{"product_id":"the-midnight-special-the-secret-prison-history-of-american-music","title":"The Midnight Special: The Secret Prison History of American Music","description":"\n\u003ctable align=\"center\" border=\"0\" cellpadding=\"2\" cellspacing=\"0\" width=\"100%\"\u003e\n\u003ctr\u003e\n\u003ctd class=\"productDetailSmallElements\"\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAs Colin Asher's hauntingly beautiful \n\u003cem\u003eThe Midnight Special\u003c\/em\u003e reveals, despite America's seemingly insatiable desire to silence human beings behind its highest and thickest prison walls, the music that so many nevertheless manage to create inside--their powerful lyrics, notes, rhythms, harmonies, beats, and refrains--has transcended those brutal spaces. Thanks to his extraordinary book, we are able truly to \n\u003cem\u003ehear\u003c\/em\u003e these joyful, angry, rebellious, and audacious sounds. It is a true gift--one that reminds us of the resilience of the human spirit, even in the most brutal of confines.--Heather Ann Thompson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Blood in the Water: The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tColin Asher's \n\u003cem\u003eThe Midnight Special\u003c\/em\u003e finds the bitter, barbed-wire thread through the history of American music--our cruel carceral heritage--and tells this history anew through five compelling chronological stories, a masterful synthesis with prose that sings like music and slices through our hypocritical fetishization of the outlaw.--Dan Charnas, PEN Award-winning author of The Big Payback and Dilla Time\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tColin Asher's \n\u003cem\u003eThe Midnight Special\u003c\/em\u003e is a work of compassion and literary merit, and a revisionist history that demands readers question popular tropes about outlaws, criminals, and creative genius. These pages contain candid and moving portraits that highlight the creativity, resilience, and suffering that have shaped American music, and after reading them, you won't be able to hear our songs the way you did before opening this book.--Abbott Kahler, New York Times bestselling author of Eden Undone\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAs soulful and informative a book about slavery's children, which means all Americans, that I have read in a good long time. Music makes souls, prison steals them; this extraordinary work tells five ugly-beautiful tales of the sorcery that happens in the United States of Incarceration when those ontological opposites collide.--Rick Perlstein, New York Times bestselling author of Reaganland\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAsher does especially nimble work in portraying his subjects as three-dimensional figures while detailing how the record industry exploited their links to the prison system to profit off their music, often in ways that flattened their life narratives. This is illuminating.-- \"Publishers Weekly\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tA rich history of prisons and music.-- \"Kirkus Reviews\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAsher creates rich, vivid portraits of all five of his subjects . . . He discusses at length these artists' morally ambiguous songs about murderers and convicts, written with a touch of grace and a recognition of shared humanity. This chronicle is full of little epiphanies . . . A well-written and mesmerizing group portrait of five musical outlaws.-- \"Booklist (starred review)\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Quotes\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t[R]iveting... Asher's genius is to examine the persistent strains of music that have emerged from prisoners as they struggle to reclaim their humanity. Judicious and incisive... Asher reminds the reader of the ways that music can provide healing and hope in the midst of an exclusionary society, driven by revenge and anger, whose starkest image is the penal system.--Henry Carrigan \"No Depression\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003ePublisher Marketing\u003c\/strong\u003e:\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn American popular music, we often glorify rebellious artists and \"outlaws.\" But in \u003cem\u003eThe Midnight Special\u003c\/em\u003e, Colin Asher tells a deeper story about the criminal justice system's impact on our musicians, explored through compelling portraits of five artists whose careers span the twentieth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eOpening with folk and blues artist Huddie \"Lead Belly\" Ledbetter, who was made to perform wearing prison clothes, Asher traces the intertwined histories of music and incarceration, from Southern prison farms of the Jim Crow era, through the heroin-driven mid-century drug wars that villainized a generation of jazz artists, and to our present era of mass incarceration.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAsher shows how the suggestion of criminality has often benefited white artists, while prosecutions often hurt Black musicians. Comparing the divergent trajectories of jazz pianist Elmo Hope with country singer Johnny Cash, Asher examines how violent and discriminatory policing stifled Hope's career and led to the creation of his album \u003cem\u003eSounds from Rikers Island\u003c\/em\u003e (1963), while forgiveness and lenience brought us Cash's masterpiece \u003cem\u003eAt San Quentin\u003c\/em\u003e (1969).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eWith keen musical analysis and sociological insight, \u003cem\u003eThe Midnight Special\u003c\/em\u003e examines key themes in culture and criminal justice, from the movement for prison reform that allowed soul musician Ike White to stage thrilling concerts while locked up and record his album \u003cem\u003eChangin' Times\u003c\/em\u003e (1977), to the crushing cultural weight of mass incarceration a generation later. Closing with Tupac Shakur's \u003cem\u003eMe Against the World\u003c\/em\u003e (1995) and stories of music in prisons today, \u003cem\u003eThe Midnight Special\u003c\/em\u003e recounts how prisons occasionally incubate talent but more often shorten careers and distort the public's perception of musicians and their value to society.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn urgent book about the ways music can affirm an individual's sense of humanity in dehumanizing circumstances, \u003cem\u003eThe Midnight Special\u003c\/em\u003e writes the history of prisons into American music--a story as important as it is overlooked.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eReview Citations:\u003c\/strong\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cul\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eKirkus Reviews\u003c\/span\u003e 05\/01\/2026 (EAN 9781324051398, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/span\u003e 05\/25\/2026 (EAN 9781324051398, Hardcover)\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003cli\u003e\n\u003cspan class=\"italic\"\u003eBooklist\u003c\/span\u003e 06\/01\/2026 (EAN 9781324051398, Hardcover) - *Starred Review\u003c\/li\u003e\n\u003c\/ul\u003e\n\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cp\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eContributor Bio:\u003c\/strong\u003eAsher, Colin\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003cstrong\u003eColin Asher\u003c\/strong\u003e is the author of the critically acclaimed \n\u003cem\u003eNever a Lovely So Real\u003c\/em\u003e. His work has been featured in the \n\u003cem\u003eBeliever\u003c\/em\u003e, the \n\u003cem\u003eBaffler\u003c\/em\u003e, the \n\u003cem\u003eNew Republic\u003c\/em\u003e, and the \n\u003cem\u003eLos Angeles Review of Books\u003c\/em\u003e. He lives in Brooklyn, New York.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cbr\u003e\n\u003c\/td\u003e\n\u003c\/tr\u003e\n\u003c\/table\u003e\n","brand":"W. W. Norton \u0026 Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51496112619798,"sku":"9781324051398","price":35.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0857\/9910\/8886\/files\/9781324051398.jpg?v=1783053383","url":"https:\/\/lusper.myshopify.com\/products\/the-midnight-special-the-secret-prison-history-of-american-music","provider":"Lusperbooks","version":"1.0","type":"link"}