~music Listening Club 21 - At Folsom Prison
21 weeks and yet another classic record discussion: At Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash!
At Folsom Prison is a live album and 27th overall album by Johnny Cash, released on Columbia Records in May 1968. After his 1955 song "Folsom Prison Blues", Cash had been interested in recording a performance at a prison. His idea was put on hold until 1967, when personnel changes at Columbia Records put Bob Johnston in charge of producing Cash's material. Cash had recently controlled his drug abuse problems, and was looking to turn his career around after several years of limited commercial success. Backed with June Carter, Carl Perkins and the Tennessee Three, Cash performed two shows at Folsom State Prison in California on January 13, 1968. The resulting album consisted of fifteen tracks from the first show and two tracks from the second.
Despite little initial investment by Columbia, the album was a hit in the United States, reaching number one on the country charts and the top 15 of the national album chart. The lead single from the album, a live version of "Folsom Prison Blues", was a top 40 hit, Cash's first since 1964's "Understand Your Man". At Folsom Prison received positive reviews and revitalized Cash's career, becoming the first in a series of live albums recorded at prisons that includes "At San Quentin" (1969), "Pa Osteraker" (1973), and "A Concert Behind Prison Walls" (1976). The album was rereleased with additional tracks in 1999, a three-disc set in 2008, and a five LP box set with bonus rehearsals in 2018 for Record Store Day. It was certified three times Platinum on March 27, 2003 by the Recording Industry Association of America for US sales exceeding three million.
Here's the place to discuss your thoughts on the record, your history with it or the artist, and basically talk about whatever you want to that goes along with At Folsom Prison! Remember that this is intended to be a slow moving thing, feel free to take your time and comment at any point in the week!
If you'd like to stream or buy the album, it can be found on most platforms here.
Don't forget to nominate and vote for next week's obscure record in response to this comment!
I'd actually grown up hearing bits and pieces of this album unknowingly, and began to recognize them from various places the first time I listened to this. I do like the album itself, and I do respect Johnny Cash to one of the highest points I respect an artist, but I don't love the album itself that much or anything. I'll echo what Whom said and say that it probably did hammer in the realization that country music as a whole is not just throwaway trash, which is a feeling I followed a bit too long when I was growing up. One thing I will say is this album has several things that have taken permanent residence in the back of my mind, and they pop up and control my thoughts for a bit whenever I least expect it. One of them is the classic "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die", and others are the opening to Cocaine Blues, the harmonica in Orange Blossom Special, the announcement at the end of The Long Black Veil, the phrase "dirty old egg sucking dog" to name a few.
I think for me and a whole lot of others, this album is what taught me that when an artist actually has charisma and energy, country music can be hilarious, powerful, or just a lot of fun. It's a bit of an obvious thing to say, but if there's anyone who stumbles upon this and just writes off country music as a whole, please give this a shot. It's not that Johnny is the only one who made good stuff like this, but he's definitely your best entry point if you heard Toby Keith and decided everything country was bad.
This was a formative recording for me, and I don't think I'd be as open to different things without it...I may have never escaped straight-up rock music. There was a long time where Johnny Cash was one of my favorite artists, and I still have a lot of love for him, so this has a special place in my heart.
One of those records where listening feels like going back home.
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