At Folsom Prison / At San Quentin (Remastered / Expanded) (2CD) [Live, Original recording remastered, Extra tracks]

These two albums, Johnny Cash "At Folsom Prison" and "At San Quentin" are essential components of any music collection and it's great to have the complete albums together in a 2-disc package.

"At Folsom Prison" is the more raw of the two and "At San Quentin" more polished. Both together are two of the best live albums ever created.

In "Folsom", Johnny Cash is completely relaxed and on form, joking with the inmates between and even during songs, singing angry prison songs ("Cocaine Blues" with its line "I can't forget the day I shot that bad b**tch down!"), humorous faux-love songs ("Flushed From the Bathroom of Your Heart"), old folk songs ("Dark as the Dungeon", "Legend of John Henry's Hammer") plus his own classics ("Folsom Prison Blues", "I Still Miss Someone" and "Jackson" in an absolutely blistering duet with soon-to-be wife June Carter). It's a brilliant album that truly showcases Johnny Cash's talents, his charismatic personality and his connection with this audience of convicted felons.

"At San Quentin" is more polished while at the same time less relaxed than "Folsom". San Quentin itself is a tougher prison with more serious offenders. Johnny Cash and others who were there later said the atmosphere was unusually tense and menacing that day. Guards armed with machine guns were pacing catwalks above the prisoners. Cash had to walk a tightrope of emotions with his audience. Playing the new song "San Quentin", which he plays twice at the request of the crowd ("San Quentin, may you rot and burn in hell..."), sends the prisoners into a frenzy and Cash later noted that all he would have had to do at that point was yell "Break!" and there would have been a riot. But he deftly plays with the mood, bringing it down with several spiritual songs ("He Turned the Water into Wine", "Peace in the Valley"). Standouts on the album are "San Quentin", "Wanted Man" (co-written just days before with Bob Dylan), and of course "A Boy Named Sue", a classic song played here by Cash for the very first time, reading from the lyric sheet and improvising, along with Carl Perkins, the melody and guitar accompaniment.

Just get this set. Two albums that show Johnny Cash at his best, raw and in front of a singularly demanding yet appreciative audience.

On January 13th 1968 Johnny Cash and his roadshow played at Folsom Prison for the fourth time. Although they had been playing at prisons for around a decade, this was the first Johnny Cash concert that his record company had recorded with a view to releasing a live album. Cash had been hassling his record company for six years until they relented and he was vindicated when the single "Folsom Prison Blues" lifted from the LP released that same year was a top ten hit and the album became his best selling record thus far. He had no trouble convincing the suits that he should follow this up with another live prison recording and his San Quentin gig recorded on February 24th 1969 was duly released that year. This went on to sell even more than the Folsom LP - helped, no doubt, by the included hit single "A Boy Named Sue". This all happened eight years before punk rock, so Cash's mainstream success with these records is surprising because this was (is) raw stuff. Personally, I mostly prefer the live versions on these albums rather than the studio recorded versions. They appeal to the ageing punk rocker in me and Cash seems to relish the freedom from the corporate recording machine and it's insistence on adding cheesy backings to his songs. The recording quality on both albums is as good as you can expect and the occasional fluffed lyric and in-between song banter only adds to the live experience. The Folsom set even has a couple of announcements made over the Tannoy letting some inmates know that they have visitors waiting! (Someone's wife had unfortunate timing - imagine: "Honey, you're making me miss an historic gig, here!"). The songs don't cover every aspect of Cash's career up to 1968/69 because he tailored his prison sets to that environment, but there are some great versions of old favourites, some spiritual songs and even some comic stuff.

