Big Country Music Implications from the 2019 Oscar Nominations
This year’s Oscars will have country music implications. Among the Academy Awards nominees announced Tuesday morning (1-22), David Rawlings and Gillian Welch have been nominated for Best Original Song for their composition “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings,” which appears in the Coen Brothers six-part Western, The Ballad of Buster Scruggs. The song was performed by Willie Watson, formerly of Old Crow Medicine Show, as well as Tim Blake Nelson, who plays Buster Scruggs.
Many country and Americana fans were hoping for a Best Original Song nomination for Jason Isbell’s original composition “Old Ways” performed by Bradley Cooper from the movie As Star Is Born. It was one of the big musical anchors of the film. However it was the Lady Gaga and Bradley Cooper-performed “Shallow” that has received all of the awards show love so far, including a Best Original Song nomination from the Oscars.
Both The Ballad of Buster Scruggs and A Star Is Born are also up for Best Adapted Screenplay, and A Star Is Born is up for Best Picture. With Willie Nelson’s son Lukas Nelson producing and co-writing much of the soundtrack for A Star Is Born, as well as acting in the film with his band The Promise of the Real as the backing band for Bradley Cooper, it gives country and roots fans something to root for. Producer Dave Cobb also worked on the film, and Brandi Carlile appears as well. Along with the appearance and musical contributions to The Ballad of Buster Scruggs by David Rawlings, Gillian Welch, and Willie Watson, the film also stars Tom Waits in one of the vignettes.
Other musical implications from the 2019 Oscars include the Bohemian Rhapsody biopic of Queen being nominated in numerous categories, as well as Best Original Song nominations for Kendrick Lamar’s “All the Stars” from Black Panther, “I’ll Fight” performed by Jennifer Hudson, and “The Place Where Lost Things Go” performed by Emily Blunt from the Marry Poppins movie.
With the nominations, there’s also the possibility of a live performance on the Oscars presentation.
January 22, 2019 @ 11:53 am
I’d love to see Willie Watson doing a live performance of “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings”, in his homemade denim clothes and cowboy hat. Willie is awesome!
January 22, 2019 @ 12:04 pm
Saw Willie Watson perform When A Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings in Glasgow,Scotland last night.And he was wearing a cowboy hat and wearing his homemade denims.And he was awesome!
January 22, 2019 @ 12:54 pm
I would recommend any music lover to see Bohemian Rhapsody, which is nominated for Best Picture. The movie reminds me of Nashville Music Row and radio. The band Queen had to fight to get their song Bohemian Rhapsody played on the radio because it was too long (6 minuets)and too “operay” for Rock. Great film
January 22, 2019 @ 1:45 pm
Off topic: Do you plan on a response / article to the current Wheeler Walker JR debacle? I see his folks are deleting some of the wwjr/hoffman social media accounts now. What sucks about the whole thing is people that have no idea he is a comedy act are associating him with Country Music. Politics aside, its another black eye.
January 22, 2019 @ 1:59 pm
What happened?
January 22, 2019 @ 2:02 pm
yeah.. I can’t figure the whole thing out. a lil perspective be good.
January 22, 2019 @ 2:37 pm
I am working on a story about this, as well as many other topics.
Folks please understand the last two weeks have been the busiest time for news/releases/announcements/deaths, etc. that I have seen in over 10 years of running Saving Country Music. There’s so much stuff it’s taking additional time just to stay on top of everything, let alone write and publish articles. Nothing’s being ignored, I’m not sitting on my hands, and I’m not posting one thing at the expense of something else.
January 22, 2019 @ 5:18 pm
You’re doing a great job Trigger, keep up the awesome work! Some killer music out right now, it’s an exciting time for music fans, especially with your reviews and the lively discussions in the Comments
January 22, 2019 @ 5:01 pm
I tried watching that The Ballad of Buster Scruggs… the first story was great and “When a Cowboy Trades His Spurs For Wings” comes from the first story (I feel they could have made a whole movie about the first story). However, every following story was tiresome and a chore to sit through. I recall the whole thing being long. Maybe the start and stopping of these stories helped me loose my interest.
But, great song. Great small story in the movie,
January 27, 2019 @ 9:43 pm
I agree the buster story was by far the best, but the others are ok too. Takes a few watches if you wanna invest the time, but buster was about as perfect as a short cowboy story gets.