Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison

Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison
Recorded live on January 13, 1968
Released on Columbia Records
by Live Music Head  

The first thing I think of is Jackson,

the song about love;

a love hotter than a pepper sprout!

I looooooove hearing June Carter givin’ 
the ol’ whatfor to Johnny

in that sassy, gutsy growl of hers.

Yee-fucking-haw!

Reminds me of when I saw the two of ‘em perform live

on the revolving stage of Toronto’s Ontario Place Forum

back in the nineties.

June kicked off her shoes,

one of which sailed directly into the audience, ha!

Or was it both?

But on a serious note,

what comes to mind when I think of this great record is

the story behind the song Greystone Chapel.

One of Folsom’s inmates at the time,

Glen Sherley,

who was serving time for armed robbery,

also wrote country and western songs.

And Sherley wrote the one,

the last track on this album,

named after the chapel he would sometimes visit

on the Folsom Prison property.

And the recording he made of it

found its way into the hands of Johnny Cash,

by way of the Folsom Prison minister.

Johnny took an immediate liking to the song

and rehearsed it with his band.

If you haven’t already seen 

the 2008 Bestor Cram documentary

also called At Folsom Prison,

I highly recommend it.

Highly!

For not only does it talk about Sherley

who was sitting in the front row at the prison concert

when Johnny surprised him by playing the song

and calling attention to him as the songwriter,

but the doc goes into great detail about 

the relationship that developed

between Sherley and Cash,

after Johnny actively helped get Glen released from jail.

The doc actually shows Johnny at the prison gate

when Glen walked out a free man.

Now I’m a huge fan of Johnny Cash,

and the fact he cared enough about humanity 

to play music for convicts

inside a maximum security prison,

not to mention help one of ‘em get released

and on the road to a better life,

endears him to me all the more.

Sherley's life as a free man unfortunately 

did not bring enough happiness,

but he did try,

and he showed only the deepest of gratitude to Cash.

According to Wikipedia,

Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison was certified

a triple platinum album by 

the Recording Industry Association of America.

It’s also an album ranked number 88 

on Rolling Stone Magazine's list

of 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time.

And it was added by the Library of Congress

to the National Recording Registry in 2003.

In fact, Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison

has been acknowledged by numerous sources

as one of the greatest recordings of all time. 


Johnny and June Carter Cash sing Jackson....

The official Johnny Cash website...
http://www.johnnycash.com/