Release Date: February 27, 2001.
Recording Time: 67 minutes.
Recording Date: November 8, 1926 - April 18, 1945.
Release Info: Compilation (KATCD179) Studio Recording.
Styles: Country Blues, Pre-War Country Blues, Delta Blues, Regional Blues, Acoustic Chicago Blues, Chicago Blues, Field Recordings, Piano Blues, Piedmont Blues, Pre-War Blues, Slide Guitar Blues, Acoustic Blues, Early American Blues.
The nomadic lifestyle of the blues performer in the American South in the 1920s and '30s, coupled with the necessity of plying one's trade in juke joints and gin mills, often led to incarceration, and songs about jailhouses and prison farms abound. Catfish Records, a fine blues reissue label out of London, has collected some two dozen of those laments here, remastered from the original 78s. They range from the familiar (Leadbelly's "Midnight Special") to the obscure (Peg Leg Howell's "New Prison Blues," which contains the line "drink your blood like wine," cribbed by Bob Dylan for "Stuck Inside of Mobile"), from the resigned (Blind Boy Fuller's "Big House Bound") to the humorous (in "Christmas in Jail, Ain't That a Pain," Leroy Carr pleads with Santa to give him a break). Also includes Bukka White's thundering original version of "Parchman Farm Blues." ~ Steve Leggett
Credits: Kokomo Arnold - Composer, Guitar, Primary Artist, Vocals; Ed Bell - Composer, Guitar, Primary Artist, Vocals; Big Maceo - Primary Artist; Scrapper Blackwell - Guitar, Primary Artist; Blind Blake - Composer, Guitar, Primary Artist, Vocals; Frank Bushy - Primary Artist; Leroy Carr - Composer, Piano, Primary Artist, Vocals; Bo Carter - Composer, Guitar, Primary Artist, Vocals; Julius Daniels - Composer, Guitar, Primary Artist, Vocals; Blind John Davis - Piano, Primary Artist; Champion Jack Dupree - Composer, Piano, Primary Artist, Vocals; Alfred Fields - Composer; Blind Boy Fuller - Composer, Guitar, Primary Artist, Vocals; Bill Gaither - Guitar, Primary Artist; Mae Glover - Composer, Primary Artist, Vocals; Buddy Boy Hawkins - Composer, Guitar, Primary Artist, Vocals; Honey Hill - Piano, Primary Artist; Peg Leg Howell - Composer, Guitar, Primary Artist, Vocals; Jim Jackson - Composer, Primary Artist; Blind Lemon Jefferson - Composer, Performer, Primary Artist; Merline Johnson - Composer, Primary Artist, Vocals; Ransom Knowling - Primary Artist, Sax (Baritone); Lead Belly - Guitar, Primary Artist, Vocals; Huddie Ledbetter - Composer; Fred McMullen - Composer, Guitar, Primary Artist, Vocals; Big Maceo Merriweather - Composer, Piano, Vocals; Alice Moore - Composer, Primary Artist, Vocals; James Parker - Primary Artist, Vocals; Alex Robinson - Piano, Primary Artist; Ike Rodgers - Primary Artist, Trombone; Bill Settles - Bass, Primary Artist; Funny Paper Smith - Guitar, Primary Artist, Vocals; Tampa Red - Guitar, Primary Artist; Sonny Terry - Horn, Primary Artist; Henry Thomas - Primary Artist; Henry Thomas - Piano; Jesse Wadley - Composer, Guitar, Primary Artist, Vocals; Washboard Sam - Washboard; Curley Weaver - Guitar, Primary Artist; Sylvester Weaver - Composer, Guitar, Primary Artist, Vocals; Bukka White - Composer, Guitar, Primary Artist, Vocals.
Tracklist:
01. Chain Gang Blues - Kokomo Arnold
02. Big Rock Jail - Ed Bell
03. He's In The Jailhouse Now - Jim Jackson
04. Prison Blues - Alice Moore
05. Jailhouse Fire - Buddy Boy Hawkins
06. Christmas In Jail - Ain't That A Pain - Leroy Carr
07. Penitentiary Bound Blues - Sylvester Weaver
08. Blind Lemon's Penitentiary Blues - Blind Lemon Jefferson
09. Midnight Special - Leadbelly
10. County Jail Special - Champion Jack Dupree
11. The County Farm Blues - Mae Glover
12. New Prison Blues - Peg Leg Howell
13. De Kalb Chain Gang - Fred McMullen
14. The County Farm Blues - Bo Carter
15. Alabama Prison Blues - Jesse Wadley
16. County Jail - Big Maceo
17. Crime Doesn't Pay - Merline Johnson
18. County Jail Blues - "Funny Paper" Smith*
19. Big House Bound - Blind Boy Fuller
20. Ninety-Nine Year Blues - Julius Daniels
21. Doin' A Stretch - Blind Blake
22. Parchman Farm Blues - Bukka White
23. Prisoner Bound - Frank Busby