After ''O Brother,'' roots music rocks

To gauge the unexpected side effects of the quintuple-platinum ”O Brother, Where Art Thou?” soundtrack, consider the high profile of bluegrass king Ralph Stanley, last seen warbling about mortality���s terrors at the Grammys, where the album spawned five trophies.

Stanley is about to capitalize on his sudden mainstream visibility with the first release on DMZ, a new label founded by ”O Brother” soundtrack producer T Bone Burnett and the movie’s creators, the Coen brothers. ”You know, we’re gonna have a 75-year-old rock star this year,” Burnett says he told the president of Columbia Records, which will distribute Stanley’s self-titled album in June. ”I’ve taken great pleasure in Ralph beginning to see some justice. I know he’s enjoying it like crazy. He’s driving around in his shades and black leather jacket in a new black Jaguar.”

Stanley’s new Bono gear aside, the ”O Brother” breakthrough hasn’t led to all the hallmarks of stardom for acoustic country traditionalists: Young women still aren’t throwing their panties at Ricky Skaggs, Alison Krauss hasn’t had any Mariah-style meltdowns on ”TRL,” and Gillian Welch isn’t dating her choreographer. But as Peter Blackstock, coeditor of alternative country magazine No Depression, likes to say, ”This is the next medium-sized thing.”