I have to say, I have come to realize this is one of my favorite albums of TIME tied with Houston Marchman's - Naked The Best of Houston Marchman. Both are soooo good and I can listen to their voices over and over again and never get tired. Houston Marchman is special in that his music is filled with soul, passion, and solid lyrics. He truley has THE best singing vioce I have ever heard in my entire life. You should check out the cd if you enjoy j CASH. Both have the best songs EVER!

I haven't heard anything like this since Ashlee Simpson was on Saturday Night Live. Indeed, I suspect this guy lyp synced at concerts. In fact, someone else sang for him in the studio and he pretended to sing on stage. His music is not true to the great rock and roll tradition handed down to us from Chuck Berry and his contemporaries. Anyone who already has this should throw it on the floor and stomp on it.

My favorite is not at all country, but this is some of my favorite music. The spirit of a live Johhny Cash show in Folsom Prison is deffinetely felt through the music. If you want real country music, buy.

I bought this CD for my 86 year old Mother, who lives with me. She loves Johnny Cash's singing. I also like listening to this CD. I was brought up on this kind of music.

Great show by the man in black. At times he plays it up a little bit much with the inmates, but overall one great performance after another.

I've never been big on country music, so I was skeptical about this. All doubts had disappeared by track 4 or 5.

What a great album! The music holds up on its own, and while its technically simplistic and formulaic (the guitars are all palm-muted cross picking with a IV-I-IV-I bass line) there's a passion and energy to it that somehow rings true. Johnny also has a fantastic speaking voice, and his "singing" is more of a "melodic spoken word" that was especially effective.

On its own, I'd probably give this album 4 stars, but what pushes it into 5-star classic territory is the setting: live at Folsum Prison. It's certainly a surreal listening experience, hearing all those hardened cons cheering at the "wrong" moments and the warden making announcements between songs. Johnny has a great rapport with the audience, and the set list--all about jail, murder, etc.--clearly spoke to their hearts. It's hard not to get caught up in their enthusiasm.

If you own only one country album, this is the one to have.

My oldest memories of Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison (1968) are as a kid, watching my dad and his buddies standing around our '65 Ford Galaxie 500 (390 cu.in./4 bbl.) talking shop, drinking Budweiser in cans, and listening to At Folsom Prison on the car's 8-track tape player. Those guys didn't really care much about The Beatles, The Stones, Woodstock, or Haight-Ashbury. They made an honest living, provided for their families, looked out for their neighbors, and LOVED Johnny Cash. I still think about those days and those hard working men when I listen to this album today. Most of those guys, including the legend who was providing the soundtrack, are dead now. The memories and the music still remain.

At Folsom Prison is a great way to listen to Johnny Cash. He's in his element, right at home with this crowd, and he gives them the best he's got.

His soon-to-be bride, June Carter (they were married a few months after this concert) makes an appearance to sing a duet with Johnny on their hit single, Jackson.

Cash's long-time guitarist, Luther Perkins is in the band, and his brother Carl Perkins (Blue Suede Shoes) plays guitar on the album, too. And the famous Statler Brothers provide the backing vocals.

The album's opener, Folsom Prison Blues, is obviously a popular song with California's Folsom Prison inmates, and the line, "I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die" gets an enthusiastic response. The album features several prison songs, such as Cocaine Blues, I Got Stripes, The Wall, and 25 Minutes To Go. Good choices for this appreciative audience, and you can feel the connection Johnny makes with them through his music.

Dark As A Dungeon, I Still Miss Someone, and Lefty Frizell's haunting Long Black Veil slow things down and create a somber and mournful mood.

There are moments of fun and celebration with Orange Blossom Special, Dirty Old Egg Suckin' Dog, and Flushed From The Bathroom Of Your Heart.

Johnny Cash is in top form on At Folsom Prison, and he tears through these songs with zeal and spirit. He's in a great mood, too, as he cracks a few jokes here and there.

Appropriately, Johnny ends the show with Greystone Chapel, a song written by Glen Sherley, a Folsom Prison inmate doing life for armed robbery, and in the audience that night.

There's a Greystone chapel here at Folsom
A house of worship in this den of sin
You wouldn't think God had a place at Folsom
But He's saved the soul of many lost men

Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison is a great album, a real classic from an American legend. On January 13, 1968, that legend gave the inmates at Folsom State Prison a show they would never forget.

This magical recording of Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison is a warts and all live recording in front of several hundred plus prisoners in January 1968. The atmosphere is electric, with frequent shouts and spontaneous applause and whistles from the crowd. Even some of the official prison announcements are left in the recordings.

Highlights are many as Cash has chosen his set carefully with the audience in mind. So '25 minutes to go' (a reference to the electric chair), 'Cocaine Blues' and his own 'Fulsom Prison Blues' are all brilliant performances.

I first heard Johnny Cash through his later American recordings. These are great albums but on the last three or four his voice getting weaker after each album. The difference in his voice here is pretty startling and he puts it to great use.

The CD is very well packaged with interesting sleeve notes by Cash, written in 1999 and also by Steve Earle. There are also plenty of stills from the show itself.

Johnny Cash's music has experienced a resurgence of sorts since the success of the biopic about his early music career. This is the album that made that film possible. Johnny Cash emerged from the mishmash of rockabilly acts---with its upright bass and rhythm guitar plinking out various 4/4 measures---to something real. The only reason this album isn't marked among the classic rock of the 60s has more to do with elitism and snobbery than music. Cash's soul here is reminiscent of his contemporary Ray Charles (ironically also benefiting from a resurgence via Hollywood). Neither figure fit neatly within the studio-produced need for compartmentalization; therefore, becoming marginalized not by a lack of talent but rather by a surplus of it.

