prison songs
Inmate musical traditions
Prison songs are folk songs created by or about incarcerated people, particularly associated with African American inmates in the American South during the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Work songs sung while breaking rocks or picking cotton helped synchronize labor and endure brutal conditions.
The genre influenced blues and later popular music: Leadbelly's prison songs became folk standards.
- chain gangShackled convict work crew
- bluesMournful American music genre
- call and responseAlternating vocal pattern
- FolsomCalifornia correctional facility locale
- San QuentinCalifornia state correctional facility
spirituals · inmates · hard labor · freedom · escape · Johnny Cash · ballads · penitentiary · folk · shackles · redemption · lament · convict · doing time · hard time · guitar · soul · captivity
- vocal songslieder, folk ballads, ballads, chansons, spirituals
- American Rootsblues, bluegrass, country, folk, jazz
- folk songsfolk ballads, lullaby, shanty, ballads, sea shanty
- Russian MusicTchaikovsky, Prokofiev, Stravinsky, Rachmaninoff, Shostakovich
- Russian songslaments, byliny, romances, carols, anthems
- BluesB.B. King, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson, twelve bar blues, delta blues
prison songswedding songs
Music for marriage ceremonies
graduation songs · drinking songs · dance hall music · holiday music
prison, prisons, prisoner, prisoners, imprisoned, imprisonment, imprisoning, song, songs