The Mistakes of Yesterday, the Hopes of Tomorrow: The Story of the Prisonaires

Dougan (music,Middle Tennessee State Univ.; The Who Sell Out) tells the story of the Prisonaires, a five-piece group formed in the early 1950s from inmates in Nashville's Tennessee State Penitentiary. This books seeks to highlight the redemptive quality of music in prisons and examines the debate over the legitimacy of it as a rehabilitative tool. A new governor in Tennessee and the appointment of a progressive warden to the state penitentiary meant a supportive environment for the Prisonaires, whose participation in the group was analogous to work on a gentle type of chain gang. Though the warden exploited them to make money, the group accepted their status and the small bit of freedom it afforded them. The surrounding locale of Nashville provided fertile ground for the Prisonaires' success, and group front man Johnny Bragg became known as a talented songwriter. Bragg even claims that he wrote the hit "Your Cheatin' Heart" and sold it to Hank Williams for $5.