Parchman Farm: Photographs and Field Recordings: 19471959

Superbly produced, as always, from one of the most wonderful labels on the planet, Dust-to-Digital is to be congratulated on another winner. 'Parchman' is both a beautiful object - panoramic book of photographs, a few brief essays and two CDs - and a confronting set of insights into another world; a prison farm in Southern US in the 40's and 50's.There is a foreword from Alan Lomax - and an interview by him of an inmate and singer at the back, an introduction by Anna Lomax Wood, a short essay by Bruce Jackson, and many photographs, most in black and white, some in colour, often accompanied by a few words from one of the songs.I guess what I find most interesting, apart from a superficial uncomplicated enjoyment of the music, are the stories and themes represented by and implied in the songs. In brutal circumstances, without instruments or other means, this is the music that emerges - a synthesis of African and contemporary American musical traditions, even though most of these men are several generations removed from the days of slavery and a more direct connection to their African or Caribbean heritages. Sadness, violence, regret, sex, and occasional touches of hinted tenderness are to be found here, also abbreviated stories of how things came to be, and expressions of hope and hopelessness.Those, like me, who may have some of these tracks on other CDs, may still find this worthwhile for the windows it opens, and the insights it adds to the origins of the recordings. There is a depth of humanity to Lomax's work that sometimes gets forgotten when according him kudos for his field recordings, and here we are reminded these songs - perhaps exotic to our ears - were made by men who loved and were loved, and were trapped in a place of unrelenting hardship and cruelty. And not a white man among them.Highly recommended.