Gospel Singers Getting a Taste of the Big Time--From Inside Prison

Ronald Williams’ early musical aspirations took him no further than the streets, where he sang the blues and got into trouble with the law.

But behind bars--as a member of the San Quentin Mass Choir--Williams and 19 other inmate gospel singers are getting a taste of the big time.

“He’s All I Need,” the gospel choir’s 10-song compact disc, was released last month by Count Time Productions and Grateful Dead drummer Mickey Hart, who hauled studio equipment to the prison and did most of the recording in one day.

“It has given me a different idea of what you can do while you are here,” said Williams, 38, who was convicted of robbery.

Sixteen female staffers at the notorious men’s prison, many of them guards, also lent their voices, giving the choir the fullness it lacked with just men.

“It is sacred songs from inside San Quentin, and that’s what makes it so real,” Hart said. “A prison is not built for beauty or comfort. There’s lots of misery and sorrow there, and this music has relieved a lot of tension.”

Choir members were a little suspicious when a member of the Grateful Dead offered to make the CD, said the Rev. Earl Smith, the prison chaplain, because an earlier recording project had gone sour.

But he said that, over time, it became clear that Hart “had his spirit in line with our spirits.”

Hart hooked up with the inmates after the Gyuto Tantric Choir, a group of Tibetan monks, visited the prison last January. The visit was arranged by the Rex Foundation, a charitable organization started by members of the Dead.

Many of the San Quentin gospel singers protested because the monks weren’t Christian.

“I told Chaplain Smith, look, we got to draw the line somewhere,” said former choir director Mandell Motley, who has since been paroled and transferred to a Roanoke, Va., jail to face an existing failure-to-appear charge.

“When they ended up coming to the chapel, we found out we had more in common than differences.”

Hart, who had recorded the chanting monks, heard about the visit and became interested in recording the inmate choir.

During daily practices in the weeks before the May session, Hart and a voice coach worked with Motley to raise the singers to a professional level.

Rehearsals were suspended during the days that led up to the execution of Robert Alton Harris, and the recording was made only a few days later.

Tension was high, but the choir pulled together, Hart said.

“After this terrible thing came down, the whole prison was shaking, the electricity was crackling in the air. There weren’t a lot of smiles,” Hart said.

“But it was a spiritual experience. When you sing about coming home and you are inside San Quentin, it is for real. You don’t dress up in your Easter bonnet for Sunday chapel. It’s not entertainment. It’s salvation.”

Motley, 27, said he hopes to eventually work with church choirs in San Francisco and return to San Quentin--as a visitor--to coach inmate gospel singers.

“It was a God-moved project,” Motley said of “He’s All I Need” in a telephone interview from jail. “You’ve got angry convicts coming together. If you can do that you can direct any choir in the world.”

He is not the only San Quentin gospel singer who intends to take his musical ministry to the outside world.

Williams, who sings the solo on the title track, said he has lost the desire to perform other kinds of music.

“In clubs, you sing to help people sin,” Williams said. “You sing so that they can get drunk. You sing so that they can cheat on their wives. . . . Now, I’ve had the opportunity to sing songs that give testimony to help people change their direction, to tell them that they can find satisfaction through Christ.”

Roderick Boddi, 30, another soloist, said he first went to the prison chapel just to sit and listen. But he soon noticed that the choir was a sanctuary from prison life where brotherly love, not violence, was the guiding force.

“I saw how the brothers really cared for one another, and I wanted to get that way also, to turn my life around,” Boddi said. “It’s where you come to get peace of mind.”

Toni Marshall’s experience was a bit different.

The three-year correction officer said singing with the choir has given her a new perspective on the men she guards.

“When you work at San Quentin, you never really envision yourself standing in a choir singing with inmates,” Marshall said. “And since I have been singing with them, I’ve found that they have so much energy and so much spirit. It’s a different situation when we are out (away) from the choir.”

“He’s All I Need” can be obtained by sending $9.25 to Prison Bible Studies, PO Box 446, San Quentin, CA 94960 or by calling Grateful Dead merchandising at (800) 225-3323.