TWO years after the success of the first album of gospel recordings from Parchman Prison comes a further release, Parchman Prison Prayer — Another Mississippi Sunday Morning, which maintains the standards and authenticity of its predecessor. From the first moments of blues moaning, through the variety of a cappella or sparsely instrumented tracks that follow, we get a sense of meaning that is often lacking in contemporary worship music.
“Surely goodness and mercy will follow me. . . ,” intones a nameless prisoner. “He dries all my tears away. . . , ” sings another. Words that might spill easily off the tongue amid the comforts of “normal” life take on a different resonance when they come from the infamous Mississippi state penitentiary.
A bill to close part of the sprawling penal complex was put forward last year, after few improvements were made despite a series of critical reports. The ever present threat of violence in the Sunflower County facility is exacerbated by the fact that authorities have struggled to increase the ratio of guards to prisoners. In 2020, there was just one guard per 11 prisoners: notably fewer than the national average. Guards are also poorly paid. Mississippi pays the lowest salary for correctional officers across the United States. Understaffing and poor pay make for a dangerous combination, leading to obvious problems. Prisoners report sleeping on concrete slabs, having no running water, and that cells are coated in toxic black mould. Campaigners say that hundreds of rooms lack the most basic of amenities.
And it is from the depths of this pit, this hellish place where the human capacity for inhumanity is exposed, that these voices come. They reach us in their uniqueness, their passion and beauty having no context other than prison and faith. They echo age-old stories of songs that were sung behind prison walls, and enduring hopes that those walls might yet fall down.
On the Glitterbeat Records label.
