WEST POINT – A band of eight takes the stage Saturday morning at the Prairie Arts Festival and blares out the first notes of a bluesy riff.
In response, dozens in the crowd cheer out and tap their feet to the rhythm.
It’s a typical scene for the annual West Point festival, except these aren’t your typical musicians. Dressed in matching blue shirts and green and white striped pants, these eight men are from the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.
“We’re honored, we’re privileged and we are thankful to everyone we have met,” said lead guitarist and keys player Houston Jones. “We feel like we’ve been accepted, and we’re just trying to do good. We’re trying to earn back the trust that we (once) lost.”
The Parchman Band is a historic group led by inmates at the Mississippi State Penitentiary whose existence dates back to about 1930. The initial group dissipated in the 1990s, but it was revived in 2023 under Superintendent Marc McClure.
“I just wanted to rebuild that, where they’re giving back to the public and people can see that they’re human beings,” McClure said. “… The thing we’re trying to change is morality because a moral person doesn’t do bad things. And so this is just one of those pieces to the overall puzzle.”
The band members have performed in several local prisons since 2023, working their way up to the group’s first public audience in April at the B.B. King Museum in Indianola.
“We’re honored to be the torchbearer,” Jones said. “… We are bearing the proverbial torch, and we are ensuring that the musical legacy of Parchman survives.”
The festival Saturday was the group’s third public performance this year, and they take them seriously, said Trish Doty, warden with the Mississippi State Penitentiary and staff sponsor for the group. They practice multiple times a week and daily in the weeks leading up to a performance.
“They have aspirations to potentially get recorded and be able to put music out,” Doty said. “… They’re becoming more well known because of some of these festivals that they’ve gone to. … But right now we’re just trying to get some things cleaned up, get better, and I think the rest of it will come.”
The bandmates enjoy what they do, and it was evident Saturday as they engaged the audience during their performance on the festival’s main stage, ad-libbing and dancing as they sang.
“I don’t really know where that came from, but it’s just kind of natural,” vocalist Charles Glassco said. “And I do it because, (seeing) the audience having fun, it makes me not so nervous.”
The group and its leadership understand the potential challenge of public perception when showcasing inmates, but for them, it’s all about showing the positive impacts the prison is having, Doty said.
“Music is a universal language, so people can gravitate to music no matter what their backgrounds are,” McClure said. “… So if you have good music, then you have a good response from people of all walks of life.”
Taking the stage
West Point Clay County Growth Alliance Director Lisa Klutts requested the group for the festival after seeing them perform in May at the penitentiary.
“To see them here on stage and the turnout … just the energy and the vibe was beyond my expectation,” Klutts said. “I was nervous … but they just got off the van, and they were professional and very just kind, polite individuals.”
Since its revival, some members, like Lamarcus Brown, have rotated out of the group. Brown, who attended the show Saturday, was released in January before the band’s public performances started.
As the band got down to the last few songs of their hourlong performance, they invited Brown to take to the drum kit once again and play with his bandmates.
“I want them to see me. … They haven’t seen me in seven months, so now they have seen me, (seen) how I look, the stuff that I got going on (and) they can do the same thing,” Brown said. “Just because they’re incarcerated doesn’t mean their lives are over.”
Brown leads the crew, thumping the drums and lending his vocals as if he never left the band.
“It’s almost like seeing one of your own children doing good,” McClure said. “So you brought them up and helped shape who they’ve become. And it’s just good to see the positive outcome.”
This kind of life correction is exactly the prison’s goal, not only through The Parchman Band, which is the most engaging public-facing program at the penitentiary, but also through other programs and trade classes at the prison, McClure said.
“Seeing these men up there performing songs that they know helps the public to relate to them as human beings, and that’s what’s most important,” McClure said. “… We’ve got to understand that most of these people are coming out, and they’re going to be their neighbors … and the public has to know that, yes, people make mistakes, but they can change.”
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Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 34 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.
