Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison LP

TAS Super LP List! Special Merit: Informal

Rolling Stone 500 Greatest Albums of All Time - Rated 164/500!

The show itself is a classic! Johnny (an ex-con himself) and his top notch band, featuring Carl Perkins on guitar, have the 2,000 prisoners in the hall eating out of the palms of their hands as they storm through a set comprising of prison songs, Cash originals, and covers such as Lefty Frizzell's "Long Black Veil" to the obvious delight of the audience, the chilling lyrics to a lot of the songs offset by Cash's dark sense of humor.

You can just imagine how the prisoners must have felt as they heard songs about train journeys to far away places, and if that wasn't bad enough, the rise in temperature is tangible as June Carter joins her future husband for a rendition of "Jackson". The only thing stopping the inmates from thinking that they had died and gone to heaven is the constant announcements on the prison tannoy system (talk about being brought back down to earth with a bump). This fabulous show ends fittingly with a song written by Glen Sherley, an inmate doing time at Folsom prison.

American roots music doesn't get any better than this!

Dressed in his trademark black on January 13th, 1968, he paradoxically celebrated prison and outlaw life while creating a damning portrait of the prison experience that pricked the era's concern for society's outcasts.