The last time I was in the Belknap Country Jail in Laconia, I was visiting my roommate from college, who, instead of breaking down kegs of beer with us on the weekends, left on Friday afternoons to become just another inmate at the county jail.<\/p>\n
That was part of his sentence for his stupidity, weekends in jail for an entire semester, then a longer stint when the school year ended.<\/p>\n
That was over 20 years ago.<\/p>\n
So, when Dr. Jack Polidoro from Belmont mentioned that he and some other musicians would be playing a special concert for the inmates at Belknap in a few days, I jumped at the chance to get back inside.<\/p>\n
Yes, Johnny Cash\u2019s famous live prison concert album, \u201cFolsom Prison Blues\u201d played into my curiosity. But I didn\u2019t expect to see a recreation of the historic 1968 event. I was curious to see if the spirit of Cash would reappear in the clouds gathered round the pink sunset that hung over the barbed wired bullpen area.<\/p>\n
As the first batch of minimum security female inmates made their way into the pen, each in matching green prison garb, it didn\u2019t take but five seconds to see the elation in their smiling faces. Not just because they were outside breathing clean air on a gorgeous summer night.<\/p>\n
Because they were being treated to something other than their own bad luck.<\/p>\n
It was a pedicure of sorts, minus the toe rub.<\/p>\n
The women came in all ages and sizes, some young, still sporting a flowing lock of highlighted hair, others carrying a hard-lined expression that made them a perfect fit for this joint.<\/p>\n
Then the men came into the yard, twenty of them, and they appeared equally thankful to be freed from the chocking scent of incarceration.<\/p>\n
And like men do, they played the hard guy as they took their seats next to the ladies, who, like women, pretended the men sitting five-feet next to them didn\u2019t even exist.<\/p>\n
It was starting to feel like a real mixer.<\/p>\n
Rob and Patsy, an older hippy couple played some great old hippy tunes. And knowingly or not, the inmates, who I doubt rocked out to the \u201cMama and the Papa\u2019s\u201d before they did the deed that got them done, seemed to know ever line to Bob Dylan\u2019s, \u201cMake You Feel My Love.\u201d<\/p>\n
And when Percy Hill and Leon Garretson started singing about Whisky Mama and daddy\u2019s deep deviled blues, well, everyone seemed to settle into the night, forgetting about where they were, how they got there or when and if they\u2019d ever get out.<\/p>\n
They knew this song cold. And felt it.<\/p>\n
As the pink sky disappeared into the foothills, Dr. Jack took the stage and delivered the perfect song on a perfect night to the perfect audience, \u201cPancho and Lefty\u201d by Townes Van Zandt.<\/p>\n
Livin\u2019 on the road my friend Some of the inmates sat rubbing their neck, patiently sitting through the performances. Others grabbed for the spotlight, giving it their best to make an impression on the ladies by shouting louder than the other inmates.<\/p>\n Just being their goofy selves. Like anyone.<\/p>\n Pastor Deb played and she was special. There was something about the way the men and women looked at Deb as she sang that made them shed their angry skin. As if Deb was, maybe, the only person in the world they could trust and believe in.<\/p>\n And while Pastor Deb belted out the chorus to the \u201c4 Non Blondes\u201d major hit, \u201cWhat\u2019s Going On?\u201d everyone in the bullpen sang loud and proud, as if they were in the midst of a kitchen jam with a bunch of friends and plenty of libations and nothing but love for one another.<\/p>\n Locked into the moment, I could have wept.<\/p>\n Sitting in a folding chair in the front row, an inmate named Tyler, maybe 40, strong, black and seemingly kind, listened hard to the quiet songs about screwing up and digging your way out. He threw his arms out wide when a song about beating the odds emerged.<\/p>\n Tyler has been in county for the past six months, still waiting on a court date for whatever he did. But tonight, as Tyler said, \u201cis the best thing that\u2019s happened to me since I been in jail. It\u2019s really blowing my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n Yup, music will ease a troubled mind.<\/p>\n As will freedom.<\/p>\n \u2013 Rob Azevedo<\/strong><\/p>\n Rob Azevedo, from Manchester, has been hosting a weekly radio show called\u00a0\u201cGranite State of Mind\u201d<\/a>\u00a0for the past three and a half years which showcases musicians from around New Hampshire and beyond. \u00a0\u201cGranite State of Mind\u201d is an hour long program that features artists performing live in-studio\u00a0each week,\u00a0now exclusively on WKXL<\/strong>.\u00a0 Azevedo also writes a weekly music column called\u00a0\u201cSound Check\u201d for the Concord Monitor<\/a>\u00a0and hosts a monthly \u201cArtist in the Round\u201d style series at New England College in Concord.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The last time I was in the Belknap Country Jail in Laconia, I was visiting my roommate from college, who, instead of breaking down kegs of beer with us on the weekends, left on Friday afternoons to become just another inmate at the county jail. That was part of his sentence for his stupidity, weekends […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9500,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[29,50,39],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-9499","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-blog","8":"category-granite-state-of-mind","9":"category-homepage"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/08\/Belknap-County-Blues.jpg?fit=960%2C720&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9499"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9499\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9501,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9499\/revisions\/9501"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/9500"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9499"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nhtalkradio.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nIs gonna keep you free and clean
\nAnd now you wear your skin like iron
\nAnd your breath is hard as kerosene<\/em><\/p>\n