Caroline Gnagy is a music writer and musician based in Austin, Texas. She has served as contributing writer and music editor for a number of independent local and national publications. Since 2011, she has probed into the history of prison bands in Texas and other states and presented her research at numerous academic conferences. Caroline is currently working on her second book, about the lives and careers of female rockabilly performers from pioneers to the present day.
Texas Jailhouse Music: A Prison Band History
by Kejie Huang
Paperback
$21.99
- ISBN-13: 9781626198678
- Publisher: History Press, The
- Publication date: 05/02/2016
- Series: General History
- Pages: 192
- Product dimensions: 6.00(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.50(d)
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Inside the Texas State Prison is a surprising story of ingenuity, optimism and musical creativity. During the mid-twentieth century, inmates at the Huntsville unit and neighboring Goree State Farm for Women captured hearts all over Texas during weekly radio broadcasts and live stage performances. WBAP's Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls took listeners inside the penitentiary to hear not only the prisoners' songs but also the stories of those who sang them. Captivating and charismatic, banjo player Reable Childs received thousands of fan letters with the Goree All-Girl String Band during World War II. Hattie Ellis, a young black inmate with a voice that rivaled Billie Holiday's, was immortalized by notable folklorist John Avery Lomax. Cowboys, songsters and champion fiddlers all played a part in one of the most unique prison histories in the nation. Caroline Gnagy presents the decades-long story of the Texas convict bands, informed by prison records, radio show transcripts and the words and music of the inmates themselves.
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From the Publisher
Drawing deeply on prison records, radio show transcripts, and the words and music of the inmates themselves, music writer Caroline Gnagy passionately tells the stories of these men and women musicians — who also were inmates — in her powerful new book, Texas Jailhouse Music: A Prison Band History (The History Press). Above all, Gnagy is careful to present singers and musicians as real people — mothers, fathers, lovers, friends — who happen to be behind bars. No Depression