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:
Sarah Ogan Gunning [as I Am A Girl Of Constant Sorrow; Alan Lomax-recording for the L.o.C.]
Hall Brothers [as Constant Sorrow]
Bonnie Dobson [as Girl Of Constant Sorrow]
Joan Baez [as I Am A Girl Of Constant Sorrow]
Roscoe Holcomb [on lp There Is No Eye]
Judy Collins [title track debut album A Maid Of Constant Sorrow]
Bob Dylan [the first song he performed on television (in 1963)]
Kate & Anna McGarrigle [as Why Must We Die?]
Norman Blake [idem]
John Hartford [in film O Brother, Where Art Thou?]
Soggy Bottom Boys [feat. Dan Tyminski of Union Station, arrangement: The Stanley Brothers; also in film O Brother, Where Art Thou?]
Sharon Shannon [vocal: Jackson Browne]
Alison Krauss & Union Station [vocal: Dan Tyminski]
Peggy Seeger [as I Am A Girl Of Constant Sorrow]
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?
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)