Tommy Plunkett is a remarkable Christian musician. The self-taught musician has recorded a CD (with the help of about a dozen contributing friends) and has another one in the works.
Oh and Plunkett and his fellow musicians happen to be inmates at Springville’s St. Clair Correctional Facility.
“I’ve been in the music business about 35 years and everyone always says, ‘You’ve got to hear so-and-so!,’ and usually it’s not so great,” said Joel Bouchillon, chief audio engineer for Hunter Street Baptist Church, Hoover.
“But I was totally blown away (by Plunkett). And I was thinking, ‘How can I get the world to hear it?’ I’ve never been so emotionally touched.”
Bouchillon wasn’t alone in recognizing and admiring his talent. Not only does Plunkett play the guitar, write songs and sing but he also pairs those talents with a love for Christ that shines through his music. He uses his songs to share his testimony: “I was a prisoner long before they locked the doors. I often found myself wondering what I had to live for.”
Glenn Bynum, pastor of Pleasant Mount Baptist Church, Remlap, is a fan of Plunkett, too. Through his involvement with a ministry at the prison, he’s seen Plunkett’s faith grow and watched as he began teaching his fellow inmates music.
“We started talking a year and a half ago or so about the possibility of him recording a CD,” Bynum said.
“While we were getting things straight, Hunter Street started a project. And since they have people there whose expertise is music, they got approval to go in and record.”
So Bouchillon, who owns several recording studios and works with both Christian and country artists, hauled vanloads of equipment into the prison’s chapel and spent two days recording with Plunkett and other inmates.
The result was “Another Captive Free,” a 16-track album that Bynum said is “a mix (of genres) but more country gospel than it is traditional or southern gospel.”
The CD came out in 2009 and is now played on radio stations as far away as Oklahoma.
But Plunkett and his friends are nowhere near the end of their music careers.
“Tommy and I were talking one day after a (discipleship) class, and he said he’s had a burden to do a CD and donate the proceeds to Haiti relief,” Bynum said. “So we’ve been working now to get things approved. The only thing I have to do now is put together the recording group to go in. We need to get everything approved to go ahead and do it but that should happen soon.”
Plunkett already has six or seven songs ready for the new album, and Bynum said they plan to funnel its earnings through the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions to make sure the funds are getting directly to Haiti.
For Bouchillon, Bynum and the other prison ministry volunteers, working with the inmates has truly been a life-changing experience.
“What I’ve gotten from that is if you look at the general mind-set of the general population, people think that when people are incarcerated we need to lock them up and throw the key away,” Bynum said.
“But what’s happened to me over the years, I’ve seen the idea that those men, though they may be incarcerated, there is a sense of hope that they can live a meaningful life there in prison and they can do some meaningful things there even if they can never get out.”
The CD is available to download at www.anothercaptivefree.com.
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