Folsom Prison looms large in Johnny Cash's legacy, providing the setting for perhaps his definitive song and the location for his definitive album, At Folsom Prison. The ideal blend of mythmaking and gritty reality, At Folsom Prison is the moment when Cash turned into the towering Man in Black, a haunted troubadour singing songs of crime, conflicted conscience, and jail. Surely, this dark outlaw stance wasn't a contrivance but it was an exaggeration, with Cash creating this image by tailoring his set list to his audience of prisoners, filling up the set with tales of murder and imprisonment -- a Read more on Last.fm.
Someone once said if God had an audible voice, it would be Cash’s. If you said that to him, he’d of shrugged and probably said, “who me?”. Johnny was a different kind of cat. He sang with the damned, not to them. He modestly humbled himself, admitting to being no better than any man, and, in essence, became the archetype for a rebel generation of young men fed up with hypocrasy, the government and the treatment of the downtrodden. He also helped fuel the idea that Christians weren’t bound to a bunch of rules.
Folsom Prison is Cash’s greatest moment, his deep wail as haunting and full of grit as usual. He sings to the prisoners like they’re his closest friends, pitying them when others judge. It’s a live album from hell, literally. The setlist is a powerful combination of the sacred and the profane. He kills his wife in “Cocaine Blues” and comes to Jesus in “Graystone Chapel”. He laments his own execution in 25 Minutes To Go”.
If you want a glimpse into the heart of darkness, salted with a little light….this is your ticket.