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Royalties Investigation Finds Songwriter James Carter

Aired April 19, 2002 - 05:56   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: If you heard the Grammy-winning soundtrack or have seen the movie "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" you know the work of songwriter James Carter. The trouble is, up until a few months ago, no one knew if Carter was even alive. But there's a Hollywood ending to this story, and our Jeff Flock fills us in.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF FLOCK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The sounds of the chain gang in this opening theme from the movie, "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?" didn't come from Hollywood. They came from here: State Penitentiary in Lambert, Mississippi, September, 1959.

JAMES CARTER, SONGWRITER: Yeah, that's me.

FLOCK (on camera): Does that sound like you?

CARTER: Yeah.

FLOCK: It sounds like you've got some anger in that voice.

CARTER: I might have. I might have had. I ain't got it now.

FLOCK (voice-over): No more anger for the 76-year-old James Carter. But the 23-year-old Carter had plenty, 10 years smashing rocks and cutting logs and chains for crimes he claims he didn't commit.

CARTER: It was tough.

FLOCK: He barely remembered the day a man traveling the rural south with a tape recorder asked inmates to sing into his microphone. Carter led them in the work song called, "Po Lazarus."

CARTER: As it was over, that's what it was, over.

FLOCK: Fifty years later, the recording touches movie producers Joel and Ethan Coen, and it winds up in the film. The soundtrack is a smash, with the first cut, "Po Lazarus" by James Carter and prisoners.

(on camera): The problem is, nobody knew where James Carter was. And search of the Mississippi penal records and social security files finally led them here to Chicago and the Holy Temple Community Church of God. That's where the Reverend Rose Lee Carter is pastor.

FLOCK: You thought it might have been a scam or something.

ROSE LEE CARTER, JAMES CARTER'S WIFE: Yeah, I had that (UNINTELLIGIBLE) scam in Chicago.

FLOCK (voice-over): James Carter's wife couldn't believe that someone wanted to send them a check for thousands of dollars in royalties for the multimillion selling album.

CARTER: I had to (UNINTELLIGIBLE) on welfare.

FLOCK: But the proud woman who stood by James through a decade of prison and 56 years of marriage believed it when they got the check and wound up in L.A. for the Grammys, where the soundtrack won album of the year.

(on camera): That was you. These guys were you, right?

CARTER: Right.

FLOCK (voice-over): We sat and watched part of the film, that before he got the call, Carter had never seen.

CARTER: That's the only way I (UNINTELLIGIBLE) that this came up to be a program. This was God fixing things.

FLOCK: "God fixes things," he says.

(on camera): You think it's the work of God to have this happen?

CARTER: Right. I really do.

FLOCK: Did you know the Lord back in those days?

CARTER: No. But he knew me.

FLOCK (voice-over): And now the whole world knows James Carter, too.

CARTER: That's the way it is.

FLOCK: I'm Jeff Flock, CNN, in Chicago.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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