There is something of a dizzying circular concept at play in this 34-track double live album. The September 2013 New York concert from which the music is drawn was a celebration of the songs of a movie that was a celebration of an imaginary world of a singer who “lived” in the romanticised world of the American folk resurgence of the late 1950s and early 1960s.
If the Coen brothers’ movie focused on the self-obsessed central character, the world he inhabited and the songs that were its soundtrack shared equal billing. The concert built on that synergy with three of the actors, Oscar Isaac, Adam Driver and Carey Mulligan, joining seasoned and rising musicians recruited by producer T-Bone Burnett (with Elvis Costello and Oscar Isaac). Some were used in the movie but this concert steps beyond its boundaries while staying true to its spirit.
Last March, another shorter edit of the concert, this one created for Showtime, was released on DVD. The audio version may be longer but it has also taken another nine months to see the light of day.
Nevertheless, this is an always entertaining package. Specific Irish interest is relatively minor, though Irish rresident Rhiannon Giddens, late of the Carolina Chocolate Drops and soon to release her first solo album, gets one of the hottest ovations when she lets rip on a percussive tune in the teanga beo.
Behan’s Ould Triangle remains, as in the movie, an “Oirish” indulgence but Joan Baez, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings, Jack White, Marcus Mumford and the awesome bundle of energy and creativity that are the Punch Brothers carry the show with memorable versions of old chestnuts such as Will the Circle Be Unbroken?, Joe Hill and Tomorrow is a Long Time mixed with newer coinage such as the haunting New York by the Milk Carton Kids.
