• DeathLP001
  • Angola Prison Spirituals - Various Artists

Angola Prison Spirituals LP

Death Is Not The End

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>>Now available on vinyl, and not a moment too soon!<<


Spiritual folk-blues-gospel music of the Lousiana State Penetentiary in Angola, circa 1950 –

What a refreshing cassette release this is, from the new Reissue label, brilliantly named ‘Death Is Not The End’… perfectly suited for the cassette format, we find here, in limited edition, a release of folklorist Dr. Harry Oster’s collection of recordings from Louisiana State Penitentiary in Angola, originally released in 1959 on the Folk-Lyric label.

“For a brief period, the American South was full of musicologists keen to record and archive the great and expansive tradition of folksong. The context of these particular recordings conveys the contrast between the stark dignity of the performers and the unpleasant circumstances through which they found their way into Angola. Here amongst them appears one of Angola’s most notable blues players Robert Pete Williams, having served time for murder in the 1950’s and going on to enjoy a fruitful and expansive recording career. For the most part though these voices belong to otherwise unknown inmates such as Tom Dutson, Andy Mosely, Roosevelt Charles and Robert ‘Guitar’ Welch.”

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