Deadwood: Music From Hbo Original Series / TV Ost (Vinyl) [Import]

As a fan of the series Deadwood, I found this soundtrack CD to be both satisfying on its own merits and a successful evocation of the spirit of the series. It contains a lot of authentic American music that has the traditional feeling appropriate to the Old West setting of the show. There's gospel, folk, country, blues, and many pieces of miscellaneous instrumental music. It's telling that when the music producers wanted a true-sounding version of "Will The Circle Be Unbroken," they went to the source, June Carter Cash. I also like the fact that they filled their show and this disc with many excellent songs by relatively unknown artists like Mark Lee Scott and Michael Sheehy. However, I think my very favorite music from the CD are some of the instrumentals, especially the themes by Gustavo Santaolallo and the great Michael Brook. In between the music, there's also a great deal of dialogue samples from the show -- and that's what gives the CD its parental advisory label. (The presence of strong language in those dialogue samples will be no surprise to anyone who has seen Deadwood!)

What a great treat! This is just like the show itself: comes out of nowhere, takes you for a wild ride and leaves you just grinning stupidly. An exhilarating compilation of blues, country, old Americana, a capella singing, atmospheric instrumental pieces, plus snippets of dialogue, including the Words of Wisdom from Al "Swedgin", surely the greatest and most complex villain to appear on our TV screens in ages. His little speech about "what life is" is just the thing you need when life gets you down- its uplifting effect is only compared to that of the pot of stew scene in Clint Eastwood's "Joe Kidd." Calamity Jane singing and cursing through "Row row row your boat" is another great moment.
My only tiny little complaint is that some excellent pieces are way too short- the title music, for example, but then there's no arguing with this soundtrack's flow. If you look at the song titles- some of which you may know, like The Circle by June Carter Cash, it may seem like a strange motley group, but the whole thing works like a snake charm- I find that every time I play the first track, I end up listening to the whole CD again and again.
Now, this is not for the faint hearted- if you don't like cuss words, look elsewhere. I don't quite get the complaints about the swearing on the show- this surely comes from the people who thought that the brutal and realistic rape scene in the Sopranos was "too unpleasant"- but hey, just be warned that this is not Nickleodeon TV.
Welcome to Deadwood!

Since Carnivale is in such dire straits, I've really gotten into this HBO show, which serves as a good replacement in my heart. For those not in the know, its a gritty, violent western that takes place in the gold-mining camp of Deadwood, where famous names like Wild Bill Hickok and Calamity Jane traipse through. I knew I would enjoy the soundtrack, as it had a lot of blues and country stuff I was familiar with. June Carter Cash singing 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken' would turn even the most hardcore atheist into a believer, and the Bukka White and the Jelly Roll Morton tracks were great too, but there were so many other amazing surprises on it for me. Top song is called 'Hog of the Forsaken' and is this nuts piece of fiddle and yodel and lunatic lyrics. I loved it. There are other tracks on the CD that are good songs, but do not work within the context of the show, specifically 'Twisted Little Man', which doesn't sound very western at all. Still, a high quality selection of tracks, and the show soundbites on the disc, which contain more cussin' then Tarantino in the shower, are great too.