Various Artists: Parchman Prison Prayer – Another Mississippi Sunday Morning

Various Artists
Parchman Prison Prayer – Another Mississippi Sunday Morning
Release Date: January 19, 2025

By Robert M. Marovich

Given the unexpected success of, and critical acclaim for, the 2023 release Parchman Prison Prayer – Some Mississippi Sunday Morning, GRAMMY Award-winning producer and author Ian Brennan flew back to the Mississippi penitentiary to do a second album, Parchman Prison Prayer – Another Mississippi Sunday Morning.

Twelve men, ranging in age from 23 to 74, several serving life sentences, participated in the second album, which was captured over the course of a few hours, and without any additional takes or overdubs. As with the first volume, any and all artist proceeds from this album will benefit the prison’s Chaplain program.

The history of recording inmates goes back to the 1930s and the work of Alan Lomax and the Library of Congress. Then, in June 1953, Sam Phillips of Sun Records scored one of his label’s first hits when he recorded a vocal group from the Tennessee State Prison singing “Just Walking in the Rain.” Perhaps not to be outdone, Mercury Records also mined a single in November 1953 from another vocal quartet out of Tennessee State Prison, a group called the Canaan Jubilee Singers. One difference between the Sun and Mercury singles and Brennan’s projects is that Parchman Prison Prayer was recorded inside the prison, not in a recording studio.

It ain’t no harm to moan, the saying goes, and the six-man Parchman Prison Choir’s wordless “Parchman Prison Blues,” which closed the live recording session but opens the album, evokes the anguish of Blind Willie Johnson’s similarly wordless 1927 recording of “Dark was the Night, Cold was the Ground.” Their moaning describes the despair of imprisonment better than any lyrics.

Other notable tracks include J. Hemphill’s passionate vocal on “Open the Floodgates of Heaven.” On “Grace Will Lead Me On,” M. Palmer’s testimony on learning about grace from his parents and grandparents is as simple and affecting as a sermon from a country preacher. M. Kyles’ voice is compelling on “I Shall Not Want,” an unaccompanied musical representation of the 23rd Psalm, and the small group effort on “God is Keeping Me” has the informality of congregational singing.

In addition to the more traditional tunes are J. Robinson and L. Stevenson’s beatbox-accompanied rap called “MC Hammer.” To solitary drum beats, D. Justice’s whispered version of Tamela Mann’s hit “Take Me to the King” is the most chilling version of the song you are ever likely to hear. And truer words were never uttered than C. Jackson’s comments on “Po’ Child:” “And they don’t have to whip us anymore or hang us from trees / They just whip us with a prison cell and hang us for sixty years….”

If the opening “Parchman Prison Blues” is joyless, the concluding selection, “Jesus Will Never Say No” is joyful. Led by M. Palmer, the song is the most radio friendly of the dozen selections.

Clocking in at 30 minutes, Parchman Prison Prayer – Another Mississippi Sunday Morning is short but impactful. Though it is a sonic expression of the pathos of prison, and it succeeds in this, J. Hemphill puts it all in perspective in his “Living Testimony” when he sings, “I could have been dead and gone / I am a living testimony, and I thank the Lord I’m still alive.” Often the most effective form of resistance is simply staying alive.

Four of Five Stars

Picks: “Jesus Will Never Say No,” “Open the Floodgates of Heaven”