The ethnomusicologist Alan Lomax, who had started to make field recordings of folk music for the Library of Congress, helped raise money for Lead Belly's legal expenses.

To create a "prison" feel Lomax suggested that the Golden Gate Quartet back Lead Belly.

[3] The album was issued with extensive notes and song texts prepared by Alan Lomax.

According to Charles Wolfe and Kip Lornell, "it was one of the finest public presentations of Leadbelly's music: well recorded, well advertised, well documented.

"[1]: 222 The Midnight Special and Other Southern Prison Songs was originally released a three-disc collection of 78 rpm records, catalog number Victor P-50.