One of the first big Country hits was a 1920 double sided 78 by Vernon Dalhart that included The Prisoner’s Song which set the pattern for many Country performers to come. That includes The Carter Family’s John Hardy Was a Desperate Little Man and Mother Maybelle’s son-in-law Johnny Cash with Folsom Prison Blues and The Wall. The Kingston Trio revived a Colonial song about a counterfeiter in The Escape of Old John Webb before spending some time themselves in the Tijuana Jail. Lead Belly spent many years in prisons in Texas, Louisiana, and New York. He sings Midnight Special. Blind Blake recorded He’s In the Jailhouse Now two years before Jimmie Rodgers did. John A. Lomax along with sons John, Jr. and Alan collected and recorded many songs in prisons across the South. One of those, Rosie by C. B. and six others, was sampled in a huge 2010 Rap hit.
I HEAR AMERICA SINGING
1. The Prisoners Song by Vernon Dalhart
2. Blind Lemon's Penitentiary Blues by Blind Lemon Jefferson
3. He's in the Jailhouse Now by Blind Blake
4. John Hardy Was a Desperate Little Man by The Carter Family
5. New Prisoner's Song by Dock Boggs
6. The Prickly Bush by A.L. Lloyd
7. The Escape of Old John Webb by The Kingston Trio
8. The Auld Triangle by The Dubliners
9. Folsom Prison Blues by Johnny Cash
10. The Wall by Johnny Cash
11. Greystone Chapel by Johnny Cash
12. Birmingham Jail by Darby & Tartlton
13. Allentown Jail by Paul Evans
14. The Tijuana Jail by The Kingston Trio
15. Midnight Special by Leadbelly
16. Old Hannah by Leadbelly
17. Long John by John A. Lomax, Jr
18. Parchman Farm Blues by Bukka White
19. Rosie by C.B and 6 Others
20. It takes a Chanin Gang Man by Alex Stewart. Sonny Terry, and Woody Guthrie
