Ethan and Joel Coen are known for their philosophical dark comedies and eccentric characters that combine the all-too-human with the otherworldly, but in the 2001 "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" music is at the center. More specifically, bluegrass music.

"O Brother" is a modern adaptation of Homer's "Odyssey," but it's set in Mississippi during the Great Depression. The protagonists — played by George Clooney, John Turturro, and Tim Blake Nelson — are conmen who escape prison and accidentally produce a hit song, "Man of Constant Sorrow." Not only is this a great bluegrass song, as INDY Week confirms, but it becomes an ode to the genre through its style, lyrics, and all the humorous moments shared by the main characters.

Just as humorous is the protagonists' band, Soggy Bottom Boys, but it also shows the research that went into the movie; of course, the band's name is a wordplay on Earl Scruggs' Foggy Mountain Boys. Sandy Wilbur, the film's musicologist, reported to INDY Week that the soundtrack included famous bluegrass singers. "These old-timers who were still alive," Wilbur said, "and still had a great voice and tremendous knowledge, like Ralph Stanley and John Hartford."

But, as noted by Bluegrass Situation, "O Brother" also raised young bluegrass artists, like Alison Krauss, to stardom. Overall, the movie is an excellent rendition of how bluegrass music was rooted in working-class life in the southern U.S.

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