Follow Me Down: Portraits of Louisiana Prison Musicians

The subjects of Follow Me Down are prisoner musicians whose songs and stories deserve an audience. Canadian filmmaker Bruce McDonald profiled some of the same inmates from Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola in his 2012 documentary Music from the Big House (VL Online-2/13), but director Ben Harbert—a music professor at Georgetown University—also visits Elayn Hunt Correctional Center and the Louisiana Correctional Institute for Women (LCIW). Musical genres among the three institutions range from gospel to hip-hop. At LCIW, for instance, choir serves as the sole musical outlet. Rockelle Gregory, who has been serving time for eight years, says she's written 920 songs, concluding, "I am awesome," but when she later gets into an altercation, she is forced to leave the ensemble. By contrast, the men of Angola have several groups from which to choose, including the Pure Heart Messengers, the Jazzmen, Angola's Most Wanted, and the Family Choir. During the course of filming, the Messengers coax John Henry Taylor Jr., a 39-year inmate, into singing again. Wilfred Cazelot, a guard, believes that music offers somewhere constructive for the men to channel their energy. Similarly, correctional officer Latasha Roy encourages female inmates to avoid cliques and to join choir instead. Other notable subjects include saxophone player Leotha Brown, incarcerated at Angola since 1964, and guitar player Clay Logan, who murdered his mother, and is now president of the Hunt music association. An abundance of talent is on display here, but for the singers and players serving life sentences, music careers aren't likely to be forthcoming. In a state notorious for denying parole, inmate Ivy Mathis, notes that "life means life." Recommended. Aud: C, P. (K. Fennessy)