Biography
James Carter gained renown through his version of the age-old work song “Po’ Lazarus,” which opens the Grammy-winning soundtrack for the 2000 Coen brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou. Alan Lomax had recorded the performance more than four decades earlier inside the Mississippi State Penitentiary, where Carter was then incarcerated. Born in Mississippi to a sharecropper, Carter left home at thirteen and later served four separate terms in the state prison system—twice for theft, once for a parole violation tied to firearm possession, and once for an independent weapons charge.
On a mid-September afternoon in 1959, while chopping wood and picking cotton at Camp B in Lambert, he was approached by Lomax, who was touring the South with portable recording equipment to capture traditional folk performances. Surrounded by fellow inmates, Carter delivered “Po’ Lazarus,” the story of a man relentlessly hunted by a sheriff. Lomax filed the tape in his archive; Carter largely dismissed the occasion, and the episode appeared destined to vanish from memory.
Decades passed before the recording resurfaced. Carter had been released from prison permanently and, after struggling to maintain steady employment, moved with his wife and children to Chicago in 1967. There he worked as a shipping clerk until retirement and never sought a professional music career. Around 1997, producer T-Bone Burnett encountered “Po’ Lazarus” while exploring Lomax’s holdings in New York City. The track impressed him so deeply that, when he assembled the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou—a Depression-era fable loosely drawn from Homer’s Odyssey—he placed it first, ahead of contributions from Ralph Stanley, Emmylou Harris, and Alison Krauss.
The album achieved unexpected commercial success, reaching quintuple-platinum status, rekindling widespread interest in traditional folk, country, and bluegrass, and earning four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. Lost Highway Records, the producers, and the Lomax Archives sought to deliver the royalties owed to Carter, yet locating him proved difficult. After exhaustive searches through Mississippi prison and parole records, Social Security files, property documents, and additional sources—complicated by the frequency of the name James Carter—Lomax licensing director Don Fleming, assisted by Sarasota Herald-Tribune reporter Chris Grier, identified Carter’s wife, Rosie Lee, a longtime minister at Chicago’s Holy Temple Church of God.
They located the couple in Chicago, though initial contact left doubt; Carter scarcely recalled Lomax and expressed disbelief that prison work songs would interest modern listeners. He also knew nothing of the film or its acclaim. Photographs Lomax had taken during the 1959 session confirmed Carter’s identity beyond question. He received a $20,000 royalty payment and a platinum certification, and he flew on an airplane for the first time to attend the Grammy ceremony in Los Angeles. Shortly afterward he suffered a stroke and died in Chicago on November 26, 2003, at the age of 77.
On a mid-September afternoon in 1959, while chopping wood and picking cotton at Camp B in Lambert, he was approached by Lomax, who was touring the South with portable recording equipment to capture traditional folk performances. Surrounded by fellow inmates, Carter delivered “Po’ Lazarus,” the story of a man relentlessly hunted by a sheriff. Lomax filed the tape in his archive; Carter largely dismissed the occasion, and the episode appeared destined to vanish from memory.
Decades passed before the recording resurfaced. Carter had been released from prison permanently and, after struggling to maintain steady employment, moved with his wife and children to Chicago in 1967. There he worked as a shipping clerk until retirement and never sought a professional music career. Around 1997, producer T-Bone Burnett encountered “Po’ Lazarus” while exploring Lomax’s holdings in New York City. The track impressed him so deeply that, when he assembled the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou—a Depression-era fable loosely drawn from Homer’s Odyssey—he placed it first, ahead of contributions from Ralph Stanley, Emmylou Harris, and Alison Krauss.
The album achieved unexpected commercial success, reaching quintuple-platinum status, rekindling widespread interest in traditional folk, country, and bluegrass, and earning four Grammy Awards, including Album of the Year. Lost Highway Records, the producers, and the Lomax Archives sought to deliver the royalties owed to Carter, yet locating him proved difficult. After exhaustive searches through Mississippi prison and parole records, Social Security files, property documents, and additional sources—complicated by the frequency of the name James Carter—Lomax licensing director Don Fleming, assisted by Sarasota Herald-Tribune reporter Chris Grier, identified Carter’s wife, Rosie Lee, a longtime minister at Chicago’s Holy Temple Church of God.
They located the couple in Chicago, though initial contact left doubt; Carter scarcely recalled Lomax and expressed disbelief that prison work songs would interest modern listeners. He also knew nothing of the film or its acclaim. Photographs Lomax had taken during the 1959 session confirmed Carter’s identity beyond question. He received a $20,000 royalty payment and a platinum certification, and he flew on an airplane for the first time to attend the Grammy ceremony in Los Angeles. Shortly afterward he suffered a stroke and died in Chicago on November 26, 2003, at the age of 77.