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Mt. Holly Jail

by Jackson Pines

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Kevin Kerry Boyce
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Elizabeth Schaffer
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harlequinhawk
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Linda
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PINE BARRENS VOLUME ONE, COMING JANUARY 2023

This is the first single from our new EP "Pine Barrens Volume One" coming later in January. Every state has at least one prison song. This is New Jersey's most well-known. Jim Albertson performed it, as well as Merce Ridgway Jr., whose version we learned the tune from.

It's earliest appearance written down is in 1936, in an article Herbert Halpert wrote called "Some Ballads and Folk Songs from New Jersey." Oliver Minney, a half black and half Lenape man, sung the song to Halpert as he traveled the state searching for unrecorded folk songs.

The Mt. Holly Jail is now the Burlington Country Prison and Museum. Back in the 1800s, when you'd get in trouble in the Pine Barrens you were most likely going to the Mt. Holly Jail for a little while. Besides your classic thieves, murderers, and other unsavory characters, women were imprisoned at Mt. Holly Jail as well. Oddly enough, the women prisoners, of which there were dozens over the years, were mostly in there for adultery. Hard times indeed. At least their children were allowed to live in the joint with them.

We took some liberties with time signature, tempo, and chord progression, but kept faithful to the melody, the lyrical arc and sentiment, as well as the unique Flat 7th harmony on the last word of the chorus, which is preserved here and sung by Cranston Dean. We theorize this may be a unique feature of Pines Barrens regional folk music, but don't quote us.

credits

released January 1, 2023
Produced by Jackson Pines and John Sell.
Engineered, mixed, and mastered by John Sell.
The Boghouse, Jackson, NJ.

Joe Makoviecki - vocals, guitar
James Black - stand-up bass
James Herdman - fiddle
Cranston Dean - mandolin, vocals
Max Carmichael - banjo

Single art: Steve O'Mark
Photography: Thomas O'Gara III

Special thanks to John and the Historical Society of Riverton, NJ for furnishing the vintage photo of the Mt. Holly Jail from the 1940s that we used for the cover.

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Jackson Pines Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

New Album "Pine Barrens, Volume One" and single "Wheel" out now!

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"A cross between Mississippi John Hurt-like country blues and Paul Simonesque folk-rock." - The Aquarian

"These guys are 'workers in song,' to quote Leonard Cohen. They are engaged in the pursuit of music and songwriting for all the right reasons, the honest burning hunt to reach the heights." S. Felice ... more

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