In Contention

Tag: Depression Era

  • An underground push for ‘Depression Era’

    Patterson HoodMaybe three months back we told you about Patterson Hood’s “Depression Era” from Scott Teems’s “That Evening Sun,” a soulful, gritty southern ditty that, for my money, is one of the best original songs in a movie this year.  We featured the track in our “listen to” series back in November.

    Thankfully the song made the cut for original song contenders last month, joining 62 other tracks.  But as I’ve been saying since I first saw the film, it’ll be a bit of an uphill battle considering the song plays over the film’s closing credits and not in the narrative of the film.  Voters screen clips of eligible contenders’ usage in the context of a film, so something like, say, “Cinema Italiano,” however awful, has a leg up over something like “Depression Era,” however brilliant.

    That’s not stopping an underground, no-budget Oscar campaign on behalf of the song by Freestyle Releasing.  The distributor has enlisted the help of Paste Magazine, which is exclusively hosting a video of Hood discussing the song and performing it from his Athens, Georgia home.  It’s a great little clip and well worth the effort for this underdog contender.

    One can only hope.  Check out the video after the jump.

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  • Listen to Patterson Hood’s ‘Depression Era’ from ‘That Evening Sun’

    Patterson HoodA number of weeks ago I wrote about the original song “Depression Era” from Scott Teems’s “That Evening Sun.” It’s a breathy southern soul tune that, for my money, bests all other original song contenders this year.  But considering the fact that the film will struggle to be seen, and the music branch isn’t likely to appreciate the song’s placement in the film (closing credits), I doubt an original song nomination is on the horizon.

    Regardless, it’s a wonderful piece of work from Drive-By Truckers front man Patterson Hood.  It really captures the atmosphere and sense of catharsis (that word won’t go away this season) that the film establishes (rather modestly, I might add — refreshingly so).

    The Truckers are an Athens, Georgia-based southern rock band, though Hood hails from northern Alabama.  Teems has said the singer/songwriter’s involvement in “That Evening Sun” was a “stamp of approval” to the film’s cultural authenticity.

    Have a listen to “Depression Era” below and tell us what you think.

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  • Patterson Hood’s ‘Depression Era’ from ‘That Evening Sun’

    Patterson HoodI just finished Scott Teems’s “That Evening Sun,” which, much like Tom Ford’s “A Single Man,” is an impressive feature debut that nevertheless has some developmental issues that prevent a powerful narrative of catharsis from being as affecting as it could have been.

    There is, however, a fantastic original song in the film from Patterson Hood of the Georgia-based band Drive-By Truckers called “Depression Era” that bears consideration because, at least in my view, it might be the best original song I’ve heard in a film this year.  The only problem, of course, is that the tune plays over the final credits of the film, which all but guarantees that it won’t cut it for the music branch (which has increasingly show a preference for songs used within the context of a film in recent years).

    Of course, the film is quite small and will probably end up at the bottom of that screener stack Anne and I were discussing yesterday, but, alas, I feel compelled to mention it.

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