Inside Llewyn Davis Concert Film Debuts On Showtime Tonight

Joel and Ethen Coen have directed a number of the most memorable (and quotable) movies of the last thirty-plus years – Fargo, The Big Lebowski, O’ Brother Where Art Thou and Raising Arizona. On December 20, the Coen Brothers will release their latest effort, Inside Llewyn Davis. Set in New York City’s Greenwich Village in the early 1960’s during the nascent days of the folk-revival movement, the movie chronicles the life of its titular over the course of the week. The films stars Oscar Isaac as struggling folk-singer Lleywn Davis, alongside a cast that includes John Goodman, Carey Mulligan and Justin Timberlake, and is reportedly loosely based on the legendary folk troubadour Dave Von Ronk’s posthumously published memoir The Mayor of MacDougal Street.

As you can guess music plays a pivotal role in the movie, with the Coen Brothers once again teaming up with T. Bone Burnett, who helped spur the bluegrass revival of the early aughts as the musical supervisor for the soundtrack for O’ Brother Where Art Thou. The 14-track soundtrack includes twelve new songs recorded specially for the movie, along with a track from Van Ronk, and an unreleased version of Bob Dylan performing “Farewell.” Back in September a special star-studded concert took place at New York’s Town Hall to celebrate the music from the film, and the folk music both contemporary and traditional that inspired it. The lineup included the likes of the Avett Brothers, Joan Baez, Dave Rawlings Machine, Colin Meloy (The Decemberists), The Milk Carton Kids, Marcus Mumford (Mumford & Sons), Punch Brothers, Patti Smith, Gillian Welch, David Rawlings and Jack White, as well as the star of the film Oscar Isaac.

For those of us who were not lucky enough to attend, the fine folks at Showtime were on-hand to record the entire night’s festivities, and tonight, the premium cable network will air the Another Day, Another Time concert at 10 p.m. ET/PT. As an advance taste of what’s to come, yesterday they released Jack White’s folkie take on the White Stripes “We’re Going To Be Friends”. Let’s check it out:

Written By: Jeffrey Greenblatt