I AM A MAN OF CONSTANT SORROW

Created on 31/01/2006
Latest update on 27/01/2024

Artist: Emry Arthur
Author: Dick Burnett
Label: Vocalion
Year: 1928

Vocal/guitar + acc. Died in 1966. Written in 1913 by his friend and blind banjo player Dick Burnett as Farewell Song. There is no version by the author. Emry Arthur cut it twice; again in '31 as I'm A Man Of Constant Sorrow and in '35 he re-used the melody in The Broken Wedding. All three versions reissued on the Appalachian Stomp Down box set (JSP). Possibly related with the hymn The White Rose.

Covers:

1937:

Sarah Ogan Gunning [as I Am A Girl Of Constant Sorrow; Alan Lomax-recording for the L.o.C.]

1938:

Hall Brothers [as Constant Sorrow]

1950:

Stanley Brothers

1960:

Bonnie Dobson [as Girl Of Constant Sorrow]

1961:

Joan Baez [as I Am A Girl Of Constant Sorrow]

1961:

Roscoe Holcomb [on lp There Is No Eye]

1961:

Judy Collins [title track debut album A Maid Of Constant Sorrow]

1962:

Bob Dylan [the first song he performed on television (in 1963)]

1962:

New Lost City Ramblers

1970:

Ginger Baker

1970:

Rod Stewart

1996:

Kate & Anna McGarrigle [as Why Must We Die?]

2000:

Norman Blake [idem]

2000:

John Hartford [in film O Brother, Where Art Thou?]

2000:

Soggy Bottom Boys [feat. Dan Tyminski of Union Station, arrangement: The Stanley Brothers; also in film O Brother, Where Art Thou?]

2000:

Sharon Shannon [vocal: Jackson Browne]

2002:

Alison Krauss & Union Station [vocal: Dan Tyminski]

2003:

Peggy Seeger [as I Am A Girl Of Constant Sorrow]

2015:

Dwight Yoakam

2018:

Miley Cyrus [as a tribute to George Clooney]

In the brothers Coen film O Brother, Where Art Thou? three escaped chaingang prisoners face an odyssey of adventures against a background of pre-war country and depression-era blues. The hit of the film is the song they recorded while on the run as The Soggy Bottom Boys in a makeshift studio with only one microphone. Who needs more?

Contact


If you noticed blunt omissions, mis-interpretations or even out-and-out errors,
please let me know:

Arnold Rypens
Rozenlaan 65
B-2840 Reet (Rumst)

info@originals.be

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