Trouble So Hard: 40 Prison Songs from the Chain Gang

Strictly speaking, despite the promise on the front cover, not everything on Not Now's 2014 compilation Trouble So Hard is a prison song, nor are the singers necessarily refugees from chain gangs. It's a mix of gospel singers, folksingers, blues singers, and harmony groups, all singing spirituals, work songs, and prison songs -- the kind of catalog that conjures ideas of hard times. The 40 songs come from a variety of sources -- usually old 78s, but some date from the blues revival -- and while there isn't much in the way of historical research, this is a nice grab bag of classic blues singers. ~ Stephen Thomas Erlewine