Johnny Cash - At Folsom Prison [1999 Expanded Edition] (CD)

Buy This Even If You Don't Like Country Music

By Rex  Oct 16, 2006

Pros: You have no other music like this in your collection.

Cons: It's a live performance in a prison. Love it or hate it.

I would recommend this CD to anyone. Yes, Johnny Cash is a Country musician, but this 1968 CD is exceptional by any measure. If you can close your eyes and put yourself there, you will get something out of this CD. He's playing live to 2000 inma...tes at one of California's toughest prisons. The CD is uncensored, and includes various prison sounds, including closing doors and raspy PA system announcements, and Johnny Cash's exchanges with the prisoners and complaints about the water. The musical selections are varied. The CD starts with his well known "Folsom Prison Blues", goes to humorous ("25 Minutes to Go," a little ditty about the last 25 minutes a prisoner spends before being hanged), and ends up on a gospel-ish note ("Greystone Chapel"). I know online purchase is the way to buy music these days, but if you buy the American Milestones version of the CD, you'll get all kinds of photos and notes that bring depth and grit to the music. Read more Less