At Folsom Prison

Cash had written Folsom Prison Blues in 1953, and in 1968 he played the prison itself. The producer Bob Johnston recorded two shows on 13 January 1968, at 9:40 a.m. and 12:40 p.m., with engineers Bob Breault and Bill Britain. Cash and June Carter had checked into a Sacramento motel on 10 January, the band rehearsed for two days, and Governor Ronald Reagan visited rehearsals on 12 January. The first show is generally held to be the better one. Only Give My Love to Rose and I Got Stripes came from the second. The opening acts were Carl Perkins and the Statler Brothers, and the set ended with Greystone Chapel, written by the inmate Glen Sherley.

Reception

It reached number one on the country chart and number 13 on the Billboard 200, and the Recording Industry Association of America later certified it triple Platinum. In the UK and Norway it peaked at number seven. Stephen Thomas Erlewine called it the ideal blend of mythmaking and gritty reality, and Rolling Stone's Christian Hoard, reviewing a reissue in 2008, said it makes for an excellent historical document. A Legacy Edition with both full sets and a DVD documentary came out on 14 October 2008, and Ron Hart of PopMatters gave it ten out of ten, calling the show the most important day in Cash's career. Stephen M. Deusner of Pitchfork, reviewing the Legacy Edition in 2008, noted that the emcee Hugh Cherry had rehearsed the audience to respond only after Cash said his introduction, and that the second show's rough performances of Greystone Chapel, which Cash ran through twice with June Carter and the Statler Brothers, might surpass his first-show take.