Brotherly love
Down From the Mountain' a show to remember
By Ed Will
Denver Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 13, 2002 - O, brother, what a concert!
"O, come, angel band, come and around me stand." O, brother concert
was a heavenly experience. A truckload of country singers and
musicians and an appreciative, capacity crowd Monday night turned the
sold-out Paramount Theatre into the front porch of a house in the
Kentucky hills.
Millions of dollars' worth of talent took part in the "Down From the Mountain" concert, but it took on the air of neighbors gathered for a community sing.
The "Down From the Mountain" tour, this winter's hottest musical ticket, grew out of the traditional country-music soundtrack of the film "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" Released on CD, that soundtrack became last year's top-selling country album.
Most of the musicians who created that success and followed it up with another - the live CD and documentary film "Down From the Mountain" - played at Tuesday's show.
Singer/songwriter/filmmaker Bob Neuwirth served as master of ceremonies and started the evening by dedicating the show to John Hartford. Hartford, who died last June, played on both CDs and hosted the first "Down From the Mountain" concert in May 2000.
The Nashville Bluegrass Band open the show with an a cappella version of "Po Lazarus" that blended the group's five voices as smoothly as top-shelf whiskey. They foreshadowed what the night would become, a celebration of the human voice.
The almost three-hour celebration ended with the legendry Ralph Stanley leading all the artists and the standing audience in a soulful, a cappella rendition of "Amazing Grace," which was, well, simply amazing.
In between those two songs, the cavalcade of artists turned in one fine performance after another. The audience sent the applause meter higher and higher as each song raised the performance bar just a bit for the next act.
A concert of nothing but highlights makes it hard to pick out certain moments without shortchanging others.
Certainly, the Peasall Sisters - Sarah, 14; Hannah, 11; and Leah, 8 - stood out because their two songs came just before intermission, meaning they followed such people as Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss and Union Station and Norman and Nancy Blake. The angel-voiced girls, however, managed to wow the audience with their harmonies on "In The Highways."
Dan Tyminski, who provided the singing voice for George Clooney's character in the film, scored big with "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow." That is the song that caused many people who had seen the film to visit record stores to buy the records of the Soggy Bottom Boys, the fictional group led by Clooney's character.
Harris, of course, always is a highlight. This time she stood out with an aching take on "Love Hurts," aided by her good friend and guitarist Buddy Miller, and a tear-inspiring version of "Blue Kentucky Girl," on which she was joined by the Whites, and a wrenching rendition of the Dolly Parton song "To Daddy." The Whites did themselves proud on the old Kitty Wells hit "Makin' Believe."
Harris joined Krauss and Patty Loveless on "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby" from the film's "siren" scene. (The soundtrack version features Gillian Welch rather than Loveless.) Welch and the Cox Family are the two major acts on the "O Brother" soundtrack not on this tour.)
Krauss probably converted at least a couple of audience members with a soaring performance of "Down to the River to Pray."
Then there was Stanley, today's Elvis of traditional music. With his hands casually clasped at his waist, he filled the theater with his plaintive plea against dying, "O Death," whose solemn lyrics he magically makes uplifting. He also did "A Man of Constant Sorrow," "Petty Polly," joined by Loveless, and "Angel Band," with the entire troupe.