David Allan Coe Album: “Penitentiary Blues [Deluxe Edition]”

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]

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.

This album is one of the BEST of David Allen Coe! The very best blues album I've heard - Thank you for the quick shipment - it is exactly as described!!!

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.