At Folsom Prison / At San Quentin (Remastered / Expanded) (2CD)

Where to start? The Folsom concert is almost legendary given Folsom Prison Blues. The tension and intimacy captured by this concert is real hooks in the face and heart stuff.

San Quentin is almighty and earth-shattering. The inclusion of the audience asides makes it all the more valid. Sometimes these make me feel the same kind of buzz as early Billy Connolly flirting deliciously with his audiences.

There are some heart-stoppers. Some poor prisoner shouts out "Where's Luther?" and Johnny asks all to cheer the deceased guitarist to tumultuous applause. But the initial performance of San Quentin explodes everything. How many people can say they've made the doomed feel so alive?


Absolutely Essential!   March 27, 2006
 47 out of 47 found this review helpful

These two albums, Johnny Cash "At Folsom Prison" and "At San Quentin" are essential components of any music collection and it's great to have the complete albums together in a 2-disc package.

"At Folsom Prison" is the more raw of the two and "At San Quentin" more polished. Both together are two of the best live albums ever created.

In "Folsom", Johnny Cash is completely relaxed and on form, joking with the inmates between and even during songs, singing angry prison songs ("Cocaine Blues" with its line "I can't forget the day I shot that bad b**tch down!"), humorous faux-love songs ("Flushed From the Bathroom of Your Heart"), old folk songs ("Dark as the Dungeon", "Legend of John Henry's Hammer") plus his own classics ("Folsom Prison Blues", "I Still Miss Someone" and "Jackson" in an absolutely blistering duet with soon-to-be wife June Carter). It's a brilliant album that truly showcases Johnny Cash's talents, his charismatic personality and his connection with this audience of convicted felons.

"At San Quentin" is more polished while at the same time less relaxed than "Folsom". San Quentin itself is a tougher prison with more serious offenders. Johnny Cash and others who were there later said the atmosphere was unusually tense and menacing that day. Guards armed with machine guns were pacing catwalks above the prisoners. Cash had to walk a tightrope of emotions with his audience. Playing the new song "San Quentin", which he plays twice at the request of the crowd ("San Quentin, may you rot and burn in hell..."), sends the prisoners into a frenzy and Cash later noted that all he would have had to do at that point was yell "Break!" and there would have been a riot. But he deftly plays with the mood, bringing it down with several spiritual songs ("He Turned the Water into Wine", "Peace in the Valley"). Standouts on the album are "San Quentin", "Wanted Man" (co-written just days before with Bob Dylan), and of course "A Boy Named Sue", a classic song played here by Cash for the very first time, reading from the lyric sheet and improvising, along with Carl Perkins, the melody and guitar accompaniment.

Just get this set. Two albums that show Johnny Cash at his best, raw and in front of a singularly demanding yet appreciative audience.


Just Get This!   March 26, 2006
 7 out of 9 found this review helpful

This is Johnny Cash in his prime and in his element. If you are an old fan of Johnny Cash, you already have these albums. If you are a new fan, perhaps one of those intrigued by the film "Walk the Line" and inspired to hear more and learn more about the real thing, this CD package would be an excellent introduction.

Johnny Cash "At Folsom Prison" and "At San Quentin" are two of the greatest, and most unusual, live albums ever recorded. How many other artists can you imagine walking into maximum security prisons, plugging in a guitar and being instantly accepted as "one of us" by the inmates? How many artists could garner the respect and rapt attention of such an audience, without bells and whistles, smoke machines, dancing girls etc?

I guarantee you will not be disappointed if you buy this set. A legendary musician, two great live albums, over 2 hours of music at a great price. Just get it.


"This is being recorded - you can't say 'hell' or 'sh...!"   March 21, 2006
 41 out of 42 found this review helpful

On January 13th 1968 Johnny Cash and his roadshow played at Folsom Prison for the fourth time. Although they had been playing at prisons for around a decade, this was the first Johnny Cash concert that his record company had recorded with a view to releasing a live album. Cash had been hassling his record company for six years until they relented and he was vindicated when the single "Folsom Prison Blues" lifted from the LP released that same year was a top ten hit and the album became his best selling record thus far. He had no trouble convincing the suits that he should follow this up with another live prison recording and his San Quentin gig recorded on February 24th 1969 was duly released that year. This went on to sell even more than the Folsom LP - helped, no doubt, by the included hit single "A Boy Named Sue". This all happened eight years before punk rock, so Cash's mainstream success with these records is surprising because this was (is) raw stuff. Personally, I mostly prefer the live versions on these albums rather than the studio recorded versions. They appeal to the ageing punk rocker in me and Cash seems to relish the freedom from the corporate recording machine and it's insistence on adding cheesy backings to his songs. The recording quality on both albums is as good as you can expect and the occasional fluffed lyric and in-between song banter only adds to the live experience. The Folsom set even has a couple of announcements made over the Tannoy letting some inmates know that they have visitors waiting! (Someone's wife had unfortunate timing - imagine: "Honey, you're making me miss an historic gig, here!"). The songs don't cover every aspect of Cash's career up to 1968/69 because he tailored his prison sets to that environment, but there are some great versions of old favourites, some spiritual songs and even some comic stuff.

