Following in the footsteps of outlaw country legend Johnny Cash, Margo Price performed for more than 400 inmates at West Tennessee State Penitentiary‘s Women’s Therapeutic Residential Center in Henning, TN. The performance will be released as a live album and documented in a forthcoming documentary.
Price was joined by Joyce Watkins, who was recently exonerated after spending 27 years in prison for a crime she did not commit and has since become an activist and spokesperson for the Tennessee Innocence Project. The organization coordinated the concert “to shine a light on the circumstances surrounding recidivism, justice and mental health in the US prison system,” while also “bring[ing] awareness to non-violent incarceration rates … support[ing] rehabilitation, further[ing] the conversation surrounding the importance of education-based activities for inmates, and provid[ing] a connection through music,” according to a press release.
In a new piece published to her Substack, Rawdoggin’ Reality, Price called the performance “one of the most important gigs of my career,” adding, “I’ve never felt that kind of emotional, receptive energy from an audience before. They needed to hear the music, and I needed to deliver it…For about sixty minutes, we all became one with the music. There was undulation, dancing, cheering, smiling, weeping. I was moved to tears more than once, and even now, thinking back, I’m overwhelmed with gratitude…I learned more from Joyce and from the women inside those walls than I could ever put into words.”
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She went on to reveal how, like Johnny Cash, she formed a deep affinity for the incarcerated during her own short stint in jail:
I’ve always been drawn to the stories nobody wants to hear — the voices who’ve been silenced, the ones behind bars, behind closed doors, behind headlines. Years ago, I was living recklessly and making bad choices. I wound up spending a weekend in jail and even though my stay was short, it left a mark on me. It made me see how broken and unforgiving the system is, especially for folks without money, power, or a second chance.
Like Johnny Cash, I believe that music belongs in places where hope is running low. I want to share my songs with people who could use them the most. I want to raise my voice in a place where people may not have one. This isn’t about glamorizing crime or brushing aside accountability, it’s about dignity, prison reform and reminding people they’re still human. Music has the power to heal, to protest, to connect and that’s what this is all about.
If singing in a jail cell can bring light to injustice, I hope my voice and the six strings of my guitar can rattle the cage.
Read more on Price’s Substack, and stay tuned for more details on the live album and documentary.