Angola Prison Spirituals LP

Recorded at Louisiana State Penitentiary

Collected by Harry Oster, Louisiana Folklore Society

Original 1959 US mono private pressing on Folk-Lyric Recording Company (Baton Rouge LA) (catalog # LPS A-6). Condition issues (see below.)

This is real history right here, some of the best field recordings of work/blues/holler music you could ever wish to hear. All tracks recorded at Louisiana State Penitentiary, Angola, by Harry Oster.

AMG Review: Originally released on LP on the Folk-Lyric label, Angola Prison Spirituals was recorded in the '50s by the renowned folklorist and song collector Dr. Harry Oster. Prisoners in the Angola Penitentiary recorded virtually everything here. Williams is most notable for his career after prison, but his songs here are far different from his other blues music: the disregard he has for traditional song form and its meter and rhyme lends an eerie, very present quality to the spirits evoked in his texts. Elsewhere, the chants by the Angola Vocal Group give rise to the notion that the songs considered to be traditional African-American spirituals are also constructs put on the culture by whites. Tom Dutson and Williams perform together on "Brother Norah," with its deep, ancient roots in otherworldly harmonies, and "Dyin' Soul" is spookier and more mournful than anything that most would recognize as arising from the spiritual canon. But it is on "Rise and Fly" by the Angola Vocal Group that listeners can hear the timelessness of the blues and the primitive, pre-Thomas Dorsey gospel music that sounds as if it came from field hollers more than the church pew. There isn't any music anywhere more powerful than this. There isn't any music closer to tearing the veil that separates the worlds of spirit and flesh; there isn't any music that echoes the beat of the human heart, the fear and hope in its soul, or the passion in the grain of its voice like this music does. There isn't any music like this anywhere.

Tracks:

1. Andy Mosely With Guitar Accompaniment By Robert Pete Williams - I'm On My Way 2. Robert Pete Williams - Church On Fire With The Word Of God 3. Robert (Guitar) Welch - What Shall I Do 4. Will Rafus, Lead; Edward James, Ollis Brown, And Burnel Jones - Brother Norah 5. Tom Dutson With Guitar Accompaniment By Robert Pete Williams - Little School Song 6. Robert Pete Williams - Dyin' Soul 7. Roosevelt Charles - Let My People Go 8. Robert Pete Williams - So Much Is Happenin' In The News 9. Tom Dutson With Guitar Accompaniment By Robert Pete Williams - Dig My Grave With A Silver Spade 10. Andy Mosely (vocals And Washboard,) With Guitar Accompaniment By Hogman Maxey - Brother Mosely Crossed The Water 11. Willy Joe, Lead; Roosevelt Charles, Edward James, And Willy McGee - I'm Stranded On The Banks Of Ole Jordan 12. Robert Pete Williams - I'm Goin' Back With Him When He Comes 13. Reverend Benjamin E. Osborne And Congregation - The Old Ship Of Zion

CONDITION: Cover F++ / Vinyl VG-   ex-radio station copy, ink-stamps on cover, which has a lot of wear (top and bottom seam are open, but it appears this is the way this LP was issued, since there are no indications of split or unglued seams); vinyl is in barely decent shape, some light surface scratching, plays with a fair bit of background noise in places, some brief tics, but no skips or repeats -- it's worth putting up with the background noise to hear these amazing songs.

Graded conservatively using Goldmine standards [G / G+ / VG / VG+ / NM / ]
grade only used if record is brand new.
Bid with confidence -- over 12500 positive feedbacks selling vinyl on eBay since 1998, with a total 12-year average of 100% positive.

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