Talbot shares conversion story with prisoners

Published: August 22, 2009

By Patricia May
Fayetteville Correspondent

Arkansas Catholic file / Susan Thielemier

John Michael Talbot performs in February 2008 at St. Paul Church in Pocahontas at the end of his "The Living Water 50th Recording Tour."

Arkansas Catholic file / Susan Thielemier

John Michael Talbot performs in February 2008 at St. Paul Church in Pocahontas at the end of his "The Living Water 50th Recording Tour."

FAYETTEVILLE -- The gray-bearded monk in a floor-length habit would seem, at first glance, to have little in common with the inmates of the Northwest Arkansas Community Correction Center.

But he dropped a few names of friends and acquaintances from his past -- Janis Joplin, Eric Clapton, the Eagles, Earl Scruggs -- and talked quietly about his own religious conversion, and John Michael Talbot clearly struck a chord beyond his acoustic guitar with many of the five dozen women packed into the audience.

Talbot, founder of the Brothers and Sisters of Charity at Little Portion Hermitage near Eureka Springs, performed July 30 for the women of the correction center as part of the regular weekly prison ministry led by Michael Huber with other volunteers from St. Joseph Church in Fayetteville.

Asked how Huber persuaded him to perform at the prison, Talbot responded simply, "He asked."

Huber, a police officer and former Marine, began the ministry a few months ago, and he and his loyal volunteers visit weekly to pray and talk with interested inmates, and to assure them someone outside the prison walls cares. The inmates are women, most of them nonviolent offenders from around the state. A dozen or so attend the weekly prayer sessions, but Talbot's performance drew a much larger crowd.

Sitting at a microphone just inches from the first row, Talbot opened by talking about Little Portion Hermitage, a public association of the faithful where celibate men and wo men, single people and married people live.

Talbot's own story is familiar to many, but he played this night for a new audience. They seemed impressed as he talked about his days as part of the Mason Profitt band, a pioneer in folk rock music that performed with some of the biggest rock stars ever. But the room fell silent as he told of feeling empty and how many of those artists he knew on a first-name basis seemed unhappy.

The room seemed especially struck as he talked of Janis Joplin, whose name evoked a round of "ahs" when Talbot talked of performing and "hanging out" with her. "A sweet lady," he said, but an unhappy woman with a reputation for "sleeping with any guy that was capable."

He didn't mention her early death at age 27 of a heroin overdose, but it seemed unnecessary. Joplin lived and then died in 1970, probably before most of the women at the correction center were even born, yet they clearly knew her story.

Talbot talked about his own search for something beyond the emptiness of celebrity and how he found a home in the Catholic Church.

"Not everyone is called to be Catholic," he said, but "That's where God led me."

"I loved the radical nature of people like Francis [of Assisi] and the other saints. You could get radical and the Church would support you -- if you did it with humility."

His quiet music included a prayer to St. Francis (of Assisi), and within a short time, one young woman was sobbing softly in her seat, her neighbor patting her reassuringly on the back. Prison chaplain Tom Browder handed her a roll of bathroom tissue and several of her neighbors took lengths for themselves to dry tears.

At 8 p.m., a guard came in and whispered to Talbot. "They need a count," he said.

On cue, every resident immediately stood and they started counting off. The official count: 63.

The residents must obey all facility rules, which include keeping their hair above the collar and wearing canary-yellow uniforms -- a perfect reason for audience participation on this evening.

"You guys have got the right outfits on. Would you be my backup choir?" Talbot asked as he sang a piece he called "Mary's song." He explained why Mary is important to Catholics and said Protestants are re-discovering Mary's role as the mother of Jesus as a "symbol of what we all can be."

He continued, "Mary teaches us dare to believe it. Dare to believe it's possible."

When one of the women thanked Talbot for coming, he turned the thanks around. "Bless your heart. Thank you. It's been my privilege."

As a younger man, he took for granted conversions in his audiences, Talbot said. "I'm a music minister. That's what I do."

But, "I don't take it for granted any more. ... I don't take you for granted."