Desert Island Singles: “Man Of Constant Sorrow” by The Soggy Bottom Boys (2000)

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The song was a hit in the movie for the Soggy Bottom Boys, and later became a hit single in real life. It received a CMA award for “Single of the Year,” a Grammy for “Best Country Collaboration with Vocals,” and peaked at #35 on Billboard’s Hot Country Songs chart. – Wikipedia

“Man of Constant Sorrow” is probably two or three hundred years old. But the first time I heard it when I was y’know, like a small boy, my daddy – my father – he had some of the words to it, and I heard him sing it, and we – my brother and me – we put a few more words to it, and brought it back in existence. I guess if it hadn’t been for that it’d have been gone forever. I’m proud to be the one that brought that song back, because I think it’s wonderful. – Ralph Stanley

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“O Brother, Where Art Thou?” is one of my favorite movies, the Coen Brothers at their best. I’ve heard a dozen versions of “Man/Maid/Girl Of Constant Sorrow” over the years, but none so memorable as by The Soggy Bottom Boys. And of course the scene at the redneck radio station endears this movie to all of us radio geeks. As a reviewer on Amazon observed, “If George Clooney really could sing like this, there would be no hope left for the rest of the male gender.”

The older I get, the more and more true this song becomes for me. And naturally I substitute the line “I bade farewell to Minnesota/The place where I was born and raised.”