The Midnight Special

 The Midnight Special: The Secret Prison History of American Music by Colin Asher, 336 pages, © 2026

This was a great book, just nominated as a finalist for a National Book award. At first glance it seems like this might be a book about great albums inspired by prison but it's actually more of a mediation on policing and incarceration in America and how those systems influence and gatekeep artistic expression. Asher narrows the focus down to five artists, each from a different time period and genre, diving into each person's background and how they came to be ensnared in the carceral system--with the exception of Johnny Cash. Cash's story is the middle of the book as an intentional counterpoint to the other stories as it may surprise readers to learn that he spent less then a week in jail his entire life. Unlike artists like Tupac and Leadbelly, who were forced to rely on their criminal public personas to book performances and sell records, Cash was not beholden to his outlaw persona, despite having similar personal problems as the others in this book--he could always pivot to something else, like supporting Native American rights or singing gospel music--black artists often did not have that luxury. Elmo Hope was an incredible jazz pianist who fell into drugs and, because of New York City's insane Cabaret Card law (which was a legal way of criminalizing black jazz musicians), spent time in Riker's Island, where he recorded an album with the prison band. Perhaps the most unknown artist in the book is Ike White, the only one actually guilty of committing a violent crime. His natural talents as a musician were enough to attract the attention of larger celebrities who were invested in the prison reform movement of the 60s and 70s. He used that interest to help him  record an album in prison, which is now considered a lost soul record. Highly recommended. 

Two graphic novels for fans of the movie Sinners

If you are a fan of Ryan Coogler's 2025 movie Sinners, these two graphic novels have elements that you might enjoy.

The Smell of Starving Boys by Loo Hui Phang with art by Frederik Peeters (2017) 112 pages

I don't fully understand what happened in this story, least of all the meaning of the title, which is used twice by one character. Still, if you were a fan of the movie Sinners, and one of many who want a further story exploring the Choctaw vampire hunters who are chasing Remmick, this might fill that niche. Instead we have Comanche who are fighting supernatural threats in 1872. The story is definitely dispelling the heroism of whites in the pre-settler American West. Our protagonists are a perverted surveyor who considers the West virgin land to be taken, a scam artist gay photographer, and a young woman disguised as a boy to escape her patriarchal family. There is a vampiric bounty hunter, wild mustang stampedes that are like natural disasters, and a silent Comanche in touch with the supernatural forces at play. The large format hardcover has gorgeous art with lots of horizontal vistas. Translated from French.

Bluesman by Rob Vollmar with art by Pablo Callejo (2008) 208 pages

This story is structured like a traditional twelve bar blues song, with three sections each made of four chapters. There is woodcut style artwork, which fits the late 1920s setting. Two itinerant musicians, Ironwood and Lem, are looking for a place to perform as well as room and board. Racial tensions lead to murders in a rural cabin and Lem, who is innocent, must go on the run. The middle section gets into the investigation of the crime scene. There is a black Sheriff of the county, who is trying to see justice done even as rich and powerful whites call on mob violence. Lem falls in with some railroad hobos, but the mob and the Sheriff stay on his trail. Some historical analysis of blues musicians is interspersed in the story. The dramatic thrills would also be appreciated by fans of Sinners.

Do Not Sell at Any Price

Do Not Sell at Any Price: The Wild, Obsessive Hunt for the World's Rarest 78 rpm Records by Amanda Petrusich, © 2014, 288 pgs.

This was a fun read for the Rn'B book group. Petrusich is a freelance music writer working on a story about the rise in vinyl sales (at the time in 2014 they were trending up; in 2025 they reached a billion in sales) when she's tipped off to a sub-sub genre of record collector--the 78 collector. For the unvitiated, 78s were the original records, made of shellac, very heavy and very fragile--if you dropped it on the floor it would shatter like a plate. These records spin at 78 revolutions-per-minute (or rpm's) and were typically played on the only players available at the time, the victrola. Millions of 78s were sold in the 20s and 30s before the techonolgy improved and turned to the vinyl records we know today. When that happened, 78s fell by the wayside, collecting dust in basements, attics and landfills. But in the 60s and 70s, a rag-tag group fell in love with them, particularly the 78s that were recorded by some of the earliest blues players. In fact, many of the recordings we have today of these musicians were sourced directly from the collections of 78 enthusiasts. Blues artists like Ma Rainey, Charlie Patton and Skip James would be lost to time. The author takes a deep dive into the materials, catching the 78-collector bug and begins trying to find her own rare blues records. 

Blues People

 Blues People: Negro Music in White America by Amiri Baraka (1963) 256 pages

Baraka, who was also a poet and playwright, published this originally under the name LeRoi Jones. I listened to the audiobook narrated by Prentice Onayemi. I added this to my reading list because I've become more interested in the roots of rock 'n roll. Being new to the St. Louis area I'm excited to explore the National Blues Museum eventually. Baraka's essay writing is super inciteful and detailed. He touches very briefly on rock 'n roll toward the end as it was still such a new genre in 1963. However, his illumination of the history and culture of Africans brought to the Caribbean and the Americas as slaves provides so much value in understanding the development of blues and jazz. White mainstream popular music constantly adopted aspects of black music, but always with a delay and a watering down through racist attitudes of each era.