Sony Music is proud to announce the release of the original motion picture soundtrack of Lawless, the true story of the Bondurant Brothers in Prohibition-era Virginia. Based on Matt Bondurant’s book, The Wettest County In The World, the film tells the story of his grandfather and two brothers, whose bootlegging operation brings them into a terrifying collision with the law and rival gangsters.

Australian born director John Hillcoat first teamed up with long time associate Nick Cave as a scriptwriter on The Proposition (2005). Together with Warren Ellis, Cave also composed and performed the score for this poetically violent Western set in the Australian outback. Cave and Ellis also joined forces with Hillcoat to score his next picture The Road (2009). 

For Lawless, which was entered for the Palme d’Or at this year’s Cannes Film Festival, Hillcoat has assembled a star cast – Tom Hardy (Star Trek: Nemesis, Inception, The Dark Knight Rises) and Shia LaBeouf (Transformers) play two of the brothers with Guy Pearce as the demented cop who hunts them down.

Along with producer Hal Willner, Cave and Ellis have created an outstanding soundtrack presenting historical recordings of some of the greatest living American voices. The score has a period feel of country and bluegrass, anchoring the film firmly in its setting: rural Virginia in 1931. This is complimented by some extraordinary covers of non period songs, backed by The Bootleggers, a band formed for the recording by Cave and Ellis for the sessions. The band “The Bootleggers” members are Nick Cave, Warren Ellis, Martyn Casey, George Vjestica and Dave Sardy.