O Brother! Film soundtrack wins music award

The soundtrack to the Coen Brothers film O Brother, Where Art Thou? has won top honours at the Country Music awards in Nashville, despite months of being cold-shouldered by mainstream country radio.

The record – a collection of old-time country tunes that has revived interest in traditional American mountain music – has sold almost three million copies thanks to stunning performances by such alternative country stalwarts as Emmylou Harris, Allison Kraus, Ralph Stanley, Norman Blake and Gillian Welch. It was named album of the year at Wednesday night's ceremony. The bluegrass tune "Man of Constant Sorrow", sung by Dan Tyminski of Allison Kraus's band Union Station, won the single of the year award.

The awards were a remarkable breakthrough for a group of talented musicians who have been ignored by the top Nashville executives for years because they do not fit into their marketing strategy of selling soppy love ballads to country music's perceived core audience – married women of 35 and over.

"Man of Constant Sorrow", a 1920s song that plays a central role for the characters portrayed on screen by George Clooney, John Turturro and Tim Blake Nelson, topped the country singles chart for weeks despite receiving little or no airplay on mainstream stations.

The album topped the Billboard country chart for 21 weeks, again with almost no exposure. Partly in response to this success, the big record companies are now busy establishing boutique labels for alternative acts, in much the same way that mainstream Hollywood studios set up distribution arms for independent films in the early 1990s.