From: tnf@well.sf.ca.us (David Gans)
Subject:  Mickey Sighting (San Quentin Mass Choir)
Organization: Whole Earth 'Lectronic Link
Distribution: world 
Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1992 20:22:03 GMT

In article <BxMnLs.70s@askinc.ask.COM> robert@askinc.ask.COM (Robert McMullen) writes:
>Yep!  The Mickster himself was featured in a story on the San 
>Francisco Channel 7 (KGO?) 6 oclock news last night.  Apparently,
>he's producing (or has already produced) a demo album/cassette
>for the San Quentin Federal Penitentiary Gospel Choir (for those
>of you not from here, San Quentin is basically halfway between
>San Francisco and San Rafael, going north over the Golden Gate).


Actually, it's a state prison.

Here's the lowdown on this caper, from a topic I opened in the Well:

 
 I spent the afternoon at San Quentin.  It was a press event to
 introduce HE'S ALL I NEED, a recording by the San Quentin Mass Choir -
 a group which includes both inmates and staff. Unprecedented - and
 impressive.  Prisoners, press, families, guards and others all partied
 together after the performance.  I talked to a guy in his 50s who was
 in for manufacturing speed.  I interviewed one of the singing guards, a
 very attractive female Jesus freak; I interviewed the warden briefly
 and sat next to him in the front pew during the performance.  I
 interviewed the man who sang lead on several of the songs on the tape,
 and his Christian talk sounded more authentic to me, somehow; Ron
 Williams is his name, and he's getting out on November 24.  I
 interviewed Mickey Hart, who produced the recording.  He told me how
 the Gyuto Monks wound up at San Quentin in 1988 and how that led to the
 making of this record.
 
 There's razor wire everywhere, but the people who processed us in and
 brought us to the chapel and escorted us out were friendly, pleasant
 and helpful.  I was required to put a pair of white painter's pants
 over my blue sweats, because blue is the color of the inmates' jeans
 and work shirts and nobody else wears blue there.  There were some very
 interesting-looking people in blue and some in other colors, too.
 
 The band was good, the choir was excellent, and the energy in the room
 was incredible.  One singer, a small Latino guy with a thin goatee and
 a shaved head, cried and cried during one of the numbers.  Some very
 tough-looking faces, some damaged souls and beaten spirits, but there
 was no danger in the room.
 
 
 HE'S ALL I NEED
 
 Side A
 
 I'm on the Lord's Side (Jonathan McGriff)
   Lead vocal: Ronald O. Williams
 
 Only a Look
   Lead Vocals: John Cooks, Shelita Renee Smith
 
 He Watches Over Me (Manuel "Chuckie" Robinson)
   Arranged by Mandell Motley
   Lead vocal: Anthony Lee
 
 Take Care of Me (Nathaniel Lane)
   Lead vocal: Roderick Boddie
 
 He's All I Need
   Lead vocal: Ronald O. Williams
 
 Side B
 
 You Can Make It If You Try (Rev. Milton Biggham)
   Lead vocals: Turner Singleton, Velda Dobson
 
 Storm Clouds Rising, Let's Go Home (Rev. Milton Biggham)
 Tribute (Shirley Murdock)
   Lead vocals: Ronald O. Williams, Toni Marshall
   Scripture reading: Herbert Hammond
 
 The Bible (Latroy Ervin)
   Lead vocal: Latroy Ervin
 
 Amazing Grace/He's All I Need (reprise)
   Arranged by Hampton Finney
   Lead vocal: Bertha Howard
 

 Ordering information
 
 (Not available in stores!)
 
 1-800-225-3323
 
 Or by mail from Prison Bible Studies, PO Box 446, San Quentin CA 94960
 
 Cassette $7, Compact Disc $9
 Postage and handling $2 per item.
 California residents add 7.25% sales tax
 
 Net profits will be distributed as follows:
 
 20% Victims relief fund
 20% Scholarships to children we deem deserving
 15% Garden chapel
 15% Rex Foundation prison projects account
 15% Support of Children's Missionary Outreach
 10% Inmate programs: Prison to Success/Arts in Corrections
  5% Volunteer programs: prison Bible study

-- 

	David Gans	tnf@well.sf.ca.us
			{apple,pacbell,hplabs,ucbvax}!well!tnf