Songs of San Quentin
Ear Hustle
Ear Hustle & Radiotopia
4.9 • 21.8K Ratings
🗓️ 4 March 2026
⏱️ 43 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
From beatboxing, to blues, to a song of praise once heard in the Met Museum, musicians in San Quentin have created some indelible songs. And we have featured a number of them on Ear Hustle. In this episode, Earlonne and Nigel listen back to some of their favorites.
You can hear more of the music we’ve featured on Ear Hustle here, and watch Silas Farley’s “Songs from the Spirit” at the Met here.
Thank you to Matthew “Redbone” Brown III, Jason “Jukebox” Griffin, Tam Nguyen, the Mexican Nationals Band, David Jassy, Lemar “Maverick” Harrison, Charlie Spencer, and Richie Morris, for playing music for us.
This episode was scored with music by David Jassy and Antwan Williams.
Big thanks to Warden Andes and Lt. Berry at San Quentin Rehabilitation Center; Acting Warden Parker, Associate Warden Lewis, and Lt. Avina at the California Institution for Women; and Warden De La Cruz and Lt. Williams at the Central California Women’s Facility for their support of the show.
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| 0:00.0 | The following podcast contains language that may not be appropriate for all listeners. |
| 0:05.0 | Discretion is advised. This is comment. Stay up to Ear Hustle. Peace. Growing up, I was never told I could actually be a doctor or a lawyer or just happy being me. |
| 0:28.6 | Really ain't got a clue, man, thinking dude cool man kicking it like Lou Cane |
| 0:32.6 | till you see a few days, you see all in two lanes like Jayco to two chains, that's, on two lanes Like J-go to two chains Last time, two chains Okay, Erlon, I've got to say, |
| 0:38.3 | Boom |
| 0:39.3 | Boom, |
| 0:39.5 | Boom, I've got to say, |
| 0:43.3 | Erlon, I've got to say, |
| 0:45.3 | Give me your life |
| 0:49.4 | And I'll give it back. |
| 1:04.7 | Okay, Erlon, I've got to say, wow, I mean, listening to that little montage, it's like taking a tour of Ear Hustle's music history. |
| 1:10.5 | I know, you got to love that last song from Redbone, too. Two wheels, two rolling wheels. |
| 1:12.9 | Yep, I have a genuine soft spot for that guy. Indeed. I mean, you know, hearing all that reminds me that there's so much great music that we've recorded in San Quentin over the, what, past decade? |
| 1:21.1 | Oh my God, you're right. Jesus. It has been a decade. And we've been away from San Quentin for a while because we've been on the road with the Ear Hustle Live Tour. But it's really good to be back sort of at our home base. |
| 1:34.5 | But hey, now, you know, we're still in tour mode. So we still got one of our biggest shows coming up, which is April 11th at the ACT Tony Rimbay Theater in San Francisco. |
| 1:46.8 | Totally. I'm so excited about that show. And listeners, if you haven't gotten a ticket yet, |
| 1:51.1 | please do. It's going to be a great evening. Get your tickets. Yep. So today, what we're going |
| 1:54.8 | to do is we are going to be digging into the archive to hear some of the best music and |
| 1:59.6 | stories about music that we've recorded at |
| 2:02.5 | San Quentin over the years. I'm Nigel Poor. I'm Erlon Woods, and this is Ear Hustle from PRX's |
| 2:09.2 | Radiotopia. |
| 2:15.3 | There is no other Redbone lover |
... |
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