The South Plays Itself

The Louisiana and Mississippi artists who shaped the music and myth of the genre-defying blockbuster, "Sinners"

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Music played and sung by Louisiana and Mississippi musicians plays a major role in the supernatural thriller Sinners. Written and directed by Ryan Coogler—whose previous films include Black Panther and Creed—Sinners is this year’s fifth highest grossing movie at the U.S. box office.

Sinners’ musical patchwork features Irish and Scottish folk songs, old-time fiddle music from North Carolina, gospel music and, most of all, blues. A vastly influential genre that originated in the Mississippi Delta, blues received massive mainstream exposure via Sinners; in the film, the music is well-nigh a character.

Coogler’s Mississippi roots and ancestral connection to blues inspired his Mississippi-set, Jim Crow-era vampire tale. The director has since described Sinners as his most personal project. “I was digging into two relationships,” he reveals in the film’s production notes. “One with my maternal grandfather, who was from Merrill, Mississippi. The other is my Uncle James, who I came up with my whole life … He wouldn’t talk about [Mississippi] unless he was listening to the blues, and he’d had a sip of Old Taylor whiskey.”

[Read this: Sacré Blues: Chris Thomas King questions everything we think we know about the blues]

Coogler’s family members were among the estimated six million African Americans who left the rural South in the twentieth century in search of economic opportunities. They brought their music and food to cities such as Chicago, New York, Los Angeles, and the place Coogler’s family migrated to: Oakland, California. 

Coogler told the Los Angeles Times this year that after his Uncle James’s death, listening to the blues helped him “conjure” his uncle’s spirit. And hearing the party song, “Wang Dang Doodle,” one particular night synced the director’s juke joint-meets-vampires concept for Sinners. 

“The treatment of the blues and some of those old-timey songs is just brilliant. The original material that Ludwig composed, it’s fabulous. And it’s astonishing how the movie works on a lot of different levels. Ryan Coogler packed a lot of history and metaphor and all kinds of things into that movie to get his point across, and he did it all under the guise of a Hollywood vampire movie, which is genius.”  —Tony Davoren

The film takes place in 1932 over a twenty-four hour period in Clarksdale, Mississippi. The story begins as identical twin brothers Smoke and Stack (both played by Michael B. Jordan) return to Mississippi from Chicago. Flush with cash, they’re opening a juke joint in their hometown and recruiting musicians to play for the grand opening. 

Filmed in various Louisiana locales, including New Orleans, Bogalusa, Labadieville, and Donaldsonville, Sinners contains more than two dozen musical selections crafted for corresponding scenes. The music ranges from a plaintive voice-and-guitar solo and a romping guitar-and-harmonica duet, to grand production numbers featuring crowds of extras. 

Louisiana’s Buddy Guy and Bobby Rush, as well as Mississippi’s Cedric Burnside, are among the musicians who get star billing on the Sinners soundtrack. More often, the soundtrack’s Gulf Coast talents are supporting players whose work deftly informs Sinners’ immersive deep South milieu. 

The movie’s original score is the work of Oscar-winning composer Ludwig Göransson, collaborating on his fifth film with Coogler. He also co-produced the compilation soundtrack with his classical violinist wife, Serena, and the director.  

Göransson initially expected to spend a week on the movie’s New Orleans set. He changed his tune upon realizing how intertwined music is in Coogler’s cinematic conjuring of fantasy, history, and culture. He and Serena consequently moved to New Orleans so they could be on the film’s set every day. 

With authenticity in mind, the Göranssons enlisted dozens of regional musicians. As Serena told Variety: “New Orleans is a city full of extraordinary musicians, but we didn’t want to have jazz musicians who also play blues. We wanted blues musicians. We wanted people who were devoting their lives to this.” 

The Gulf Coast talents who contributed to Sinners include blues star and Pointe Coupée Parish native Buddy Guy; from New Orleans, singer and multi-instrumentalist Leyla McCalla (of the Carolina Chocolate Drops), singer and jazz banjo and guitar player Carl LeBlanc (of Sun Ra and Preservation Hall Jazz Band), and the Pleasant Valley Youth Choir. There was also Irish musician Pete Dawson from Baton Rouge and Mississippi musicians including fife-and-drum player Shardé Thomas Mallory and blues artists Cedric Burnside and Christone “Kingfish” Ingram. St. Landry Parish is represented by zydeco accordionist Jeffery Broussard from Opelousas and Irish musician Tony Davoren from Sunset. 

“New Orleans is a city full of extraordinary musicians, but we didn’t want to have jazz musicians who also play blues. We wanted blues musicians. We wanted people who were devoting their lives to this.” —Serena Göransson in Variety

Göransson prepped for Guy’s quietly dramatic epilogue scene in Sinners by visiting the blues master at his Chicago club. He asked Guy to tell him stories about blues artist Son House, an inspiration for the movie’s preacher’s son-turned-bluesman character. When the time came to shoot Guy’s acting debut, the eighty-nine-year-old bluesman inspired everyone on the set. 

