Customer Reviews
Glorious - By: The Mancunian Candidate, 06 Oct 2008 
Johnny Cash was born in Arkansas in 1942. Formerly in the United States Air Force, Cash made his name in the vibrant American country scene of the 1950's, but it would be wrong to pigeon hole the man, if anything I would try to stick him between Rock N Roll, Folk & maybe half way towards Tennessee, but certainly Cash's sound was very much of his own with a voice unmistakably his.
Hit after hit would be very prominent throughout his output in the 1950s & early sixties; however by 1963 his excesses caught up with his, & his career was most definitely on the wane, a brief come back in 1964 did nothing to halt this slide.
After a turbulent few years, Cash, thanks to new wife June Carter had managed to compose himself & gathered some direction & in 1968 recorded one of the greatest live albums ever made.
Live at Folsom Prison funnily enough was an album recorded in Folsom Prison, a prison situated in California. You can imagine the looks on the faces of those Record Company Executives at Columbia when he pitched the idea for this album. In essence what this album was is Johnny Cash playing golden oldies which now seemed awfully dated, to an audience of thieves, rapists & murderers, as well as these issues, Cash by this point was a forgotten artist & very much irrelevant, but someone at CBS must have owed him a favour or something.
The first time you play At Folsom Prison you're met with the now iconic greeting of "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash", followed by a huge roar, at this point you think..... well I certainly thought anyway, "oh my", & as the first notes of Folsom Prison play out it suddenly dawns on you that what you are listening to here is simply one of the most definitive moments in musical history.
18 tracks follow, 18 tracks about love & loss, imprisonment & escape, poverty & death, & for alll their faults in life, the imprisoned at Folsom Prison reallly are what makes this album what it is. The energy from the crowd which you can literallly feel oozing from the record is soaked up by Cash & his band & is relayed perfectly to the listener at home
There are many highlights on this record, too many in fact, ones that stick out for me as I write this are 25 Minutes to Go, a song about a man waiting to hang, the story telling & imagery created by Cash for this song reallly is quite something. There are also some undoubtedly foot tappy numbers too, Cocaine Blues is a glorious song with some memorable lines (see what I did there), as well as Orange Blossom Special which is also a cracking song which does get repeated quite often on the old radio show.
This album will forever make Johnny Cash a legend & ensured that he was not like the typical 1950's artist who only your Gran fondly remembers. It spawned a follow up live album, At San Quentin, which like Folsom Prison had some landmark moments which will live on long after Cash's death in 2003. In short, glorious, glorious, glorious.
Extra Cash - By: S J Buck, 31 Aug 2007 This magical recording of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison is a warts & alll live recording in front of several hundred plus prisoners in January 1968. The atmosphere is electric, with frequent shouts & spontaneous applause & whistles from the crowd. Even some of the official prison announcements are left in the recordings.
Highlights are many as Cash has chosen his set carefully with the audience in mind. So '25 minutes to go' (a reference to the electric chair), 'Cocaine Blues' & his own 'Fulsom Prison Blues' are alll brilliant performances.
I first heard Johnny Cash through his later American recordings. These are great albums but on the last three or four his voice getting weaker after each album. The difference in his voice here is pretty startling & he puts it to great use.
The CD is very well packaged with interesting sleeve notes by Cash, written in 1999 & also by Steve Earle. There are also plenty of stills from the show itself.
A True Legend At His Best - By: C. M. Gelderd, 20 May 2006 I've never been into Johnny Cash, it was the movie Walk The Line that got me interested in this man, this myth, this legend. So far I have a number of his works now on CD but this is by far the BEST album I have of his, & my collection!
Never has a live recording been so full of passion, raw music & attitude from both the artist, the band & the audience.
Cash will hold you with his electric renditions of songs with the band & his wife-to-be sounding fine, June Carter. PLEASE buy this album for a taste of true rock & roll, true country & true music at it's best with Johnny Cash. You will feel like you're there with the man. You WILL laugh, smile, tap your feet & feel strong emotion from alll songs. Priceless.
"You can't say hell or s*!* or anything like that!" - By: Mr. Jd Ware, 03 Feb 2006 The atmosphere of this live concert from Folsom Prison is electric. The inmate crowd are full of life, energy & buzz.
Generallly, it is annoying when songs get interrupted, but here, where nearly every otehr song has an interruption of some sort, they are welcome. Cash's interaction with the crowd, his responses to their shouts mid-song, & humourous remarks are reallly what make this album great.
There are even interruptions from the prison tannoy system, barking out prisoner numbers & telling them to go to reception. This gives it a stark reality.
Fortunately, you also get some of the best Johnny Cash songs as well! It would obviously start with Folsom Prison Blues, but others like 25 minutes to go, cocaine blues, & Orange Blossom Special are incredibly good. Recorded in a prison seem to give Cash's songs more meaning.
It's also great to have June Carter pop in for a couple of songs, including Jackson, & it's great to hear her voice when she arrives.
Greystone Chapel is the last song on this album, & this performance was the first time it had ever been sung by Cash for a recording...history in the making!
Not only is this the best Johnny Cash album ever, it is one of the best albums ever created. Fun, meaningful, sad, exciting, buzzing, this is what a live album is alll about.
Country music - By: Eric Alan Holt, 15 Nov 2005 Damn near every reviewer seems to feel the need to mention that they are not fans of country music. Friends, you won't hear much genuine American country music coming out of Nashville, with occasional exceptions such as this album. Although different styles can be found, there is a distinct spirit that can be detected, as on this album. But you have to look.
