Track Listing

1. Murderer's Home
2. No More, My Lord - Blind Lemon Jefferson
3. Old Alabama
4. Black Woman
5. Jumpin' Judy - Hard Hair, Tangle Eye, Tangle Eye
6. Whoa Buck - C.B.
7. Prettiest Train - Twenty Two, Twenty Two
8. Old Dollar Mamie - Twenty Two, Twenty Two
9. It Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad - Twenty Two, Twenty Two
10. Rosie - C.B.
11. Levee Camp Holler - Bama, Bama, Bama
12. What Makes a Work Song Leader? [Interview] - Bama, , Alan Lomax
13. Early in the Mornin' - Hard Hair, Little Red, Tangle Eye, Tangle Eye, Twenty Two, Twenty Two
14. How I Got in the Penitentiary [Interview] - Bama, Alan Lomax
15. Tangle Eye Blues - Tangle Eye, Tangle Eye
16. Stackerlee - Bama, Bama, Bama
17. Prison Blues - Alex, Alex

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #87338 in Music
• Released on: 1997-09-28
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .26 pounds

Album Description
"These songs belong to the musical tradition which Africans brought to the New World, but they are also as American as the Mississippi River. They were born out of the very rock and earth of this country, as black hands broke the soil, moved, reformed it, and rivers of stinging sweat poured upon the land under the blazing heat of Southern skies, and are mounted upon the passion that this struggle with nature brought forth. They tell us the story of the slave gang, the sharecropper system, the lawless work camp, the chain gang, the pen." --Alan Lomax

This is a reissue of Alan Lomax's legendary album Negro Prison Songs in its entirety. A complete CD of previously unissued material from the same field recordings is also available: Prison Songs Vol. 2: Don'tcha Hear Poor Mother Calling?

Living Blues
[This album] is a reissue of [Alan] Lomax's original Negro Prison Songs.... Volume one is a masterpiece, the best single document of the African American work song and field holler tradition.... The group work songs, while excellent examples of the style, are by their nature less distinctive than the extraordinary solo performances. Nonetheless, they are uniformly strong and include many of the most common of such pieces.

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Customer Reviews

One of the great documents of American music.
Words fail to describe this incredibly powerful album. I've had a copy since the 60's, and still have an unopened LP copy in my "vault" (along with the first Roberty Johnson LP). Luckily, I don't have to describe the power of the music - you can click on the samples, and hear for yourself.

Reams of praise have been heaped on this album, and every word has been an understatement.

If you have any interest whatever in American folk music or in blues or jazz, you either have a copy of this or should get one. This is the absolute peak of Lomax's years of collecting.

Incredibly clean sound for the 40's, all well recorded, musically superb pieces, each a perfect gem of its kind, preserving some of the oldest and best of American music, done by some of the finest singers you've never heard of.

You will listen to this again and again.

DEEP
I really had no idea what i was in store for. But for those who love black, southern and prison history, spirituals, and are thirsting for music in its purest form, buy this CD!!! It has wonderful chants, commentary from Lomax, narrative from the inmatesand even clanking from the axes. You can hear the suffering and longing in their voices. You can hear the humor in may of the lyrics. Be sure to read the booklet so that you can get a clearer understanding of it all. It is a wonderful piece of recorded history. you may also want to buy the book Worse than Slavery, by Oshinsky so that you can get greater sense of exactly waht they are thinking about. One more thing..You will totally feel the energy of 22.

Incredibly powerful music
I was blown away when I listened to this CD for the first time. The recording is great. I didn't expect too much due to the time frame of the recording, but the quality is impressive. I bought this hoping to find more tracks like "Po' Lazarus" from the "O' Brother Where Art Thou" Soundtrack. What I got was much more.