campaign. The Union saw Vicksburg as the Gibraltar of the Confederacy. Control of the Mississippi River by the Union meant the Confederacy would lose. From seeing Confederate Battle Flag license plates to arguments over Confederate statues….. the Civil War lives on each and every day. Big stuff!
Our trips to Vicksburg also connected us to Big Stuff including Country Music. LP Mickie’s parents THOUGHT they remembered seeing Hank Williams at a concert in Vicksburg. I wrote a Country Underground Australia piece about LP Mickie’s Cousin Sonny Paxton and his connection to Country Music. I used John Conlee’s An American Trilogy as a soundtrack over photos of the Confederate Soldier’s Rest section of Cedar Hill Cemetery.
The video became part of my materials used in teaching methods courses. With a specially designed graphic organizer I could involve students with the Civil War in a different way. I made a special effort to include a view of 16 year old Jessie Collins headstone. Those are important Country Music Vicksburg based memories!
There is another other set of Country Music memories. They’re Big Stuff in their own right although maybe not quite on the magnitude of Vicksburg in the U.S. Civil War. These memories deal with the 2000 movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? Let’s refer to it as OBWAT.
Based on Homer’s The Odyssey written in Greece well before the birth of Jesus, OBWAT doesn’t sound like it should have much of a connection to Country Music, now does it? Sounds like a remake of a dense, boring Greek play that only a few blokes and blokettes with college degrees in literature could enjoy.
But….OBWAT created a sensation on various levels with it’s Deep South setting and roots based music. Set in Mississippi, OBWAT seemed poised to made a big impact on Country Music. Add to that a series of hip concerts known as the Down From the Mountain tour and a CD OBWAT seemed ready to exert itself on Country Music.
OBWAT particularly appealed to urban intellectuals with a fondness for the Folk Revival of the 1950s and early 60s. They also tend to groove on moments such as Bob Dylan recording Nashville Skyline in Nashville. Likewise, the OBWAT intellectuals like events such as The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and old guard Nashville collaboration on Will The Circle Be Unbroken album.
Yet…OBWAT didn’t really change the direction of Country Music radio as some folks hoped. Nothing on the OBWAT sound track sounds like the Bro Country and other sounds on current Country Music radio that have upset traditional Country Music lovers. And…it certainly didn’t stop the increased dominance of males on the Country Music radio charts.
It didn’t propel establish Country Music star Patty Loveless’ career…or any other woman’s career… to unparalleled heights on the Country Music charts. Anguish from the lack of Gender Equity continues to burn these days. OBWAT didn’t anticipate the surge of concern about race in Country Music that exploded after the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis, Minnesota police.
OBWAT just might have had some influence, though,, on the explosion of roots oriented music now known as Americana.
What’s Americana? Just about any musician or group that sounds just a bit traditional but isn’t heard on Country Music radio. That’s simple, I know, but trust me you don’t want to get into a complicated discussion. Let’s just say it can include everything from John Prine to Old Crow Medicine Show to the Avitt Brothers to the Highwomen and former Country Music hit makers like David Lee Murphy and even Loretta Lynn.
OBWAT might have been a catalyst so to speak for the Americana explosion. OBWAT didn’t cause it, but may have helped nudge the Americana explosion along. People like researcher Barry Mazor documented, though, that Billboard magazine’s Country Music charts developed years ago helped make Americana possible. Just like we’ve mentioned in other Country Underground Australia pieces there isn’t a sudden Big Bang, an Immaculate Conception, a Virgin Birth to any type of music or art. There are roots in roots music.
If OBWAT didn’t influence Country Music radio to be more traditional sounding it did create a sensation with varied scenes in Mississippi. Probably the biggest OBWAT scene featured a political rally filmed inside the former Sisters of Mercy school in Vicksburg. Take a look and hear a Jimmie Rodgers….The Father or Country Music….classic In the Jailhouse Now with Rodgers’ style yodeling plus the Man of Constant Sorrow.
OBWAT also gave LP Mickie and me some memories during our visits to Vicksburg. Since OBWAT became such a great force I had to visit the Sisters of Mercy school now used by the Southern Culture Heritage Foundation as a cultural center. I thought it would be difficult to be allowed to visit and take pics. No problem!
A visit to the office and they pointed out the way to the auditorium filming site. It seemed astonishing to just walk in and be directed down a hallway to the auditorium. Goodness sake! We got to stand on the stage and on the floor where filming took place for an iconic scene. Talk about thrills and chills!
Another time, LP Mickie and I visited the Sisters of Mercy school and took pics of the special nationally funded New Harmonies traveling exhibit. It even included local aspects of music featured in OBWAT such as the Homer Stokes for Governor poster. LP Mickie’s barrister cousin Ken Harper and LP Terri’s law office in downtown Vicksburg allowed them to see the coming and going of film crews.
Terri Harper reported the trailers for the stars, George Cloney and John Goodman, were parked in the parking lot next to our office building and with a little spying out the upstairs window we caught a glimpse of them.
Since OBWAT’s twentieth anniversary is upon us it’s not surprising that some folks would write and reminisce about it. Rolling Stone reported that OBWAT artists including George Clooney and other OBWAT alums participated in the recent online Nashville Film Festival. The film festival’s Executive Director claims This special online event explores and celebrates the incredible contributions of this film, along with its impact on popular music and culture.” OBWAT stars George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson participated in discussions. The festival organizers claimed.
The tribute will focus on the impact of the film’s music on the Americana and folk genres, how the film’s themes remain relevant today and anecdotal memories from the set 20 years ago. Exclusive musical performances will follow the panel discussion and include covers of classic songs from O Brother, Where Art Thou?, such as “I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow” and “You Are My Sunshine,” performed by Chris Thomas King, Dan Tyminski, Kathleen Edwards and The Dead South.
Nevada State College professor Peter LaChapelle wrote a fine piece in Pop Matters. LaChapelle uses OBWAT as an important part in a college…course…I teach bout the culture, music, and political history of the South during the first half of the 20th century. LaChapelle deals with lots of positives and negatives about OBWAT’s content including a lack of African American presence and a limited focus and portrayal of women.
LaChappelle probably says it best about OBWAT’s continued importance twenty years later…. it still touches us in deep and important ways, making us think about how myth, history, and cultural inheritances filter into the present, and about what elements of myth and history we choose to hold onto. Remember….we mentioned that novelist William Faulkner claimed that the past isn’t dead. It isn’t even past. OBWAT deals with the past, is in the past, continues today, and will continue into the future.
That means that OBWAT’s history now contributes to, and is part of, Country Music’s long and rich history. As I’ve mentioned numerous times in these Country Underground Australia pieces, the circle of Country Music remains unbroken. Yes indeed. Past, present, and future all connected. Faulkner was indeed spot-on….as is Country Music now and forever. Amen.
