Imaginary Sounds Mix 19: A Night in the Box: Film Songs from the Heartland

Mix #19. Yay! We're nearing a milestone. bates love motel is heading abroad for a while so I'm posting his mix for him while he prepares for that.
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(download full mix) [98MB]

Tumbleweeds rolling in a valley...rocking chairs on a creaky porch...an old rusty pick-up overgrown with weeds...we've always had an interest in the heartland, its hardworking tough-minded people, its ongoing battle between righteous churchgoers and barcrawling rebels, its modern decline from flourishing farming villages to dwindling ghost towns, and certainly the ongoing record of its everyday trials: the music.

From the bluegrass of the mountains and plains, the outlaw music of the West, and the blues of the South, the heartland has learned from its rich past, shaping its music from Irish folk ballads and slave work songs, and created music for everyday life, whether spiritual or recreational, mournful or joyful. A more modern and increasingly fascination record of the heartland has been in film—and even more interesting has been the convergence of music and film, a tradition going back to the spaghetti westerns up to Robert Altman's musical masterpiece "Nashville." For "A Night in the Box," (a title taked from "Cool Hand Luke") we wanted to create a mix of various songs from films either about the heartland or stylistically adjacent. Some new, some old, some bluegrass, some country. We've tried to include a little of everything—even from Australia's western "The Proposition" and Canada's drama "The Sweet Hereafter." We also found it important to create an updated musical record of the heartland film, and that update includes some hybrid films as well as films about new issues in the heartland—such as "Winter's Bone" and "Chrystal" which are about drug problems in the Ozarks, or "Sordid Lives" about a Texas family dealing with a gay relative. It's definitely a more conceptual mix, but is still easily accessible—hopefully, as a result of this listening experience, you will throw off your shoes, chew tobacco, and take up the banjo, but that's just wishful thinking on our part.

Tracklisting:

1. Eddy Arnold - Cattle Call (from My Own Private Idaho)
2. Garrison Keillor & Meryl Streep - Gold Watch & Chain (from A Prairie Home Companion)
3. Otis Taylor - Ten Million Slaves (from Public Enemies)
4. Lisa Blount - Sugar Babe (from Chrystal)
5. Flatt & Scruggs - Doin My Time (from Bonnie & Clyde)
6. Bambi Lee Savage - Darlin' (from Sling Blade)
7. Ed Harris - You'll Never Leave My Heart (from Appaloosa)
8. Precious Bryant - Morning Train (from Black Snake Moan)
9. The Singing Hall Sisters - Knoxville Girl (from Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus)
10. Jack White - Wayfaring Stranger (from Cold Mountain)
11. Ralph Stanley - O Death (from O Brother Where Art Thou)
12. Ryan Bingham - The Weary Kind (from Crazy Heart)
13. Iris DeMent - Pretty Saro (from Songcatcher)
14. Neil Young & Johnny Depp - Dead Man (from Dead Man)
15. Sarah Polley - Courage (from The Sweet Hereafter)
16. Eddie Vedder - Society (from Into the Wild)
17. Paul Newman - Plastic Jesus (from Cool Hand Luke)
18. Shooter Jennings - I'm a Long Way from Home (from Walk the Line)
19. Ry Cooder & Harry Dean Stanton - Mixteca (from Paris, Texas)
20. Dirt Road Delight - Palm of His Hand (from Winter's Bone)
21. Willie Nelson - He Was A Friend Of Mine (from Brokeback Mountain)
22. Nick Cave & Warren Ellis - The Rider Song (from The Proposition)
23. Olivia Newton John - Sordid Lives (from Sordid Lives)