Prisonaires have niche in recording history with some 'sweet cell music'

The Prisonaires were certainly not typical Nashville recording artists. Far from it.

 

In fact, they were a five-man African-American group formed by convicts incarcerated at the Tennessee State Penitentiary in Nashville. And theirs is a story virtually unique in music history.

 

The quintet was led and organized by Johnny Bragg, an inmate since 1943 when, at the age of 17, he was convicted of six charges of rape. Other members were William Stewart and Ed Thurman -- each serving 99 years for murder convictions -- along with Marcell Sanders (one to five years for involuntary manslaughter) and John Drue Jr. (three years for larceny).

 

The group developed and nearly perfected a number of harmonious tunes, and they were discovered by a radio host named Joe Calloway, who heard the convicts singing while preparing a news broadcast from the penitentiary.

 

Calloway persuaded the prison's warden to let the group perform on the air, and that performance got the attention of Sam Phillips, the legendary Sun Records producer who was the first to record such significant artists as Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins and Roy Orbison.

 

Calloway and Phillips collaborated to arrange a trip to Memphis, under heavy armed security, for a recording session, and The Prisonaires became a recording success story of sorts.

 

 

Many fans of oldies music will remember a big 1956 hit by Johnny Ray titled "Just Walkin' In The Rain." Well, the song got its start on the Sun label in Memphis in 1953, complements of The Prisonaires. To hear The Prisonaires' version, click here.

 

According to most reports, Bragg and another inmate, Robert Riley, were walking across the prison yard one afternoon as it began to rain. Bragg supposedly said, "Here we are, just walking in the rain and wondering what the girls are doing." Riley suggested that Bragg's words had great song potential, and Bragg, who couldn't read or write, began dictating the words to Riley, who copied them down in exchange for songwriting credit.

 

The use of an acoustic guitar in support of the mournful doo-wop vocals creates a lonely and forlorn effect, and a listener can almost read through the words and create a mind's image of prison bars and windors -- and even wonderment as to "who can that fool be?"

 

The record almost immediately sold 50,000 copies -- not an insignifcant total in those days -- and led to a number of subsequent Sun label recordings. [To hear any of the songs, just click on the title].

 

"Baby Please" (1953) .... "Softly And Tenderly" (1953) ... "A Prisoner's Prayer" (1953) ... "I Know" (1953) ... "There Is Love In You" (1954) ... "Don't Say Tomorrow" (1954) ... "That Chick's Too Young To Fry" (1954) ... "Lucille, I Want You" (1964).

 

 

The Prisonaires eventually became popular with Tennessee Gov. Frank Clements, who often invited The Prisonaires to perform at his mansion, and their singing success became such that they were allowed out on a series of "day passes" to perform throughout the state.

 

Clement was likely responsible for the commutation of Bragg's sentence in 1959, and within years, the sentences of the other Prisonaires were commuted as well. Once out of prison, Bragg continued to record songs on a number of labels, and he eventually died of cancer in 2004.

 

The other Prisonaires are also deceased. Stewart reportedly died of a drug overdose in a run-down Florida motel in 1959, Sanders died in the late 1960s, Thurman was killed in an accident in 1973, and Drue died of cancer in 1977.

 

Some other recordings in which Bragg was lead singer:

 

"Rollin' Stone" (The Marigolds, 1955, Excello label 2057) ... "They're Talking About Me" (Johnny Bragg, 1957, Elbejay label) ... "I'm Free" (Johnny Bragg, 1967, Elbejay label) ... "Juke Box Rock And Roll" (Johnny Bragg & The Marigolds, 1956, Excello label)

 

It's sad that people with such talent can, in essence, throw a good portion of their lives away by winding up in prison in the first place. But for a time, The Prisonaires made the best of it and left behind a legacy of fine singing and recordings.