What you get here is the two expanded CDs from 1999 and 2000 respectively, in their proper jewel cases and both held together in a cardboard slipcase. This is good - both LPs wouldn't fit onto a single CD anyway, but with all the extra tracks that weren't on the original LPs you've got nearly two hours' music at a fantastic price. Each CD has a booklet that includes the original artwork plus extra photos and new liner notes from Steve Earle (Folsom) and Merle Haggard & June Carter Cash (San Quentin) but no lyrics. On Folsom, the songs aren't sequenced in the concert's original order but thankfully the crowd haven't been faded in and out, so you still get the feeling of hearing a live, uninterrupted concert. The San Quentin CD says it's the complete show and the sequencing seems more realistic. Inevitably the two albums get compared with each other - I play Folsom slightly more than San Quentin if only for superior versions of "I Still Miss Someone" and a rattling take on "Jackson" with June Carter's vocals showing an enthusiasm mixed with nerves. Tough crowd - I'm not sure about Cash's motives, playing to these murderers (and worse). There's a mention in the liner notes of giving hope to the hopeless and redemption to the sinners. You may feel that an orphanage would be more deserving of a free concert given by a big country star... but then you wouldn't get the same rowdy reception that electrifies these recordings. Never mind a ring of fire, Cash and his band must have had balls of steel to play to these crowds.

Johnny Cash commanded a lot of respect from the inmates - I can't think of anyone else who could successfully play gigs in maximum security jails during the turbulent late sixties (Elvis? The Rolling Stones?) and look like they mean it. As much as the prisoners respected Cash, you can still feel the tension. When Cash sings "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die" a massive cheer goes up. That'll be their idea of a good time, then. Gulp. The fact that you can hear Cash touch these men with just his voice and guitar on "Send A Picture Of Mother", his voice almost breaking at the end, or get the crowd stomping their blues away for just a few minutes of "San Quentin" makes you realise what a special talent Cash had - the ability to communicate. You don't need to be a country music fan to enjoy this, but if you're looking for an introduction to Johnny Cash I'd say start with the 4CD "The Legend" box set which is a bargain from Amazon. If you want to experience the real deal as fictionalised in the excellent 2006 movie "Walk The Line", then "At Folsom Prison / At San Quentin" is the one for you and at this price (at almost any price) this is a must-have package.


Tracks from both of the classic Johnny Cash prison concerts   February 29, 2004
 7 out of 7 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. This CD presents 25 of the 37 tracks from those two albums and unless you know where one album ends and the next begins you would not think these concerts were recorded three years apart.

Part of the reason these were great albums was 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," "I Still Miss Someone," and a duet of "Jackson" with June Carter Cash. 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.

What remains constant on both of these albums is Cash's ability to feed off of his captive audience. When he plays to these prisoners you do not doubt for a second that he is one of them, a larger than life outlaw, even though the only time he spent behind bars was in a drunk tank. Cash is clearly on the edge as he rips his way through jailhouse ballads like "Starkville City Jail" and "San Quentin" along with old hits like "I Walk the Line." But it is when Cash sings "A Boy Named Sue," a song written by Shel Silverstein, that he shows his absolutely mastery (the rest of us were just shocked by a hit record with a "bleep" on it).

These have both been legendary albums for decades and overall this is a nice collection of the best of both. Everyone will have an omission to complain about (e.g., no "Ring of Fire"?), but then true fans of the Man in Black and his music will already own both of these albums and the remastered versions with the additional tracks at that. But getting this many tracks from both albums on one CD is still both a treat and a tribute, and if you were going to only pick one classic Johnny Cash album to have in your music library, at least this one keeps you from having to flip a coin to choose between "At Folsom Prison" and "At San Quentin" (FYI: the former is just a shade better).