Free Again

VINYL FORMAT. "Robert Pete Williams (1914-1980) is the quintessential Delta bluesman. His songs, which tell the tale of his own life's considerable hardships, are performed in the style of the early country blues, with only a fleeting adherence to a twelve-bar form. Much like Lead Belly, Williams was "discovered" by a music historian (Harry Oster) at Louisiana's infamous Angola prison, where he was serving a life sentence for murder. Williams, again like Lead Belly, managed to 'sing himself to freedom', thanks to Oster's petitioning for his release. While still incarcerated, his first recordings appeared on the Folk Lyric label in the form of Angola Prisoners' Blues, but by the time Free Again (as the title suggests) was released in 1961 he had been paroled to a work farm. Although the farm was better than prison, the 80-hour work week left precious little time for music. Amazingly he did manage to record and perform occasionally and Free Again, a collection of gripping solo guitar and vocal performances recorded by Oster himself in Baton Rouge on November 14, 1960, is a shining example of this."