At Folsom Prison is a live album recorded by Johnny Cash at Folsom State Prison in Represa, California, on January 13, 1968, and released by Columbia Records in May of that year. Produced by Bob Johnston, the album captured two performances in a single day, with Cash accompanied by June Carter Cash, Carl Perkins, the Tennessee Three, and the Statler Brothers. The record's sonic rawness — the crowd's roar, the acoustic immediacy of a performance in a prison gymnasium — gave it a quality that Cash's studio recordings of the period could not replicate.
The album arrived at a pivotal moment in Cash's career, following a period of personal struggle with addiction that had narrowed his commercial visibility. Columbia had resisted the concept of a prison recording, but Cash — who had performed at prisons since 1957 and had a deep identification with incarcerated audiences — pushed it through. The set list drew on his most powerful material: "Folsom Prison Blues," "Dark as the Dungeon," "Green, Green Grass of Home," and "I Got Stripes," delivered to an audience whose response gave each song a charge that conventional concert recordings rarely achieved.
At Folsom Prison reached number one on the Billboard country albums chart and crossed into the pop market with unusual strength, eventually selling millions of copies and remaining in print continuously since its release. The album is widely credited with revitalizing Cash's career and demonstrating that honest, unpolished engagement with an audience could produce commercial results at least equal to studio production. It became a template for subsequent prison recordings and a touchstone for any artist seeking to strip their music to its essential elements.
Tracklist
- 1 Folsom Prison Blues Source Recording 2:35
- 2 Dark as the Dungeon 2:45
- 3 I Still Miss Someone alt version 3:37
- 4 Cocaine Blues 2:47
- 5 25 Minutes to Go 3:12
- 6 Orange Blossom Special alt version 2:56
- 7 The Long Black Veil alt version 3:02
- 8 Send a Picture of Mother 2:24
- 9 The Wall 1:36
- 10 Dirty Old Egg-Sucking Dog 1:30
- 11 Flushed from the Bathroom of Your Heart 2:15
- 12 Jackson alt version 3:42
- 13 Give My Love to Rose 2:40
- 14 I Got Stripes 1:48
- 15 Green, Green Grass of Home 2:30
- 16 Greystone Chapel 6:07