Music from Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus

by Jim White

Overview

British director Andrew Douglas was so taken with Jim White's 1997 Southern gothic road record Wrong-Eyed Jesus that he decided to make a movie about the Deep South with White leading the charge in an old Chevy Impala. Dreamlike, spooky, and often funny, Searching for the Wrong-Eyed Jesus is a series of collages and testimonies on everything from Pentecostal churches to old juke joints with music from a familiar cast of Americana underworld characters peppered throughout. White offers up three atmospheric tracks, one from his lauded debut and two from its follow-up, the bluesy and equally vast No Such Place. In fact, atmosphere is the common thread here, with brooding tracks from familial Chicago duo the Handsome Family ("My Sister's Tiny Hands") and Cat Power ("Crossbones Style") and hellfire and brimstone from the mercurial David Eugene Edwards of 16 Horsepower, who offers up a chilling field recording of "Wayfaring Stranger." Old-timey classics from Doc Watson and Clarence Ashley ("Coo Coo Bird") as well as an eerie version of "Amazing Grace" played on the saw by Melissa Swingle round out a soundtrack that matches its subject with equal parts reverence and obsession. Like the yang to O Brother, Where Art Thou?'s yin, it resonates -- but uncomfortably. ~ James Christopher Monger

Product Details

Release Date:	06/07/2005
Label:	Luaka Bop
UPC:	0680899006026
Rank:	255248

Tracks

1. Everything Was Stories  -  Harry Crews
2. Still Waters  - Jim White
3. My Sister's Tiny Hands  -  Handsome Family  - Brett Sparks
4. Crossbones Style  -  Cat Power  - Chan Marshall
5. The Last Kind Words  - David Johansen  - Larry Saltzman  - Geeshie Wiley
6. The Wound That Never Heals  - Jim White
7. Wayfaring Stranger  - David Eugene Edwards  -  Traditional
8. Small Town
9. Black Soul Choir  -  16 Horsepower  - David Eugene Edwards
10. Little Maggie  - Lee Sexton  -  Traditional
11. First There Was  - Maggie Brown  - Johnny Dowd
12. Coo Coo Bird  - Clarence Ashley  -  Traditional  - Doc Watson
13. Amazing Grace  - Melissa Swingle  -  Traditional
14. Christmas Day  - Jim White
15. Essential Truth  - Jim White

Album Credits

Performance Credits

Jim White   Primary Artist,Primary Artist
Harry Crews   Primary Artist
Melissa Swingle   Primary Artist
David Eugene Edwards   Primary Artist
Doc Watson   Primary Artist
16 Horsepower   Primary Artist
Johnny Dowd   Primary Artist
Lee Sexton   Primary Artist
Cat Power   Primary Artist
Clarence Ashley   Primary Artist
Larry Saltzman   Primary Artist
The Handsome Family   Primary Artist
David Johansen   Primary Artist
Maggie Brown   Primary Artist

Technical Credits

Martin Jack Rosenbaum   Photography
Hugh Mitchell Dawson   Remixing
Harry Smiths   Engineer
Jim White   Composer,Composer
David Eugene Edwards   Composer
Chan Marshall   Composer
Yale Evelev   Executive Producer
Brett Sparks   Composer
Brian Koonin   Arranger
Andrew Douglas   Photography
Scott Hull   Mastering
Geeshie Wiley   Composer
David Johansen   Engineer,Arranger
Traditional   Composer