Since 2009, music producer Ian Brennan has focused on recording underrepresented regions of the world, including prisons, like Malawi’s overcrowded maximum-security Zomba prison. Brennan believes inmates are typically the most silenced and ignored segment anywhere, regardless of country. With Some Mississippi Sunday Morning, Brennan visited the notorious, maximum security Parchman Prison, a.k.a. Mississippi State Prison, on a Sunday morning in February to record inmates singing hymns and other spiritual songs. Though Brennan has taught anger management and conflict resolution at various prisons, Parchman was his first American prison in which he recorded.
Most tracks were sung a cappella or with minimal piano or percussive accompaniment. They’re essentially field recordings with nothing doctored to make it sound like they were the byproducts of a glitzy professional studio. In these austere settings, you get a sense of the inmates’ utmost sincerity, introspection and atonement, as evidenced on “I Give Myself Away, So You Can Use Me” (unidentified vocalist/pianist) and “Break Every Chain,” where tenor M. Kyles sings in perfect pitch with quivering vibrato. “Solve My Need” is sung by uber-bass vocalist M. Palmer, whose low notes are practically earth-rumbling. During the recording of this track, Brennan used a live loop to add spacey effects and reverberation behind Palmer to make it feel like a mediation chant. “Locked Down, Mama, Pray For Me” is also unusual. J. Robinson delivers a spoken word narrative asking his mother for forgiveness and prayers over A. Warren’s silky singing and finger-snapping.
If you are looking for the full-on, pumping gospel experience, it finally arrives on the last track with “Lay My Burden Down,” resoundingly sung by the Parchman Prison Choir. As you would expect from a Southern gospel choir, they obviously feel the spirit and proclaim it so mightily it’s quite the contagious listening experience. Soloists C.S. Deloch and Palmer seemingly improvise as they sing and lead the group amidst the handclapping and crazy piano playing. Like all of this, it’s a track of hope for a better life, should prison release ever come.
Proceeds from the sales of this album benefit the Mississippi Department of Corrections Chaplain Services, whose chaplains see their prisoners as humans rather than numbers.
