Coen Brothers start new record label

Joel and Ethan Coen are to head a new record company.

The Coens will be joined by T Bone Burnett who produced the soundtrack to their film O Brother, Where Art Thou?

DMZ Records' board of advisers will include Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Bono and the Coen brothers.

Columbia Records will distribute the new label.

Its first release will be from 75-year-old country singer Ralph Stanley.

Stanley won a Grammy Award this year for his O Death track on the O Brother soundtrack.

O Brother, Where Art Thou? won five Grammys, including album of the year and producer of the year honours for Burnett and has sold more than 4.6 million copies.

However, Burnett said the record label won't simply churn out music in the style of O Brother.

"We're not going to concentrate solely on traditional American music. We're going to do music that is good, music that will become traditional American music," he said.