Songfacts®:

• The actor Oscar Isaac had never ventured into folk music prior to taking the role of the titular star of Inside Llewyn Davis, who knocks around Greenwich Village's folk music scene in the early 1960s. Directors, the Coen Brothers, sent Dave Van Ronk's version of this traditional folk tune to the actors auditioning to play Davis, whose musical style is based on the folk legend. Isaac recalled to Billboard magazine: "In the initial audition, everyone had to play 'Hang Me' and they sent Dave Van Ronk's version. Since that was the only thing I had to go on, I listened to everything he had ever recorded and tried to play those songs. I really fell in love with his style of playing and the songs he would sing. He would find old songs and rearrange them."
• Llewyn Davis performs this song in the Gaslight Cafe during the movie. The Gaslight Cafe was an American coffee house located in Greenwich Village. It opened in 1958 and was a well known venue for folk music and other musical acts, until it closed in 1971. New Jersey rock band The Gaslight Anthem took their name came from the venue as frontman Brian Fallon learnt it was one of the first places that Bob Dylan had played and he liked the imagery the word brought about.