Who Wrote the Stanley Brothers’ Hit “Man of Constant Sorrow”?

I-I-I am a man of constant sorrowwww, a crisp wail gives life to a sad story amidst the fiddle’s sharp cry and the stinging bellow of the banjo. I’ve seen trouble all my days / I bid farewell to ol’ Kentucky / The place where I was born and raised. The traditional folk tune seems to have echoed its mournful message throughout the last century, but where did it come from?

Who Wrote It?

“I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow,” or simply “Man of Constant Sorrow,” had a long life before the Stanley Brothers popularized the song in the 1950s.

The tune was penned by a partially blind fiddle player, named Dick Burnett. The Kentucky native wrote the semi-autobiographical tune around 1913, originally titling it “Farewell Song” and publishing it as a part of a songbook.

Burnett never recorded the song himself. It was a friend and fellow Kentucky-bred artist Emry Arthur who recorded the first version of the tune in 1928. Borrowing from the song’s opening line, he’s the one who gave the song the title still used today.

Listen to Arthur’s early version of “Man of Constant Sorrow” below.

The Covers

For over a century, “Man of Constant Sorrow” has existed in many forms, each one a little different every time. The Stanley Brothers made the song a bluegrass standard with their version in the 1950s, then various iterations followed.

Folk legends like Bob Dylan recorded a notable rendition. Joan Baez and Judy Collins even gave the tune a feminine reimagining, titling their takes “Girl of Constant Sorrow” and “Maid of Constant Sorrow” respectively.

However, “Man of Constant Sorrow” reached arguably its fullest potential when it was used in the 2000 George Clooney-led film O Brother, Where Art Thou? In the movie, the fictitious bluegrass trio the Soggy Bottom Boys give their take on the tune, helping to carry a renewed popularity into the new millennium.

(Photo by GAB Archive/Redferns)