From bluegrass to beatpella: the long road of the Farewell song

It was a bit of a surprise to receive the ravishing presence of Miley Cirus on the stage of the AFI’s tribute to George Clooney, as one usually expects to see peer actors praise and roast the honorees in equal proportions. However, she came with an ace in her sleeve and delivered a top-class rendition of “Man of Constant Sorrow”.

Well, it made a lot of sense, as that was one of the iconic songs of the “Oh Brother, Where are Thou” movie, where Clooney plays along with John Turturro (The Room Next Door, Barton Fink, The Big Lewobski) and Tim Blake Nelson (Bang Bang, Old Henry, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs). In the movie, a group of convicts make their escape to freedom by singing bluegrass songs and hitting the charts as the “Soggy Bottom Boys Band”. The soundtrack of the movie won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2002, and an explosion of covers and adapted versions erupted in the following years. The song is totally engrained in popular culture nowadays, for instance, the country rock version of Blackberry Smoke and the Sawyer Fredericks’ blind audition in The Voice have both innovative arrangements and vocalizations.

All started in the years before the big war, when Richard Daniel Burnett, a partially blind man from Kentucky, recorded this traditional folk song as “Farewell Song” and printed it in a Richard Burnett songbook. Fifteen years later, Emry Arthur recorded it with its actual title, and in the fifties -where the Coen brothers movie takes place- the song was made popular by the Stanley Brothers.

In the rocky sixties, big names of the counterculture movement such as Joan Baez (Girl of Constant Sorrow), Judy Collins (Maid of Constant Sorrow) and Bob Dylan put their own mark on the song, but it was Dan Tyminski along with the real “Soggy Bottom Boys” who made of the Farewell Song a worldwide cultural item.

There is nothing festive or joyful in the lyrics, and many of the interpretations hardly convey the crude unveiling of the human condition by a person that is saying goodbye to the world. So it was refreshing to discover the vocal prodigy and pristine rendition by Home Free, an American a capella and beatbox country group.

The video starts with crackling and static sounds of turntable recorders, and vocal imitation of a mouth jaw harp, images of swamp trees and alligators, and the five singers in harmonizing vocals introducing the melody at a slow tempo. The voices are raspy and emotional, and after each stanza, there is a line repeated by all voices in perfect harmony. The beatboxer provides different effects, such as percussion, harmonica and jaw harp. You may also notice the bass voice giving goosebumps as part of the chorus, an effect that is much amplified when the bass singer has its own solo. The sepia palette and the rural America wardrobe complete the full visual and auditive experience.

Home Free performed along with the Oak Ridge Boys the song Elvira. Each member of the new generation has a counterpart in the old-timers’ band, and it is a joy to see them complement each other skills: check it out!