"The Big Empty" soundtrack

One night, about a year ago, I was flipping through channels on TV and came across this goofy movie from 2003 called "The Big Empty." I'd never seen it or even heard of it before.

"The Big Empty" stars Jon Favreau who agrees to deliver a package for money to pay off his debts, and ends up with a whacked-out cast of characters in a desert town. Along the way, there's an oddball neighbor, a jealous boyfriend, a mysterious cowboy, space aliens and a conspiracy theorist. It's a crazy dark comedy, sort of in the same realm as "Repo Man" and "Roadside Prophets." And the fact that Favreau plays a struggling actor in L.A. almost makes it seem like a bizarre sequel to "Swingers."

Honestly, it's kind of surprising that not only did a movie with such a quirky story get made, but that the filmmakers managed to enlist such actors as Favreau, Daryl Hannah, Sean Bean, Bud Cort, etc.

Anyway, besides enjoying the movie, I also liked the soundtrack, which included mostly country-rock tunes. When I looked it up, I discovered that while the movie score by Brian Tyler was released, an actual soundtrack that included the songs had not. That led me to gather them all into one place.

1. 18 Wheels & A Crowbar – BR549
2. Silver Pieces – Carnival Dogs
3. Go Cat Go – Carl Perkins
4. Last Go Round – Ron Levy
5. Lucky’s Lullaby – The Country Cabin Boys
6. Truck Driver Man No. 1 – Sonny George
7.  Walk Way – Smokestack Lightnin’
8. I’m Your Breadwinner, Baby – Lazy Lester
9. Rolling Stone from Texas – Don Wasler
10. Duckwalk – Roy Rogers
11. Strange Things Happen – Lazy Lester
12. All I Know – Dead Rock West
13. The Longest Goodbye – Tim Gales
14. Almost Out of Gas – Greg Brown
15. That’s Alright – John Lee Hooker, featuring Charlie Musslewhite and Roy Rogers
16. We Who Are Not as Others – Sepultura
17. This – Sheila Chandra
18. Honkytonk Maniac from Mars – Jason Ringenberg

This is a fun collection of tunes and kind of benefits from the inclusion of fairly obscure artists to most people (Carl Perkins and John Lee Hooker notwithstanding). The only song that doesn't fit with this otherwise bunch of blues and honky tonkers is the Sepultura death metal song. You may want to skip that one.

For a cover, I simply took an image of the movie poster (or maybe it's the DVD cover) I found on the web and manipulated it a bit.