negro folklore from texas state prison sister ray

Various Artists

Negro Folklore From Texas State Prisons

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The recordings on this album were made in Texas prison farms in July 1964. Bruce Jackson had gone there in the hope of recording black convict work songs, a tradition that derived from slavery, and, before that, was imported from Africa. Many of the prisons in Texas, Mississippi and Louisiana where such songs had been sung, had been built on the sites of slavery time plantations. It was as if the owners changed, but not much else.




Bruce found far more than worksongs. Prison is a place where people live: when they go there, they bring with them pieces of free world culture, just as someone migrating from one country to another brings cultural knowledge and practice to the new home. In addition to the worksongs, he heard spirituals, blues, toasts (recited poems), and much more. In this LP, , he tries to give a sense of that range of material. (In other recordings, he would focus on work songs, toasts, and personal narrative.) This iconic album has now been re-mastered and features original artwork in full.

Tracklist
Johnny Jackson - Raise 'Em Up Higher
Marshall Phillips - Don't Look So Downhearted, Buddy
Joseph "Chinaman" Johnson - Move Along 'Gator
Joseph "Chinaman" Johnson - Three Moore Brothers
Johnnie H. Robinson & Eddie Ray Zachery - Assassination Of The President
George White - Don't Be Uneasy
Jesse "G.I. Jazz" Hendricks & Matt Williams - Rattler
Johnny Jackson - Hammer Ring
Louis "Bacon & Porkchop" Houston - T.B. Bees
Mack Maze - If You See My Mother
Joseph "Chinaman" Johnson - Just Like A Tree Planted By The Water
Houston Page - See How They Done My Lord
W.D. "Alec" Alexander Daniel - In The Lion's Den
Virgil Asbury - Forty-Four Hammers
Soundwave
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