James Carter was the singer of "Po Lazarus," the song that opens the fabulously successful O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. I wrote about his amazing story for my old blog Tres Producers in March of 2002:
- James Carter recorded a version of "Po Lazarus" for rambling folklorist/producer Alan Lomax in 1959 as an inmate in the Mississippi State Penitentiary. He forgot about it. 42 years later the song appeared on the O Brother Where Art Thou? soundtrack, and now Carter, 76, shares a Grammy for album of the year, has a $20,000 check as a down payment for what could turn out to be hundreds of thousands in royalties (the album has sold over 5 million copies so far and was the No. 2 country album for 2001, according to Billboard), and enjoys a bizarre twist of fate late in his life.
Proving that there is no such thing as a monolithic "music industry," just a collection of greater and lesser individuals and organizations doing their thing, the heroes of the story are album producer T-Bone Burnett; Don Fleming, director of licensing for the Lomax archives; and Chris Grier, a reporter for The Sarasota Herald-Tribune; all of whom went out of their way to track down Carter, who lives in Chicago and had never heard of the movie or the soundtrack.
There was more a couple of days later:
- In a nutshell, O Brother Where Art Thou? producer T-Bone Burnett, Lomax archivist Don Fleming, and reporter Chris Grier tracked down ex-convict singer James Carter (who was recorded by Alan Lomax in 1959) in Chicago to present him with the fruit of forgotten labor, 43 years down life's highway.
Well, the story continues. It turns out "Don Fleming" is the Don Fleming, the cool-guy record producer/musician I interviewed for The Encyclopedia of Record Producers a few years back.
....just over a year ago, in keeping with his Smithsonian and Library of Congress past, Fleming hooked up with the Lomax Archives - which provided the Carter recording for the O Brother soundtrack - where he is now wallowing in music history heaven.
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Article comments
1 - queenkv
I'm really really happy folks were able to pay out the royalties to Carter, before he passed away. The "O Brother" soundtrack is quite lovely and for a non-country music lover, such as myself - it was perfect introduction to the genre. I also recomend the compliation "O Sister, Where Art Thou" - an album that a lovely female counterpart to bluegrass/country music.
On today's Morning Edition:
http://www.npr.org/features/feature.php?wfId=1531947
The story featured some nice commentary on the recording og "Po Lazrus". Plus it had a few interview clips with James Carter.
2 - Eric Olsen
very cool Queen, thanks!
3 - D.F. Duck
What a shame that as of November 2005 James Carter still has no headstone to mark his grave even though one of his daughters claims he recieved over $100,000 in royaly fees.
While at the Glen Oak Cemetery in Hillside Illinois I asked how much a headstone would cost for him. For a bronze and granite stone they quoted me $1,313.50.
Carter was only the first of many bluesmen I found in the Chicago area with unmarked graves. Sad.