'O Brother' Singer James Carter Dies

12/03/2003 9:55 AM, Reuters


James Carter, an ex-convict whose 1959 field recording was a key track on the award-winning "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" soundtrack, died Nov. 26 in Chicago of complications related to a stroke. He was 77.

Carter was a member of a Mississippi chain gang when folklorist Alan Lomax recorded him leading other convicts on the holler "Po Lazarus." "O Brother" producer T Bone Burnett unearthed the track in the Lomax archives and used it as the leadoff song on the soundtrack. Burnett later tracked down Carter in Chicago.

The onetime prisoner received royalties for his work and flew to L.A. for the 2002 Grammys , where "O Brother" was named album of the year.

Reuters/Billboard