The Midnight Special

Available from Nook & Cranny Books when we last checked. Sold from the shop’s own store; the price there is the one that counts.

In American popular music, we often glorify rebellious artists and “outlaws.” But in The Midnight Special , 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. Opening 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