Title from title page of book. Recorded by Alan Lomax Mississippi State Penitentiary, Parchman, Mississippi 1959 October. Mississippi State Penitentiary, Parchman, Mississippi 1959 October.
Contents:
Disc 1: The weather get warm. Rosie -- It makes a long time man feel bad -- Whoa buck -- When I went to Leland -- I'm going to Memphis -- The prettiest train I ever saw -- John Henry -- Old Alabama -- Hollers -- Stewball -- Levee camp hollers -- Early in the morning -- I got a bulldog (well I wonder) -- Dollar Mamie -- Stackalee -- I don't want no jet black woman -- Did you hear about Louella Wallace -- Tangle Eye's blues -- Rosie -- I'm going home -- No more my Lord -- The weather get warm. Disc 2: Ain't been able to get home no more. Disability boogie woogie -- Berta -- Poor Lazarus -- Cool drink of water blues -- Levee camp holler ; Interview -- Black gal -- I don't want you baby -- Rosie -- Hollers -- You got a mean disposition -- Big road blues -- I'm going home -- Berta -- Up the river -- Prison blues -- Tom devil -- My jack don't drink no water -- Sometimes I wonder -- Look for me in Louisiana -- Ain't been able to get home no more. Book: Foreword / by Alan Lomax -- Introduction / by Anna Lomax Wood -- Essay / by Bruce Jackson -- Disc 1 -- Disc 2 -- Heuston Earms interview -- Acknowledgements.
Summary:
"In 1947, 1948 and 1959, renowned folklorist Alan Lomax (1915-2002) went behind the barbed wire into the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman. Armed with a reel-to-reel tape deck--and, in 1959, a camera--Lomax documented as best an outsider could the stark and savage conditions of the prison farm, where the black inmates labored 'from can't to can't, ' chopping timber, clearing ground and picking cotton for the state. A chilling account of how slavery persisted well into the 20th century in the institutionalized form of the chain gang, Parchman Farm includes two CDs with 44 of Lomax's remastered audio recordings and a book of more than 70 of Lomax's photographs, many published here for the first time"--Publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.