And as I was speaking of Guardian music blogs, last week Graeme Thompson blogged that At Folsom Prison was one of the few live albums where "the circumstances of the recording are truly extraordinary". Someone spotted an opportunity for iconography all right. I think I'm right in saying that JC spent only one night detained in prison himself, and that was for some minor traffic or drinking misdemeanour.
I got this CD, the "American Milestones" edition if you please, for a fiver from Fopp. Colombia have since released a Legacy Edition, and you can hear it all on We7 or Spotify. This has all the announcements from the MC, Hugh Cherry, including his instruction to the cons that they should not applaud when John Cash takes the stage, but hold their rapture until he announces "Hello, I'm Johnny Cash" and then let rip. So peek behind the curtain and see how even those extraordinary circumstances are at least partly contrived.
You also get the support sets from Carl Perkins and The Statler Brothers. The latter have a fantastic song How Great Thou Art. Check it out!
MusicBrainz entry for this album
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