Some months ago, we heard that Joel and Ethan Coen were working on a project that all sorts of people had been talking about for nearly sixty years, but no one had ever considered making. O Brother, Where Art Thou?, Preston Sturges fans might recall, is the social-realist epic Joel McRae is talked out of directing in Sullivan's Travels. As it turns out, that property is still up for grabs; instead of Sullivan's movie, the Coen brothers ended up with a musical adaption of the Odyssey, set in the Depression-era South. Go figure.

The film, which isn't based all that closely on the Odyssey either, concerns the adventures of three fugitives from a Mississippi chain gang. It opens in the States later this month, but advance publicity has already been overshadowed by the glowing reviews bestowed upon the soundtrack. If the Coen brothers didn't end up making Sullivan's movie, the soundtrack's producer, T Bone Burnett, did come up with some amazing reproductions of the music Sullivan might have been exposed to during his travels. Using old equipment, old recording methods, and a stable of artists who treat old-time music as a religion, Burnett created a set list that functions like the film's fourth character, and has a life that's extended far beyond the film. A series of concerts have been planned, and D. A. Pennebaker has produced a documentary of one that's already taken place. On the record, the music of Skip James, Jimmie Rodgers, the Stanley Brothers, and others is performed by contemporary artists such as Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, and Alison Krauss -- but instead of the funereal nostalgia of a covers session, the new versions have the spirit of a revival meeting. This music is vital, they say, full of life, and our own. We'd do well to remember it.

A fifty-two-year-old Fort Worth native who now lives in Los Angeles, Burnett is best known as a producer. He has worked with everyone from Elvis Costello to Roy Orbison. Burnett is also an accomplished musician in his own right, with several records to his name and a stint as guitarist on Bob Dylan's Rolling Thunder Tour under his belt. FEED caught up with him last week to talk about the Coen brothers, the soundtrack, what old-time music means today, and what today's music means to an old-time guy like Burnett.

-- Alex Abramovich

TAKE THE T BONE CHALLENGE: To make your reading experience more pleasant, we've provided four sound files culled form the soundtrack, and coupled them with four historic recordings of the same songs as they exist in FEED's Old-Time Music Vault. Can you tell which is which?