Down From the Mountain jamboree
By CRAIG HAVIGHURST
Staff Writer
The old country song asks: ''Will the circle be unbroken?'' The Down From the Mountain tour seems to be answering: ''Yes, it will.''
The idea for the multi-artist roots and bluegrass show was born here in the spring of 2000 with a night of extraordinary music at Ryman Auditorium.
Now, after two extensive loops of the country, the musical cast of the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack returns to Nashville tomorrow for a homecoming finale concert.
It's been nearly two years since the movie and its soundtrack came out, and in that time, O Brother has become a rallying cry and a code word for one of the largest revivals of bluegrass and roots music in American history. How that happened is a complicated story, but one big reason is that the soundtrack itself sparked spin-off projects that presented the music in many media and settings, including the concert stage.
Down From the Mountain was the name given to the initial Ryman show. Then came a film of the concert and a CD soundtrack of that film, both also titled Down From The Mountain.
The idea for a tour emerged as the original soundtrack racked up million after million in sales and after the cast had sold out at Carnegie Hall. But the identity of the show, says cast member Emmylou Harris, was set that first night.
''It is like being part of a repertory company,'' she says. ''The show manages to be Down From the Mountain no matter how many people move in and out of it. It's greater than the sum of its parts.''
Most of the artists on stage tomorrow were there for the making of the soundtrack and its signature songs. The legendary Ralph Stanley (whom Harris calls the ''rock'' of the show) singing O Death, Harris, Gillian Welch and Alison Krauss singing Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby and Dan Tyminski singing I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow.
And there is much more from national treasures such as Norman and Nancy Blake, the Fairfield Four, The Whites and the Nashville Bluegrass Band.
But over some 60 dates in large and small cities around the States and Canada, roots artists who were not part of the original soundtrack have joined the cast for long or short stretches.
Del McCoury and Ricky Skaggs have brought standard-setting and standard-bearing bluegrass. Country star Patty Loveless has interpreted her roots album Mountain Soul. Texas singer-songwriter Rodney Crowell has lent a post-Bob Dylan folk flavor to the shows, as both a musician and emcee.
In that respect, DFTM has taken on a brand and life of its own, mirroring the large community of roots musicians who play for the love of traditional music, Skaggs says.
''It covers a very broad base, even with Chris Thomas King doing his blues thing,'' says Skaggs referring to the one African-American artist in the cast. ''That works so well with the nature of what the tour is all about. It really is about all kinds of roots music.''
Singing and playing together off the cuff is part and parcel of roots music, whether it's blues, bluegrass, country or gospel, all of which are reflected in the Down From the Mountain show. That, says Harris, is one of the things that makes any given night on the tour special.
Generally she says, audiences ''go to shows where things are carefully calibrated. But this - even though there are cornerstones we do - I change up my set every night. And people will sit in. People (in the audience), even if they don't know it's happening for the first time, they feel it.''
Kevin Lyman, one of the show's co-producers, agrees: ''The artists control the tour. You never know who's going to play with anyone. The show evolves each and every day.''
Lyman is part of the invisible infrastructure of the ambitious tour, which is being managed by the same large booking companies that stage the heavy rock Vans Warped Tour and other seemingly incongruous events. With the Mountain tour, roots music is at last being presented with the kind of corporate muscle it takes to expose anything in modern America. The grass roots have nurtured the bluegrass, folk and old-time scenes. But it took a tour backed by the GM Card and House of Blues to sell out (or nearly so) major concert venues night after night.
For Skaggs, that's a major step forward: ''I've always felt that if bluegrass ever really had the perfect opportunity - which I think this tour is - for people to see it, hear it, feel it, taste it and be where this music is in a great setting, people would go away from there a fan of music, and that's really what we're seeing happen.''
In that way, the tour has shown America a side of Nashville and country music that doesn't generally get exposed in the media - a side where careers will never be more than a solid living and where very old songs matter more than new ones. Lyman expects Down From the Mountain to continue in the future, with an ever-evolving lineup. It remains to be seen how successful it can be without all of the anchoring O Brother musicians, but it's not a huge concern to many of the artists on the tour or in the scene.
''Even if this were to end tomorrow, this music would go on and these people would go on still making the music. Nothing would change. And I think that's the beauty of it,'' says Harris.
''There are people out there who have had their lives changed and their musical tastes broadened and deepened (by this tour). That's going to stay with them. Because if you get it and it touches you, it will stay with you.''