(New West Records) -- New West Records will release the original soundtrack to the feature film
Black Snake Moan January 23, 2007 one month ahead of the nationwide theatrical release from Paramount Vantage.
Black Snake Moan, a darkly modern tale of love, betrayal, sex, and salvation set in the Deep South from Writer-Director
Craig Brewer stars Samuel L. Jackson,
Christina Ricci, and Justin Timberlake.
As Brewer's 2005 Academy Award-winning silver screen debut Hustle & Flow depicted the underground world of Dirty South rap, Black Snake Moan, which was filmed in Memphis, Tennessee and surrounding environs, employs as a setting the contemporary North Mississippi hill country music scene, revealing its sound through purveyors like the North Mississippi Allstars, R.L. Burnside, and Jessie Mae Hemphill.
For his portrayal of Lazarus, a reformed bluesman who attempts to reform the sex-addicted Rae (possibly Ricci's juiciest role), Jackson honed his singing chops and took guitar lessons before picking up the Gibson ES-335 – custom-painted purple – that he plays in the movie. Constructing the movie's musical scenes, Scott Bomar, the film's music supervisor (he also scored Hustle & Flow), paired Jackson's voice with musicianship from players like Alvin Youngblood Hart, Kenny Brown, Big Jack Johnson, and Jason Freeman, parlaying blues classics like the raucously vulgar "Stack-O-Lee" and, of course, "Black Snake Moan," into sinister, 21st century laments.
""R.L. was definitely the musical inspiration for the film," Bomar says of Burnside, the late hill country blues cult hero, who died in September 2005 while Black Snake Moan was in production. As Laz, Jackson serves up his own version of two of Burnside's signature songs, including the acoustic "Just Like A Bird Without A Feather," and the all-electric "Alice Mae," delivered in a juke joint scene with Brown, Burnside's right hand man, on rhythm guitar, and Cedric Burnside, R.L.'s grandson, on drums.
Culling and creating music for the movie led Bomar – with Brewer and Jackson in tow – from modern-day juke joints in Holly Springs and Clarksdale, Mississippi, to his own Electraphonic Recording Studio in Midtown Memphis, and the famed Ardent Studios facility, home to such albums as parts of Led Zeppelin III, all of Big Star's records, Cat Power's The Greatest, and Broken Boy Soldiers, the Raconteurs' debut release.
Modern artists like John Doe ("The Losing Kind"), the Black Keys ("When the Lights Go Out"), and Outrageous Cherry ("Lord Have Mercy On Me") were tapped for material, alongside chitlin' circuit star Bobby Rush (singing his over-the-top '70s-era soul hit "Chicken Heads"), Georgia blueswoman Precious Bryant ("Morning Train"), and archival interviews with legendary Delta blues guitarist Son House, while songs from authentic hill country veterans like Hemphill ("Standing In My Doorway Crying"), the North Mississippi Allstars (Mean Ol' Wind Died Down"), and Burnside himself ("Old Black Mattie") round out the mix.
Snippets of dialog and pivotal cuts from the Black Snake Moan score, including "Ronnie & Rae's Theme," and "The Chain," which were composed by Bomar and recorded inside Ardent's Studio A with harmonica master Charlie Musselwhite, percussionist Otha Andre Turner, organist Jim Dickinson, and his sons Luther and Cody Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars (on guitar and drums/washboard, respectively) are also included on the soundtrack.
While the Black Snake Moan soundtrack presents the best musical moments of the movie, as a stand-alone document, its seventeen tracks weave together a raw depiction of today's North Mississippi scene: a little bit country, and a little bit rock'n'roll, both built on a bedrock of primitive blues.
New West Records LLC is a nine year old, wholly independent record label distributed in the United States by RED Distribution. In the past 12 months, the label has had 6 releases debut in the Top 200. With 112 releases to date, the roster includes Dwight Yoakam, Delbert McClinton, John Hiatt, Kris Kristofferson, Steve Earle, The Flatlanders, Tim Easton, Vic Chesnutt, Drive-By Truckers, Randall Bramblett, Stephen Bruton, the Old 97's, Ben Lee and Buddy & Julie Miller. With offices in Los Angeles and Austin TX, the company is staffed by a unique blend of music and business specialists. New West Records also exclusively represents PBS television program Austin City Limits.
