Track Listing

1. It Don't Worry Me - Keith Carradine
2. Bluebird - Timothy Brown
3. For the Sake of the Children - Henry Gibson
4. Keep A-Goin' - Henry Gibson
5. Memphis - Karen Black
6. Rolling Stone - Karen Black
7. 200 Years - Henry Gibson
8. Tapedeck in His Tractor - Ronee Blakley
9. Dues - Ronee Blakley
10. I'm Easy - Keith Carradine
11. One, I Love You - Ronee Blakley, Henry Gibson
12. My Idaho Home - Ronee Blakley
13. It Don't Worry Me - Keith Carradine, Barbara Harris

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7614 in Music
• Released on: 2000-05-02
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Original recording remastered, Soundtrack
• Original language: English

Customer Reviews

Ronee Blakely rules!
At last, here on CD, the soundtrack of one of my favourite films of all time. I still remember the shock I had on seeing "Nashville" for the first time on TV a few years after its initial release - the great performances, magnificent storytelling and innovative style knocked me out. I was able to see the movie again just a few years ago on the big screen and was delighted to see that it hasn't aged. But I couldn't get my hands on the soundtrack. But now here it is, as wonderful as all the rest. The songs stand the test of time as well as the film and there are plenty of jewels here - the magnificent "It Don't Worry Me" in both versions, Keith Carradine's Oscar winner "I'm Easy", Karen Black's cute contributions and Henry Gibson's "200 Years" (interesting to see that another reviewer views this as a patriotic song. Personally, I've always found it brilliantly and satirically funny). But the real stand-out is Ronee Blakely. Her songs and voice are absolutely magnificent. It's high time some enterprising company re-released her solo album(s) because, apart from her backing vocals on Dylan's "Hurricane", the "Nashville" soundtrack seems to be the only recording available on CD of this magnificent lady's work.

C&W with Irony
Country&Western music plus subtley and irony would seem to be an oxymoron. But these aren't ordinary country tunes, just as "Nashville" is no ordinary movie. Though critical and satiric, the songs, like the movie, manage to be infectious and touching as well. I'd recommend the album not only for fans of the movie but as preparation for younger viewers who may not even have been around at the time of the movie's release. Despite its academy award, I find Carradine's "I'm Easy" to be one of the weaker songs in the collection. The stand-out is Ronee Blakeley's performance of "Dues," in which the pathos and emotional vulnerability equal some of the best moments in the music of Judy Garland and Billy Holiday.

Absolutely essential for fans for the film
"Nashville" may be the single most praised American film of the last fifty years, and a large part of that has to do with the film's songs. Altman's point in his enormous 1975 narrative of three days in the nation's country-music capital is that popular culture can unify and move a people at times when there is no other basis for a national collective identity; his ingenious stroke in using country music--one of the most ridiculed and yet "American" subgenres of cultural expression--for the basis of that unification necessitated powerful and moving songs from his cast (who were individually encouraged to come up with their own melodies and lyrics).

At times, Altman's cast members let him down somewhat: as many below complain, "200 Years," for example, is a very unpleasant song to listen to, and one wonders why someone didn't step in to tell Karen Black to end the phrase "...help me keep from slidin' down some more" in "Memphis" an octave higher, since she cannot reach that final low note. Still, the treats on this album are incredible, from Keith Carradine's charming solo on "I'm Easy" to the great Broadway actress Barbara Harris's no-holds-barred rendition of "It Don't Worry Me," which closes the film.

But the real reason which makes this album a must-have is the presence of Ronee Blakely, the most gifted singer and songwriter in the film (and whose great character, the fragile but much-loved Barbara Jean, is considered similarly talented by the film's characters). Blakely's gorgeous songs remind us what popular culture is capable of stirring within us, and from the infectious "Tapedeck in His Tractor (The Cowboy Song)," with its catchy beginning riffs, to the melancholy "Dues," to the sad soaring duet "One, I Love You," every song she sings is almost transcendently beautiful. Best of all is her great last song which ties the whole film together, "My Idaho Home," her personal salute to the American dream of an innocent past which seemed both to haunt and elude the American people at the height of Watergate. This album is worth owning just for that song alone.