At Folsom Prison

Today we are at Folsom Prison, not literally, literally it’s Coleshill, but as far as my loosely alphabeticised CD collection goes, the next album along is another Johnny Cash album, perhaps his most well known, At Folsom Prison.
At Folsom Prison is a better record of Cash’s prison gigs, the San Quentin album although excellent is a little more polished than the Folsom album and this 1999 reissue although not my favourite album of Johnny’s or my favourite live album of Johnny’s you can certainly see it’s worth and importance and as far as the set list is concerned, it’s a strong one that isn’t just about the hits.
Joe Bean reappears here, as does The Wall, but I don’t think he could do a prison concert without doing those, similarly Long Black Veil and Folsom Prison Blues.
If anything though away from those songs of murder, the mood is very much light, June Carter isn’t he wife at this point, at that was 2 months away, and Johnny is pretty much drug free, and that new found feeling is shown in the lightness of the songs, be it Cocaine Blues, or Dirty Old Egg-Suckin' Dog or Flushed from the Bathroom of Your Heart. Johnny still gives us I Still Miss Someone and Orange Blossom Special, but he wants to keep the mood light and that is what pervades this album.
All in all its difficult for me to write anything about this album that you wont already know, it’s a classic, a true great, the songs, the performance, the venue and therefore an unsurprising 10 out of 10.



Cocaine Blues by Johnny Cash