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PRISON SONGBOOK

Can creativity find an outlet in the most tragic human condition? And when it does, what values and stories does it express and transfigure?
Even before knowing more about the motivations of the blues and the history of the people who have made the blues their language and in some way their revenge, their redemption, even before having the meanings of abuse, struggle, exile clear in our heads and on our skins, one has the impression that now, more than ever, all this concerns us.

In the historical moment we are living in, in which the progress made over centuries, millennia of development of consciousness and ideas seems not only to be cancelled out but even to lose meaning and legitimacy, the blues and its artists still have much to tell us and teach us, both on a human and an artistic level, characters that actually merge together because they are part of a true cultural mood that has affected every aspect of the life and experience of a people stolen from their land and deprived of their freedom.

After a century all this is still tremendously relevant and the Prison Songbook project was also born from this awareness, taking provocation to the extreme in choosing to tell specifically the blues of the loss of freedom and dignity par excellence, that is the blues of prisons and labour camps.

We have found traces of prison songs in so many authors from Robert Pete Williams, Son House, to Charlie Patton to Bukka White, Peg Leg Howell, Blind Lemon Jefferson, R.L. Burnside, Furry Lewis, Leadbelly, Skip James, Robert ‘Guitar Welch’, Scrapper Blackwell, etc. We discovered incredible work songs.

We realised that the human voice and the human spirit cannot be locked inside a cage.

Prison Songbook chronicles the music and poetry of great artists who were literally bailed out by the few philanthropists of the time so that they could at least for one day get out of prison and record the works without which music, as we know and appreciate it today, would not exist.

Prison Songbook represents a unicum within the cultural and musical proposals not only on an Italian level as it tackles a very topical theme, that of human rights, which can also be food for thought for contemporary society.

Prison Songbook was awarded the Bartolo De Vido Prize for the cultural, musical and social value of the project.

“…Never will forget that day
When they had me in Parchman Jail
Would no one even come and go my bail
I wonder how long
Before I can change my clothes?…”
(Bukka White)

“…I’ll tell you people, the penal farm is a lonesome place
I’ll tell you people, penal farm’s a lonesome place
And no one’s there, to smile up in your face…”
(Scrapper Blackwell – Penal farm blues)

“…When you get up in the mornin’, when that big bell ring
You go and march to the table, see the same damn thing
Knife and fork are on the table, there’s nothin’ in my pan
And if you say anything about it, havin’ trouble with the man…”
(Lead Belly – Midnight Special)

MARCO VIGNAZIA
Guitar

Marco Vignazia, blues guitarist, already alongside Angelo Leadbelly Rossi, Arthur Miles, Joe Galullo, Sara Piolanti, P.G. Petricca, Claudio Bertolin, Patrick Moschen and many others. He has performed over the years with various bands in venues and festivals (Levico Terme Blues Festival 2021, String Theory Music Fest, Sogliano Blues 2019, 3 editions of Blues a Balues, Wine & Blues Festival, Portico Hill Blues Festival, Saverio Blues Festival, Castelfranco Blues Festival, Carovana del blues, Blues Made in Italy 2016, Forlì Zydeco & Cajun Blues Festival, Play Mr Dadamo, as well as openings for Andy J Forest, Mingardi etc.). Marco Vignazia is one of the 10 guitarists wanted by Vince Vallicelli for the Freddie King tribute for the final night at Naima Club.

SARA PIOLANTI
Voice

Sara Piolanti, is a singer-songwriter from Forlì, now an excellent guitarist, with a musical history full of important projects and collaborations behind her. She began her career at a very young age, singing alongside blues drummer Vince Vallicelli and thus giving expression to the love for Afro-American music that has always characterised her. She has performed many times at the Naima club, opening for important American blues musicians. Other important collaborations along the way include the former Modena City Ramblers Giovanni Rubbiani, the band Caravane de Ville, and Marta sui Tubi. In 2005, he began to feel the need to express his own vision and sound in greater depth, and ‘Farfalle e falene’ is his first solo album, and in 2011 he won the DeAndrè award.

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WHAT THEY SAY ABOUT US

“In questo progetto l’amore per la ricerca antropologica e la passione per lo strumento si coniugano perfettamente creando, a mio giudizio, una vera e propria musica al servizio della cultura.
Un concept perfetto e dagli elevati toni emozionali che mi ha colpito profondamente.
Le mie orecchie e il mio cuore ringraziano.”
(Patrick Moschen – Musicista Blues – Vicepresidente Blues Made in Italy)

“Un momento di condivisione toccante, intenso, struggente. Leggevo l’articolo e ascoltavo, poi ho ascoltato soltanto. Il ritmo apre la strada, le note cercano un contatto, la voce graffia e la chitarra rimargina le ferite della memoria. Le immagini in dissolvenza in cui le sbarre si confondono ai rami e alle spalle della notte scura ecco la Luna. Prima invisibile, nascosta, poi piena, la Luna. Ho sentito tutta la poesia della musica, il blues si alza al di sopra della vergogna, dell’ingiustizia. Quel suono pizzica le corde dell’anima; è luce di una candela, sussurro; è denuncia, ma è anche distacco dall’orrore. Slancio di escapismo e riscatto, tesoro di un cielo interiore svelato, raro, volo in cui l’attimo immortale ridimensiona il terribile.”
(Diego Rossi – Blogger)

“Quando il Blues supera il Blues…. Ieri sera allo Strings Theory Music Fest è stata una serata che mi porterò sempre nel cuore…. il progetto Prison Songbook vede la luce dopo tanto studio e ricerca, un lavoro non certo facile per Marco Vignazia & Sara Piolanti…. a rendere ancora più prezioso questo progetto è la splendida cornice di Villa Marchiori dei Cappuccini “
(Luca Pincelli – Blues Fans)

“Quando davvero senti che hai trovato la tua strada, il tuo posto nel mondo! Quando un direttore artistico ospita nel proprio festival ed è promotore di un progetto come Prison Songbook di Sara Piolanti e Marco Vignazia, sa che sta facendo la cosa giusta. Sono felice del mio lavoro e sono felice di come ho scelto di portarlo avanti.”
(Francesca Paola Montagni – Direttore Artistico String Theory Music Fest)

“Oh yesss! Pelle d’oca”
(Davide Ariano – Direttore Artistico Sogliano Blues)

“Struggente”
(Ivan Baggi – Stranpalato Blues Club)

“Un progetto di Marco Vignazia e Sara Piolanti. Parla di Blues certo, ma soprattutto di quello che era per un nero, per un uomo di colore finire in carcere, nei primi anni del 900 e nel sud dell Usa, un progetto unico, in Italia…”
(Massimo De Rosa – Armonicista e Fotografo)

“Today we start another new column: “Talented Blues Artists” in which we’ll see some fresh interesting blues project. Let’s begin with Sara Piolanti and Marco Vignazia: “Prison Blues”!
This is the blues!!”
(Blues Cluster)

“Un percorso, un gesto d’amore, per la seconda serata al Castelfranco Blues Festival del duo Piolanti Marco Vignazia che portano in giro un progetto meraviglioso! Un progetto umano…finalmente!”
(Alessandro Corona Parallelo44)