What you get here is the two expanded CDs from 1999 and 2000 respectively, in their proper jewel cases and both held together in a cardboard slipcase. This is good - both LPs wouldn't fit onto a single CD anyway, but with all the extra tracks that weren't on the original LPs you've got nearly two hours' music at a fantastic price. Each CD has a booklet that includes the original artwork plus extra photos and new liner notes from Steve Earle (Folsom) and Merle Haggard & June Carter Cash (San Quentin) but no lyrics. On Folsom, the songs aren't sequenced in the concert's original order but thankfully the crowd haven't been faded in and out, so you still get the feeling of hearing a live, uninterrupted concert. The San Quentin CD says it's the complete show and the sequencing seems more realistic. Inevitably the two albums get compared with each other - I play Folsom slightly more than San Quentin if only for superior versions of "I Still Miss Someone" and a rattling take on "Jackson" with June Carter's vocals showing an enthusiasm mixed with nerves. Tough crowd - I'm not sure about Cash's motives, playing to these murderers (and worse). There's a mention in the liner notes of giving hope to the hopeless and redemption to the sinners. You may feel that an orphanage would be more deserving of a free concert given by a big country star... but then you wouldn't get the same rowdy reception that electrifies these recordings. Never mind a ring of fire, Cash and his band must have had balls of steel to play to these crowds.

Johnny Cash commanded a lot of respect from the inmates - I can't think of anyone else who could successfully play gigs in maximum security jails during the turbulent late sixties (Elvis? The Rolling Stones?) and look like they mean it. As much as the prisoners respected Cash, you can still feel the tension. When Cash sings "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die" a massive cheer goes up. That'll be their idea of a good time, then. Gulp. The fact that you can hear Cash touch these men with just his voice and guitar on "Send A Picture Of Mother", his voice almost breaking at the end, or get the crowd stomping their blues away for just a few minutes of "San Quentin" makes you realise what a special talent Cash had - the ability to communicate. You don't need to be a country music fan to enjoy this, but if you're looking for an introduction to Johnny Cash I'd say start with the 4CD "The Legend" box set which is a bargain from Amazon. If you want to experience the real deal as fictionalised in the excellent 2006 movie "Walk The Line", then "At Folsom Prison / At San Quentin" is the one for you and at this price (at almost any price) this is a must-have package.

The recent film Walk The Line tells the story. After years of pill popping and declining sales, a newly clean Johnny Cash plans his comeback. Rather than making a new record with contemporary late 60s influences as his record company wish, Johnny resolutely decides to record a live album at the notorious Folsom Prison with his classic sound. As usual, the artist is right and, aided by Cash's deep resonance with the plight of the inmates, Folsom Prison is a massive, career reviving success. A few months later a second equally successful live album from San Quentin jail is recorded and released. This brilliant package collects together the full concerts of both performances and is enhanced further by extensive liner notes.

A major theme of the songs performed at both concerts is the plight of the blue-collar man who has fallen on to the wrong side of the law, sometimes but not always under circumstances beyond his control. Not surprisingly, the prison audience relate well to such sentiments yet it is Cash's between song banter and the sense that he has been there which strike the biggest artist-audience bond. Only Bruce Springsteen and Christy Moore come close in displaying such genuine empathy with the working man.

Despite the albums being recorded only months apart, there is virtually no track overlap and highlights a plenty. The Folsom Prison LP begins appropriately enough with Folsom Prison Blues with other highpoints including the intense 25 Minutes To Go, Orange Blossom Special and a duet of the brilliant Jackson with Cash's soon to be wife June Carter. There is also welcome humour with the daft Dirty Old Egg Suckin' Dog and increasingly ridiculous metaphors of Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart.

Humour is also very much present on the San Quentin LP which features Johnny's unveiling of A Boy Named Sue, a song which became one of his most famous recordings. Other highlights include the classics Ring Of Fire and I Walk The Line as well as Bob Dylan's Wanted Man and a nice spiritual departure with He Turned The Water Into Wine. The San Quentin set also features a new Cash-penned song about San Quentin prison which the audience like so much that they demand an immediate repeat performance. Being the full concert, the San Quentin LP of course includes both versions...

Given the lavish packaging they deserve, these two seminal LPs are among the very best live albums ever recorded. With classic but simple and disciplined songs and a special rapport with his audience, they show Johnny Cash at his peak, doing what he does best. A blue collar hero indeed.