Two CD set with Disc One devoted to songs about crime and Disc Two containing songs about punishment. Compiled and annotated by celebrated journalist Kris Needs, this set draws on five decades of great American music, including blues (John Lee Hooker, Blind Willie McTell), country (The Louvin Brothers, Johnny Cash) and folk (Odetta, Woody Guthrie)..........................

1. Pat Hare - I'm Gonna Murder My Baby

2. Macon Ed & Tampa Joe - Worrying Blues

3. Frank Hutchison - Stackalee

4. Sippie Wallace - Murder's Gonna Be My Crime

5. The Carolina Buddies - The Murder of the Lawson Family

6. Josh White - Lord Randall, My Son

7. Dave Van Ronk - Duncan and Brady

8. Johnny Cash - Don't Take Your Guns to Town

9. John Lee Hooker (as Texas Slim) - I'm Gonna Kill That Woman

10. Homer Harris - I'm Gonna Cut Your Head Mama

11. Sonny Boy Williamson - Your Funeral and My Trial

12. Mississippi John Hurt - Frankie

13. The Everly Brothers - Down in the Willow Garden

14. The Louvin Brothers - Knoxville Girl

15. Dick Justice - Henry Lee

16. Blind Willie McTell - Dying Crapshooter's Blues

17. Lead Belly - John Hardy

18. Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup - Star Bootlegger

19. The Blue Sky Boys - Down On the Banks of the Ohio

20. Cisco Houston - The Killer

21. Peetie Wheatstraw - Gangster's Blues

22. Leroy Carr - Prison Bound Blues

23. Charley Patton - High Sheriff Blues

24. Paul Robeson - Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

25. Billie Holiday - Strange Fruit

26. Bama - How I Got in the Penitentiary

27. 22, Little Red, Tangle Eye & Hard Hair - Early in the Mornin'

28. Bukka White - Parchman Farm Blues

29. Fred McMullen - DeKalb Chain Gang

30. Lillie Mae - Buggy Jail House Blues

31. Victoria Spivey - Murder in the First Degree

32. Mattie May Thomas - Workhouse Blues

33. Memphis Jug Band (as The Memphis Sheiks) - He's in the Jailhouse Now

34. The Crickets - I Fought the Law

35. Jimmie Patton - Okie's in the Pokie

36. Hurricane Harry - The Last Meal

37. 22 & Group - It Makes a Long Time Man Feel Bad

38. Lightnin' Hopkins - Jail House Blues

39. Texas Alexander - Penitentiary Moan Blues

40. Hambone Willie Newbern - Shelby County Workhouse Blues

41. Blind Lemon Jefferson - Prison Cell Blues

42. Peg Leg Howell & Jim Hill - Ball and Chain Blues

43. Ernest Stoneman - Kenny Wagner's Surrender

44. The New Lost City Ramblers - Tom Dooley

45. Odetta - The Gallows Pole

46. Woody Guthrie - Slip Knot

47. 22 & Group - Old Dollar Mamie

48. Tangle Eye - Tangle Eye Blues

49. Mattie May Thomas - Big Mac from Macamere

50. Blind Willie Johnson - Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground