down hill strugglers

 I’m pleased to announce that my old time string band the Down Hill Strugglers has a song on the soundtrack album to the new film by the Coen Brothers, “Inside Llewyn Davis.”  Its track #8 on the soundtrack album, a great old folk song called “The Roving Gambler” that we first recorded a couple of years ago for our Folkways record.  We are joined on this song by our great friend, mentor and ofttimes bandmate John Cohen (of the New Lost City Ramblers).

The film is really good.  It’s set in the Greenwich Village folk music scene in 1961 and is loosely based on parts of the autobiography of the great folk and blues singer Dave van Ronk.  Its great to see the Coen Brothers do another folk music based movie as a kind of followup to “Oh Brother Where Art Thou?” although the films are very different.

The soundtrack album is set for release on Nov. 11th and the film itself comes out in mid December.  Other musicians on the album include the amazing and versatile Punch Brothers, Marcus Mumford (without his Sons) and noted folk singer Justin Timberlake.  The album was recorded and produced by T Bone Burnett.

More information is available at the Nonesuch Records website, and you can hear the whole album at NPR’s website.