At Folsom Prison

This isn't a singles record, this is an album; you put it on to hear the whole thing. The performance itself is tight and structured, just like the venue. The recording is especially atmospheric - the reverb bouncing off the concrete walls, the sounds of doors slamming in the background, and an interruption by a prison announcement. Cash and the band (which includes the brilliant Luther Perkins, and his brother Carl - think Blue Suede Shoes) seem unflappable and completely at ease, belying the actual tension of the gig.

This reissue restores the original recording to its raw, warts-and all-feel, in direct contrast to the sanitized version that I grew up with: four songs have been restored to the set due to increased available length, plus Cash's interaction with the audience and the profanity (tasteful by today's standards) has been re-introduced, revealing the incredibly gritty nature of this record. Plus, the packaging is incredible: the handwritten note from Cash, describing why he felt compelled to make this album, the liner notes, and an appreciation from Steve Earle round out the package to create not merely a reissue, but a full restoration.

If you are hungry for something more substantial than the latest Clapton disc or Zeppelin reissue, you won't regret a minute of this terrific album.


Egg Suckin' Dog   January 10, 2000
Thicksole
242 out of 263 found this review helpful

I am definitely not a country music fan, but Johnny Cash goes way beyond the country music spectrum. With songs about boozin', druggin', and killin', Johnny Cash blows away most rock artists. Nothing proves that more than "Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison". Recorded live in 1968, in front of 2000 inmates, this is a really rockin' concert. Cash relates to the prisoners' lives with songs like "Folsom Prison Blues", "Cocaine Blues", and even some humorous tunes like "Dirty old egg-suckin' dog". The band, including Carl Perkins on Electric guitar, keeps a clanky, driving, two-beat rhythm that makes this more of a rock-a-billy album than a country album. The CD includes photos of the concert and honest, heart-felt linear notes of the show, written by Cash himself in June of 1999.

After reading these memoirs, you start to realize how much of an event this show must have been, not just to the inmates, but to Cash himself, who apparently is no stranger to Folsom Prison himself.

Johnny Cash is Badass, so if your thinking about picking up that new Creed CD, (not that you would be) DON'T! Pick this up instead.


RIP Johnny, this is a classic   September 13, 2003
Trevor Seigler (South Carolina)
39 out of 40 found this review helpful

When I heard Johnny Cash had passed away, I was saddened to know his booming baritone would be silent now. I turned on the radio, hoping to catch some fleeting moments of the Man in Black's life in song. Instead, each and every country station (with one or two exceptions) seemed to be going about "business as usual", with nothing besides a "RIP Johnny" message, no full-fledged celebrations of his music to be found.

So I went out and bought Folsom Prison, as I didn't have any Cash records in my collection. Let me just say: I wish I'd gotten this earlier, it's absolutely fantastic. Being in the South, I couldn't help but grow up with country music, but as I got older the modern stuff began to turn into Garth Brooks-like medeocrity dressed up in loud clothes, and I found more substance in the entire body of rock music (from the Sun Studio days to English punk rock). I never thought I'd like country music...until I realized that the older stuff, like Cash and Waylon and Willie, that was the good stuff. The rebels of country music weren't pre-packaged pretty boys who strutted around singing other people's words with the emotion of a too-good-for-my-pants primadonna. These were men who grew up during the Depression, who sang about the hard times, the heartbreak, the loss, the depravity of life.

So Johnny Cash and his peers keep me from hating country music entirely, and this (as well as the Oh Brother soundtrack) have found a welcome place in my record collection. RIP Johnny, you will be missed. I couldn't have picked a better record to get to honor your memory.


Fantastic Album, One Of The Best Live Recordings Ever!!!   April 8, 2006
N. Sytkowski (Boston)
22 out of 22 found this review helpful

I am not at all a country music fan. I, like many others around my age (20) listen to alternative, rock, rap. Like many who saw the motion picture WALK THE LINE I grew interested in Johnny Cash's performance at Folsom Prison. I was familar with Johnny Cash before the film, members of my family had recordings of Johnny Cash which they played from time to time. I decided to buy AT FOLSOM PRISON, this is not at all a country album. This is a live performance that makes you feel like you are acutally in Folsom Prison when Johnny Cash was performing. Johnny Cash's interaction with the inmates is caught in this recording, as well as an annoucement calling a inmate and doors closing it has the real feel and puts you back in time as if your there.
This albums is one of the best live recordings ever because Johnny Cash's jokes and interactions with inmates and his envolving the audience is so evident that he and the inmates are having a great time. This is not country music, This is rock, some punk (from the lyrics). The beat has a steady slight rock to it. The duet with June Carter Cash in the song JACKSON is great, the slight flirting by Johnny Cash before the song and the small, warm, thankful crack by June shows the great protrayl of Reese Witherspoon and Joaqiun Phoenix in the film.
This is not a album where you listen to one particular track, everything flows great so you can't help but listen to the entire album everytime and the music (unlike some songs and albums today) never gets old.
I stongly recomend this albums for not just country music fans or Johnny Cash fans but fans of the movie WALK THE LINE and music fans in general, Johnny Cash will walk the line forever!!


Johnny Cash's classic album: songs of darkness and rage   September 14, 2003
Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota)
20 out of 20 found this review helpful

Johnny Cash was a legendary figure of American music who often seemed the embodiment of an prophet from the Old Testament (and not one of the happier ones at that). With his passing there is a natural impulse to want to listen to the man and his music, but we really should resist the impulse to take the easy way out and listen to one of the greatest hits collections of The Man in Black (after all, the first Johnny Cash hits album came out forty years ago). Instead you track done one of the superb albums that he put out during his music career. From that perspective "At Folsom Prison" and "At San Quentin" are the two quintessential Johnny Cash albums from what ended up being the "early" part of one of the great careers in American music. Both albums were recorded live in front of eager audiences of prison inmates in the late 1960s and provide ample proof of why Cash was one of the most imposing and influential figures in country music.

Part of the reason this is a great album is because Cash clearly plays to his audience, singing songs about prison, crime and murder, loss and regret, mother and God, and most importantly loneliness. There is no sugarcoating of the harsh realities of prison life in these songs as Cash sings the songs of the gospel of darkness and rage. Cash's singing is truly authentic (you can feel him feeding off of his audience) and the result is compelling cathartic. This is not an album filled with hits although there are certainly several recognizable songs: "Folsom Prison Blues," "Jackson," and "I Still Miss Someone." But it will be the ones you might never have heard before, such as "I Got Stripes," that stand out in your mind after listening to the album. This was already a 5 star album, but this 1999 reissue CD now provides the entire concert, adding three previously unreleased tracks: "Busted," "Joe Bean," and "The Legend of John Henry's Hammer." "At Folsom Prison" is an essential Johnny Cash album and if you own just two Johnny Cash CDs I would pick this one and 1994's "American Recording." They will surely give you the measure of the Man in Black and his music.