Songfacts®:

• "O Death" is a traditional folk song that has been passed down through generations and been recorded and performed by many artists over the years. The origins of the song are uncertain, but some sources attribute it to Lloyd Chandler, an American Appalachian folk musician, after he had "a vision from God" in 1916.
• The song is often sung in a slow, mournful style and features lyrics that address the subject of death. It alternates between lyrics from a dying man speaking to Death as a person or entity coming to take him away.
  
  Well, what is this, that I can't see?
  With ice-cold hands taking hold of me
  
  And Death telling the man his time has come.
  
  Death, I come to take the soul
  Leave the body and leave it cold
• "O Death" first became popular in the late 1920s when country blues banjo player Moran Lee "Dock" Boggs recorded the song. It had a resurgence during the 1960s folk revival and Boggs recorded a new version for a 1963 album.
• One of the most well-known versions of the song is American bluegrass artist Ralph Stanley's rendition in the 2000 adventure comedy movie O Brother, Where Art Thou?
  
  T-Bone Burnett, the producer of the film's soundtrack, initially requested a banjo interpretation reminiscent of Dock Boggs, but Stanley convinced him to opt for an a cappella version that resembled the singing style of the Appalachian Primitive Baptist Universalist church. "He was struggling with the banjo," Burnett told Mojo magazine. "But this is the thing about being a producer. It's all about empathizing with the performer. I felt, why are we doing this with a banjo anyway? We should just do this a cappella. I went [into the studio] and Ralph said, you know, I would like to just do this a cappella. And I went, Great, let's do that. [laughs] that's collaboration, where you all come to the right conclusion."
• Stanley's rendition of "O Death" won the Grammy Award for Best Male Country Vocal Performance in 2002.
• Many other artists in various genres, including country, rock and blues have recorded the Appalachian dirge. They include:
  
  1959 Vera Hall - American folk singer Vera Hall's version of "O Death" was featured in episode three of the first season of Altered Carbon, a Netflix original.
  
  1988 Camper Can Beethoven – Rock band Camper Van Beethoven recorded "O Death" with variant lyrics and melody, for their 1988 album Our Beloved Revolutionary Sweetheart. They included the folk song as a tribute to the American 1960s psychedelic band Kaleidoscope, who did their own version of the song on their 1967 album Side Trips.
  
  2010 Jen Titus - Titus' cover of "O Death" played in the TV series Supernatural and gained popularity for its haunting vocals and rock-inspired arrangement.
  
  2015 Shakey Graves with Monica Martin of folk/indie pop band PHOX – Their version of "O Death" was used in episode 7 of the second season of Fargo. This rendition incorporates a stripped-down acoustic arrangement with haunting vocals and harmonies that capture the song's mournful tone.
  
  A recording of "O Death" from the 1938 National Folk Festival in Washington, DC by an unknown singer is held by the Library of Congress.