Louisiana State Penitentiary

===Musical culture===
{{Asof|2011}}, several Angola inmates practiced musical skills. The prison administration encourages prisoners to practice music and uses music as a reward for inmates who behave.<ref name="CannonHal">Cannon, Hal. "[https://www.npr.org/2011/08/05/138893837/the-music-of-louisianas-angola-state-penitentiary The Music of Louisiana's Angola State Penitentiary]." ''[[NPR]]''. August 5, 2011. Retrieved on August 15, 2011.</ref>

In the 1930s [[John Lomax]], a [[folklorist]], and [[Alan Lomax]], his son, traveled throughout the U.S. South to document [[African-American musical culture]]. Since prison farms, including Angola, were isolated from general society, the Lomaxes believed that prisons had the purest African-American song culture, as it was not influenced by popular trends. The Lomaxes recorded several songs, which were [[plantation-era songs]] that originated during the slavery era. The Lomaxes met [[Lead Belly]], a famous musician, in Angola.<ref name="CannonHal"/> [[Swamp blues]] musician [[Lightnin' Slim]] also served time in Angola for manslaughter in the 1930s and early 1940s.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Tomko|first=Gene|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5ZKzDwAAQBAJ|title=Encyclopedia of Louisiana Musicians: Jazz, Blues, Cajun, Creole, Zydeco, Swamp Pop, and Gospel|publisher=Louisiana State University Press|year=2020|isbn=978-0807169322|location=Baton Rouge|pages=161}}</ref>

From 1968 to 1970, [[WAFB|WAFB-TV]] in Baton Rouge aired a weekly early-morning program, ''Good Morning, Angola Style'', featuring bands made up of Angola inmates. The show was hosted by [[Buckskin Bill Black]], who developed idea for the program after meeting one of the prison's country music bands, The Westernaires, after performing at the 1967 [[Angola Prison Rodeo]].<ref>{{cite news|title=Angola Cons Have Music, Will Travel to Perform|first=Nan|last=Nadler|work=Daily World|location=Opelousas, Louisiana|date=1968-07-25|page=12|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/15191261/|access-date=2022-07-21|via=[[Newspapers.com]]}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |date=October 11, 2006 |title=Who is "Buckskin" Bill? |language=en |work=WAFB-TV |url=https://www.wafb.com/story/5525752/who-is-buckskin-bill |access-date=2022-07-21}}</ref>