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Soundtrack
Release Date: 01/30/2007
Black Snake Moan, the 2007 movie that stars
Samuel L. Jackson as a God-fearing, bent broken soul and tortured former bluesman, with
Christina Ricci playing the town tramp he feels he has to redeem by any means necessary, is a wildly provocative look at spiritual and cultural mores -- and is sure to set some folks on edge. The
soundtrack that accompanies it on the other hand, is a pure shimmy-shaking
blues extravaganza. The film is dedicated to the memory of
R.L. Burnside. His digital ghost performs
"Old Black Mattie" here, and his tune
"Just Like a Bird Without a Feather," is covered by
Jackson with
Burnside's adopted son and sideman
Kenny Brown. There are also cuts here by
the Black Keys,
Jessie Mae Hemphill,
Scott Bomar the
soundtrack's producer,
John Doe,
Outrageous Cherry (covering
Junior Kimbrough no less),
Bobby Rush,
Precious Bryant and
the North Mississippi Allstars. Sure, musically this is a mixed -- but mostly satisfactory -- bag.
Jackson can't sing worth a damn, but he's got the feel of the
blues to be sure; it's in the grain, it's not a posture. He can tell a hell of a story too; check his
spoken word intro to the title track with
Jason Freeman on a killer serpentine guitar.
Doe does a very spooky reading of his
"The Losing Kind" here, and the
Allstars kick it on the end credits like a mother. The
Kimbrough cover is adequate but it doesn't fit here at all, and begs the question why the producers didn't just use
Kimbrough's own music.
Bomar's instrumental theses are quite beautiful; they're as deeply influenced by
Ennio Morricone as they are by
Ry Cooder.
"Alice Mae" and
"Stackolee," with
Jackson singing in front of a real Mississippi juke-joint crowd, are pretty great. This is
Burnside's backing band with
Brown, and
Cedric Burnside with
Luther Dickinson.
Jackson doesn't need to actually sing, he's got plenty of vibe and the band kicks ass. His history is off, though, dating the latter track to 1962, when it is as old as the
blues itself, but who cares? It rocks. For the most part, these are the modern-day
Delta blues rather than
Robert Johnson's, though there are a couple of mean voice-overs by
Son House here, and that is as it should be. The
soundtrack to
Black Snake Moan stands on its own as a fiery good time.
~Thom Jurek, All Music Guide
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