Prison choir makes CD with help of Indigo Girl

ATLANTA — When she is singing, everything goes away for Sally Windhorn. The barred windows and razor wire are gone. The football field-size compound of maximum-security Metro State Prison, where she’s spent the last three years, could be big as the sky.

“No one is around. I don’t see anything when I’m singing,” she said.

Windhorn, nearing the end of her sentence for theft, and 31 other singers in Chaplain Susan Bishop’s choir, have been busting out a lot lately, with gospel tunes to soothe the soul or send the spirit flying.

Thanks to Indigo Girl Emily Saliers, the women are sharing their musical freedom on a new CD, “Voices of Hope.”

Grammy winner Saliers sings a duet with Windhorn and adds her voice to other cuts on the CD. “This has been one of the most rewarding and thrilling projects I’ve been involved in,” Saliers said.

She provided financial backing and helped Bishop develop the project. Bishop was a divinity student of her father, Don Saliers, at Emory University and reached out to Emily Saliers with the CD idea.

Bishop has spent more than 25 years as a prison chaplain. She has always loved directing choirs and is known for demanding excellence.

Working in a choir provides discipline, learning, teamwork and study. And it helps the singers spiritually as well.

“The music is alive. It can create transcendent moments ... transport you out of the ordinary circumstances of your life,” she said.

“Voices of Hope” includes classical songs, such as “Joyful, Joyful”; traditional gospel such as “King Jesus Will Roll All Burdens Away”; and contemporary hymns, such as “Perfect Praise.”

Proceeds from the sale of the CD will help pay for a program that brings children to visit their mothers at the prison. CDs can be purchased by going to www.cccgeorgia.org and clicking on the “Voices of Hope” request.