Today (1/8/13) marks the season premiere of Justified, one of the few television dramas I follow week to week. I discovered the show two years ago quite by chance, when an episode began after something else I had on. In the opening scene, the bass player in a bluegrass band consisting of prisoners (inside the wire) made a break for it under the cover of their performance. I had to watch the rest of that!
Since then, I have become a fan of what strikes me as an especially well-written cops and robbers show. It’s a throwback to the classic gunslinging western genre, but set in modern, rural eastern Kentucky. The show stars Timothy Oliphant as US Marshall Raylan Givens, based on a character in Elmore Leonard’s story, Fire In The Hole. Give it a tumble if it sounds like your style.
To help promote the new season, and the fact that roots and bluegrass music play a recurring role in the soundtrack, Madison Gate Records, a Sony imprint, has released a CD of music from seasons past. Justified – Music From The Original Television Series contains 13 tracks, including the song Justified, written and recorded for the show by eastern Kentucky’s own Cumberland River, and the show’s theme Long Hard Times To Come by GangstaGrass.
It’s available from iTunes and other popular download sites.
Here’s the Cumberland River video for their contribution to the album.
