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List Price: $15.95 | | Publisher: Da Capo Press
Salesrank: 74404
Released: August 16, 2005 |
| Our Price: $5.84 |
| Used Price: $1.95 |
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| Media: Paperback |
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Editorial Review:
On January 13, 1968, Johnny Cash (1932-2003) took the stage at Folsom Prison in Folsom, California. The concert and the live album, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison, propelled him to worldwide superstardom. He reached new audiences, ignited tremendous growth in the country music industry, and connected with fans in a way no other artist has before or since.Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison is a riveting account of that day, what led to it, and what came after. Scrupulously researched, rich with the author's unprecedented access to Folsom Prison's and Columbia Records' archives, illustrated with more than 100 photos, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison shows how Johnny Cash forever became a champion of the downtrodden, as well as one of the more enduring forces in American music.
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison: The Making of a Masterpiece Reviews:
"You wonder why I always dress in black." 
2008-11-27 - "Folsom Prison Blues" is arguably the greatest live album ever made and this book does an excellent job of showing haw this album came about and why it was so important in the the career of Johnny Cash and Country Music.
Nobody had any idea at the time how important this concert and its recording would be when it was conceived ,performed and recorded.Particularly those in the establishment,who had no idea at the time,what lay in store for Cash.In fact,most felt that his future was dim at best.Even Johnny himself,couldn't have had any idea of the future career that was in store for him.He persevered in doing this concert for no other reason than a personal desire to do something for his fellow travellers on this hard road of life.
Yes, it was the fans,prisoners and the ordinary people who faced and lived through the trials of life that Cash wrote and sang about ;that saw the greatness and sinceriety that came through Cash's music,and it was they that made him the legend that he came to be and deserved.
Through his long and often troubled life;Cash always managed to rise to the occassion and give us his music that was so poignent.
He had that great gift of being able to see and feel parts of life,that we all know about,but feel there is little one can do about it.What Cash did so well was to show us that there was always hope. On page 160 we see a picture of Johnny watching June hug Glen Sherley when he arrived in Nashville after being released from prison.You will look for a long time before you will ever see the happiness that Johnny showed for this man who had finally found a good turn in his life.
We ware all better for having had Johnny Cash to have seen and bring his music to us and it is likely that we would all have been poorer for it ;if Cash had never done that concert on January 13,1968 in Folsum Prison.
Thanks to Michael Streissguth for telling us how it all came about.
"Till things are brighter,I'm the Man in Black."
Hello.............I'm Johnny Cash
2007-05-13 - Hello.......I'm Johnny Cash...the famous words that opened his acts on almost all of his shows. The making of Johnny Cash at Folsom prison is really great reading, I would really recommend this book to everybody, even if you are not a Cash fan
Prison drama . . . 
2007-03-27 - For Johnny Cash fans, this book tells the back-story for the making of his Folsom Prison album in 1968, complete with a large selection of photos taken during rehearsals and performance. Cash, Carl Perkins, and the Statler Brothers made up the entire program that day (there were two performances), along with June Carter. An unusual recording for any time in the history of music, "Folsom Prison" came about almost entirely through the persistent efforts of Cash and his producer Bob Johnston, who fought Columbia Records every step of the way to make the project happen.
Author Streissguth's book is written in Rolling Stone style prose, with enthusiasm for the music and the performer and a degree of high drama. His argument is that the album not only helped Cash back onto the charts, after a long fallow period, but made of him a legend. The year being 1968 and the spirit of the times revolutionary, his drawing attention to the men in American prisons converged with the growth of social protest against any form of oppression and the recurrent American fascination with the outlaw.
Altogether, the book is long on personality and short on the music itself. We learn the history of Cash's "Folsom Prison Blues," largely stolen from another songwriter, and "Greystone Chapel," written by a current Folsom inmate, and we are told of how the characteristic style of his back-up musicians evolved in the early years. But beyond this there is little exploration of the songs that make up the album and how they were performed, and very little is disclosed about the creative decisions that went into post-production, though it is revealed that the audience response to "I shot a man in Reno" was added after the fact. A fine companion piece for the film "Walk the Line," the book is definitely for fans, a time capsule for a moment of music history in the late 1960s.
Johhny Cas 
2007-01-13 - Johnny Cash: at Folsom Prison the Making of a Masterpiece
BY: Michael Stressguth
On January 13, 1968, Johnny R. Cash stepped on stage at Folsom Prison, California to do a concert that was going to be recorded by Columbia Records. The album Johnny Cash: At Folsom Prison not only became one of the best selling live albums ever, it would launch Cash into superstardom for life. The concert was great because it was meant just for prisoners and Cash sang songs that cheered the prisoners up and he had songs the prisoners could relate to like "Folsom Prison Blues", "Busted", "I Still Miss Someone", "25 Minutes to go", and "Cocaine Blues". Before Johnny Cash, no one ever did a performance at a maximum security prison.
Cash's struggle that led him to do this concert was a difficult struggle. Johnny Cash was a serious Drug addict who had to quit in order to continue his dream and get the woman he loved (June Carter). It reminds me of the struggle that Ms. Dubose faced in To Kill A Mockingbird. Ms Dubose was a former Morphine addict who also, struggled quitting and coming back off quitting. I liked this book because not only am I huge Johnny Cash fan, but it was just a good read. I didn't like the book because it took to long to get to Johnny Cash's performance. If you wanted to read the book just for Cash, You really don't care about Bob Dylan and other people (unless you are interested in it). But, Overall it was a good book.
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison:The Book
2006-11-04 - Overall a very good book on the legend plus June Carter, Carl Perkins and the rest of Johnnys' band making their famous concert recording at Folsom in 1968. Many, many great pictures that you probably won't find anywhere else!!