“I was worried when we finished off with the song, because he had been doing dialogue and acting for eight, maybe ten hours,” Göransson told Variety. “But once we did the last scene, where he is playing guitar, it was such a magical moment . . .  you could hear a feather drop.” 

Guy accepted his Sinners role because he believed the film could promote the music he’s devoted his life to. “Whatever can help the blues stay alive, I’m all for it,” he told Variety.  

Bobby Rush recorded his original “Delta Slim Railroad Blues” for the film, as well as his take on Marksville native Little Walter Jacobs’ 1952 hit, “Juke.” With less than twenty-four hours’ notice, he arrived on set to play harmonica off camera during the train station scene featuring Delroy Lindo as the busking Delta Slim. 

Rush and Lindo, Serena Göransson told Variety, “have twin souls . . .  In that scene . . .  Delroy is feeling out what Bobby is doing, Bobby’s looking at what Delroy is doing, and they created this thing together . . . without rehearsal!”

To this writer, Rush commended Sinners’ feverish brew of blues and fantasy. “The guy was smart enough to sneak it in the backdoor with the vampire thing,” he said. “You can lead the horse to the water, and try to make him drink.”

In addition to Lindo’s Delta Slim and other principal characters, the railroad scene features real musicians as extras. Serena Göransson explained: “As they’re walking through the train station, you see Alvin Youngblood Hart, Shardé Thomas Mallory, and James “Super Chikan” Johnson. They felt seen, and it was important to them, the fact that Bobby showed up that day.”

Leyla McCalla and her likewise New Orleans-based sister, Sabine, recorded banjo parts for the Sinners soundtrack. The McCalla sisters are extras as well, with Sabine playing guitar in a juke joint scene and Leyla somewhere in a gang of dancing vampires. 

“They wanted as much representation from the musical community as possible,” McCalla said. “I was on set with Jeffery Broussard, Saul Williams, and a bunch of people I know. So many people I’ve known over the years in the community are a part of the film. I appreciate that.” 

Broussard’s accordion is heard on the movie’s soundtrack and he can be seen as an extra. He recorded his contribution at Esplanade Studios, the Göranssons’ headquarters in New Orleans. Broussard thinks Sinners is a great movie, but he doesn’t see it as a horror flick, despite the otherworldly happenings. “It’s just based on life, things that people go through,” he said. 

Pete Dawson’s pennywhistle enlivens the movie’s vampire ensemble performance of “Rocky Road to Dublin.” Dawson and his wife, Julia, also sang in the ensemble that sings the traditional Irish favorite. 

“I was a little starstruck,” Dawson said of his one-on-one session with Göransson at Esplanade Studios. “He’d just won the Oscar for Oppenheimer. And my kids love his The Mandalorian music. We did a few takes. I could only guess at how he was going to use pennywhistle in a vampire movie, but it lifts the song well.”

Acadiana-based musician and music educator Tony Davoren made multiple contributions to Sinners. A native of the village of Hollywood in County Wicklow, Ireland, Davoren recorded bouzouki and bodhrán (Irish drum) for the soundtrack; coached cast members in singing and dialect; and recommended Broussard, Dawson, and Austin-based Irish fiddler Niamh Fahy to the Göranssons. In addition to his own two weeks of Sinners work, Davoren’s wife, Sheila, and daughter, Roisin, coached Jack O’Connell, the film’s lead vampire, in Irish dance. In one of his most memorable moments in the film, the high-stepping O’Connell dances to and sings “Rocky Road to Dublin.” 

“Jack learned the steps directly from my daughter, Roisin,” Davoren said. “But he had a lot of his own steps, too. He showed up with a legitimate background in Irish dancing. And I connected the dance and music.” 

A cultural as well as musical consultant, Davoren is impressed by the world Coogler created for Sinners and integration of music therein. “The treatment of the blues and some of those old-timey songs is just brilliant,” Davoren said. “The original material that Ludwig composed, it’s fabulous. And it’s astonishing how the movie works on a lot of different levels. Ryan Coogler packed a lot of history and metaphor and all kinds of things into that movie to get his point across, and he did it all under the guise of a Hollywood vampire movie, which is genius.” 

Sinners opened in wide theatrical release in the U.S. on April 18. After debuting at No. 1 domestically, it earned $366.6 million worldwide. A hit with audiences and critics, the blues-and-vampires spectacle unexpectedly introduced millions of moviegoers to the roots of American music. 

You can now stream Sinners on HBO Max, Hulu, and Amazon Prime.