Product Description
Best of S.A. Harris: Blues from Cell Block D (At the Oregon State Penitentiary) is exactly what you're gonna hear on this album. It's not often that you can get a recording that was approved to release from a prison, but I was one of a small group that was allowed to compose and record from my prison cell at the Oregon State Penitentiary. I was able to get authorization to have a BOSS BR-80 Multi-Track Recorder and DAW in 2011, it was the size of a pack of smokes, but it allowed me 8-tracks and 64-virtual tracks of storable stem tracks to build each song one track at a time. I could not have done this without it!
From 2011 until 2017 I learned how to be every band member. how a Drummer would play to my compositions, how a Bass player would interpret his part, build Keyboard parts, Lead guitar parts etc. it was a wonderful experience and I had a small window of time to compose and produce music from behind the concrete walls of OSP and I am proud of what I accomplished. In early 2017 I was transferred out of the Maximum-Security Oregon State Penitentiary and moved to the Medium Security Two Rivers Correctional Institution. This place was having no part in allowing me to record anything, so I had to send everything home and accept that It was all over.
I was blessed to have a few musicians that I played music with at OSP let me put them on a few songs, C. Hawkins, M. Leverett & J. Rhoades. I'll have those memories for the rest of my life. I also collaborated on writing "Freedom Bound" with a well-known musician named Bobby Beausoleil, once featured in Guitar Player Magazine as one of the Top-50 weirdest guitar players in the world. I would keep writing and recording songs if I could, but I'm glad to have been able to publish what I have.
I lost my only son to suicide on Dec. 23, 2018, he was 26 years old. I'll never know what went so wrong for him to take his own life, but his death will haunt me for the rest of my days. I miss you Michael!
I dedicate this album to Michael Alexander Harris 1992 - 2018.
