O Death

"O Death" is a traditional Appalachian song, Roud 4933, generally attributed to Lloyd Chandler, a musician and Baptist preacher; a 2004 Journal of Folklore Research article identified it with Chandler's "A Conversation with Death" from the 1920s, though he seems to have drawn on an older source, and it resembles the 1870 Irish broadside "A Dialogue Between Death and the Sinner" and the English "Death and the Lady". Earlier recordings include a 1938 field recording at the National Folk Festival, Vera Hall's "Death Have Mercy" (1959), Dock Boggs (1963), Bessie Jones for Alan Lomax, Lloyd Chandler on Rounder's High Atmosphere (1975) and Nimrod Workman in Harlan County, USA (1976).

Stanley sang it unaccompanied for the 2000 film and soundtrack, and his version won the 2002 Grammy for best male country vocal performance; a WUNC/NPR piece reportedly says two Grammys that year, probably counting Lost in the Lonesome Pines. Covers include Kaleidoscope (1967), Camper Van Beethoven (1988), Mike Seeger with Hesperus (1988), Sam Amidon (2008), Diamanda Galas, Khemmis (2017) and Rhiannon Giddens with Francesco Turrisi (2021). It has been used in Fargo, Supernatural, Altered Carbon and the games Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures Anthology. Setlist.fm lists it 12 times for the Clinch Mountain Boys. We could not read the channel or date of our upload.