"There are two kinds of people, there's those who like Johnny Cash, and those who will"
-Marty Stuart
Now immortalized in the academy award winning film Walk The Line, At Folsom Prison can pretty literally be taken as the best of the best.
No one else was Johnny Cash, and no one ever could be. And At Folsom Prison is his masterpiece.
Performed in front of the prisoners in Folsom State Prison, this live album resurrected Cash into the forefront of American music where he belonged.
The whole show is a unique experience. From inmates cheering the mentions of death in songs, to Cash finishing his show with a song written by an inmate and given to him the day before.
The set list certainly doesn't shy away from the topic of incarceration. Some ballads are mixed in (and a duet with his soon to be wife) but the message of the album is clearly a commentary on the American prisoner.
Part empathy, part head scratching...but that was Cash at his best. His records would always alternate between murder and love, faith and desperation.
This one was just a hell of a lot more fun.
The peak of this one is, without a doubt, Cocaine Blues. It's even the song they chose to represent the show when they filmed the movie.
But, like Stop Making Sense before it, it's a live album that just needs to be put on and experienced. Which is why I made it my #3 pick in the Desert Island Draft. At Folsom Prison by Johnny Cash
P.S. For my 4th pick (and next blog on the topic) I went a little bit different. Do you think you can tell?
Links:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=4T7sU3A2m18
http://youtube.com/watch?v=ITsvPjbEPtc
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