Penitentiary Blues [Original recording remastered]

David Allan Coe | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (August 23, 2005)
• Original Release Date: 2005
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Original recording remastered
• Label: HackTone Records
• ASIN: B000AAIXPY
• Also Available in: Audio CD  |  Vinyl
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #189,038 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Track Listings

1. Cell #33

2. Monkey David Wine

3. Walkin' Bum

4. One Way Ticket To Nowhere

5. Funeral Parlor Blues

6. Death Row

7. Oh Warden

8. Age 21

9. Little David

10. Conjer Man

Editorial Reviews

Deluxe Reissue Of The Debut Album From This Influential Country Renegade...On CD For The First Time Ever! An Album So Outlaw It Was Written Behind Bars

David Allan Coe is one of the most popular and controversial figures in modern country music. It’s ironic then that his debut album, Penitentiary Blues, wasn’t a country album at all, but a blues album through and through. Though it received only limited distribution upon its 1968 release, it has achieved cult-classic status. Shout! Factory, in association with HackTone Records, is proud to release Penitentiary Blues on CD for the first time. The packaging mimics the original die-cut album cover, and in addition to a booklet with notes by Grammy-winner Colin Escott, we have put together a bonus booklet consisting of excerpts from Coe’s legendary self-published book, EX-Convict. The result is the ultimate edition of this prison classic.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars +1/2 -- Blues-soaked debut written in prison, August 23, 2005

By 

hyperbolium (Earth, USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Penitentiary Blues (Audio CD)

Coe's 1969 debut has become quite the collectable over the years, sought after by his fans as much for its rarity as for its raw look at the songwriter's roots. Written primarily while serving his final stint of prison time (3 years at Marion), its both a punctuation mark on the end of 20 years of off-and-mostly-on incarceration, and the launching point for Coe's entire musical career.

Recorded in Nashville for Shelby Singleton's SSS label (a sister to the Plantation label on which Singleton had cleaned up with Jeannie C. Riley), the basic blues lineup of guitar, bass, drums and harmonica hardly predicts Coe's later success in Country music circles. Yet, the raw-to-the-bone songs of prison life's hardships weren't all that different from those lamenting the circumstance of poor mountain dwellers and displaced Okies, and Coe's notion of an ex-con's worth clearly informed later successes like "Take This Job and Shove It."

These tales from the inside are more Leadbelly than Cash, and the music has more in common with Jerry Lee's post-Rock 'n' Roll blues sides (mixed with Screamin' Jay Hawkins' hallucinatory hoodoo imagery) than anything Nashville was producing in 1969. Coe's prison tattoo of an album didn't even acknowledge the system that was bucked seven years later by Waylon & Willie.

HackTone's deluxe CD reissue (the first legitimate CD issue for this title in its 36 year history) reproduces the album's original die-cut prison bars cover in digipack form, includes informative new liner notes from Colin Escott, and adds a telling excerpt from Coe's self-published book "Ex-Convict." [©2005 hyperbolium dot com]

4.0 out of 5 stars Review from a new convert, October 1, 2009

By 

D. Mccarthy - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Penitentiary Blues (Audio CD)

Having been a metal and hard rock fan for most of my life, I find it strange to be writing a review for country legened David Allan Coe. But as I get older I'm finding it a little easier to have an open mind, albums like this make it extremely easy!

First off, this ISN'T a Country album, this is Blues and some old fashioned Rock n Roll. The structures are simple/basic blues patterns. Very easy to get into. Anyone who loves the blues, oldies rock, funny story songs and obviously anyone who likes DAC should own this. Not a bad song here.

Note: Penitentiary Blues is not listed on the tracklisting here on Amazon for some reason. It is track #1

One of the coolest things about this CD is the way they reproduced the original LP version; the digi-pack type packaging, tri-fold gateway cover, die-cut bars over the cover. Very nice booklet with some DAC history and an excerpt from his book "ex-convict".Very nice package for any collector of old rock/blues music. Nice to have a peak into the beginnings of such an infamous singer/songwriter.

1 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars penitentiary blues, March 26, 2009

By 

earnest steadfast "old hippie" (space) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Penitentiary Blues (Audio CD)

my old lp disappeared a long time ago & i remembered i liked the album so i just got the cd. it is still a good listen, but not as original as i once thought,(time passes & i got older & maybe wiser with the passing years)? dac goes on to become a country musician where it seems many mediocre musicians can find an audience & money easier to make than the blues/rock world. i could of easily done without it.