Spanish Fly: the soundtrack to the novel

Spanish Fly is a novel with its own soundtrack, featuring all-original tunes based on the characters, places and era of the book.

Tom Phillips is an acclaimed singer-songwriter who heads a country honky-tonk band, the Men of Constant Sorrow.

The Spanish Fly music CD was co-produced by Will’s publisher, Penguin Canada, and Tom’s music label, Marantz Productions. Tom wrote eight new songs for the Spanish Fly soundtrack. Will wrote the words to three of the songs as well, and the CD also features a voice-over intro by the author and radio ads from that era. Lucky Seven Cigarettes, the healthy helpful choice!

A first in publishing.

  To listen to "The Music I Left Behind," the voice-over that begins the CD, as narrated by Will, click here.
  To listen to "Con Men and Call Girls" performed by Tom Phillips, lyrics by Will Ferguson, click here.

   For the lyrics to “Con Men and Call Girls, Part I” click here.
   For the lyrics to “When the Carnival Comes to Town” click here.

Will Ferguson wrote the words to the song "Losin' Hand" (the first two verses of which also appear in Part IV of the novel). To view the complete playlist for the Spanish Fly music CD, click here.

Will has long been a fan of Tom’s music. “I have all his CDs and I’ve watched him play Hank Williams in a stage production of that singer’s life. He was terrific. Spanish Fly is a novel about con men and call girls set in the dust bowl of the 1930s, so having Tom put it to music was the perfect fit. He really nails it: the feeling, the voice, the tone. Tom even introduces himself as Slim William at one point – the singer who appears on the radio at key moments in the novel. He sings about leaving Paradise, about heading to Silver City, about looking for the silver dollar. In ‘Lack of Rain,’ if you listen carefully, you’ll notice Tom pronounces it Fayther, as Jack did. Even more haunting for me are the final lines of the song ‘Ballad of Miss Rose,’ when Virgil has promised to take Rose to California but first tells her, I have some work to do along the way. If you read the novel you will understand what that really means – and that they never do make it to California. It’s heartbreaking. Tom did a fantastic job. I couldn’t be more pleased.”

For more on Tom Phillips and the Men of Constant Sorrow, visit Tom’s site at www.tomphillipsmocs.com.