This album is a must for any serious student of the musical legacy of the 60s.

This album has a different feel from most live recordings. Not only because of it's obvious convict crowd, but there's just a vibe that is hard to put into words. If you don't know Cash's material, you'll have a blast as each song unfolds and you get the prison relevance. If you DO know his material, you will appreciate the setlist and the variations he throws in.

The album flows well and the sound is excellent. I think it's great that in between songs you can hear inmates being paged for visitation, and Johnny is as lively as ever, talking with the crowd and even playing a song penned by someone locked up there in Folsom Prison.

The movie centered a lot around this concert, it was a cool thing to add depth and feel, and listening to the album can be a trip in itself.

Recorded in 1968 before a real-life audience of rowdy convicts, At Folsom Prison is one the rawest, meanest, grittiest, and downright greatest country music albums of all time. Johnny's cruel, rugged barritone is on full display here, and he tears into these songs with booze-soaked charisma and ample wit, goading on his band (which, by the way, is awesome and features Carl and Luther Perkins on guitar, and the rumbling drums of W.S. Holland) and driving the audience into an absolute frenzy.

In this kind of atmosphere, the songs really have no choice but to rule: "Folsom Prison Blues" comes ripping out of the starting gates with a blast of fleet-footed guitars and the electric arc of Cash's voice. Other high-strung highlights include the rattling harmonica-n-drum showcase "Orange Blossom Special," the bloody minded glee of "Cocaine Blues," the gallows humor of "Twenty Five Minutes To Go," and the rollicking "I Got Stripes." And just when it seems that the show's energy is about to let up, June Carter walks on stage, joining Cash in a just-plain-awesome version of "Jackson." The two tear into the song with relentless abandon, harmonizing and trading off lines and verses with electrifying energy. June's amazing- she sings with a kind of raw sexuality and cocksure earnestness that is, well, hot. Cash is no slouch himself, either. The album's quieter moments are great, too: "Dark As A Dungeon" is a mournful, gospel-tinged ballad, and "I Still Miss Someone" delivers the helpless loneliness that its title promises. "The Long Black Veil" is a genuinly haunting song, with an atmosphere so heavy that even Cash's laughter halfway through doesn't break the mood. In a weird way, it seems to enhance it- same goes for "The Wall," a darkly-beautiful ballad that only gets better when Johnny cracks a bitter joke in the middle.

A masterpiece, then. Anyone who thinks country should be about grit and attitude rather than pickup trucks and barbeque sauce should hear this right now.

I wasn't real big on Johnny Cash or country music for that matter.
But, after seeing the movie " Walk the Line " I was hooked.
I just had to get me some Johnny Cash and see what the big deal was.
The thing I like about him is that he is such a great story teller.
Every song he sings makes you believe that what he is singing about
happened to you. To me, it really doesn't sound like country at all.
It's more like blues with a little country and rock mixed in.
I can see why the " Folsom Prison " album was his best album.
The songs he did on this album are some his best work.
Some of my favorites are " Cocaine Blues ", " Jackson ", " Busted ".
and " I Got Stripes " just to name a few.
If you don't know, or your not a big country fan like I was.
Pick up this cd and let Johnny Cash the man in black make a believer
out of you.

The 5.1 SACD version, I was not that impressed with. However, the stereo version sounds great. DSD was designed to archive old analog tapes and that's again what Columbia (now owned by Sony/Philips who pioneered the technology) did with this project. If you're a Johnny fan, buy it and hear what the album was meant to sound like originally without sample rate/quantization conversions.

amazing. he is so good, funny and great voice
I only wish he would still be alive so I can get to see his show

Michael Streissguth is surely one of God's honored clay vessels from which He pours His rare gift of prose. I cannot count the times during the consuming literary journey of, `Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison', that I stopped to remind myself, "Wait a minute, Streissguth was just a kid in 1968­-he was not at Folsom with John" or, "No-Streissguth is not absent from all of the photos because he was the one with the camera, he just wasn't there-he was not with the Cash entourage." The compelling detail seems divine-perhaps it is, for it is related as though from the heart and hand of One­­-who saw the whole thing as it happened.

-Rev Jack Shaw; Johnny Cash Show Evangelist

To me, Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison is magic. As good as his other stuff is, he was clearly at the top of his game during this performance. The electricity on stage combined with genuine enthusiasm of the prisoners is unlike anything I have ever heard before. There is no other way to put it, other than it all came together for this one CD. No matter how many times I hear it, it only gets better. I never get tired of listening to Folsom Prison. As good as the start of the concert is with a very enthusiastic "Folsom Prison Blues", it's the ending with "Greystone Chapel", a song written by one of the prisoners that makes this CD truly unique. I have 4 children aging from 14 to 5 and have heard all of them singing songs from Folsom Prison. My all time favorite CD and it isn't even close. That "The legend of John Henry's hammer", was left of the original album, is almost impossible to believe.

I really am enjoying the "Folsom Prsion" CD by Johnny cash. The live element makes it what it is. Authentically honest. The prison announcenments during the concert are priceless. Knowing that Johnny Cash was not a "head in the clouds" person but a man who knew his shortcomings makes this cd even more real. He was a man who knew the power of redemption and it shines through on Folsom.

Well, of course this is a classic - the first of two "prison" live LPs that would help solidify Johnny Cash's "bad boy" image in contemporary culture. As such, this record is more of an event, or even a story; Cash's intros connect to the crowd in a special way because everyone knows their unique situation, and can to a certain extent identify. It's a brilliiant concept for one of the most thrilling live recordings ever.

Missing, oddly, is the classic "A Boy Named Sue," which appeared as a single. A usual with Johnny Cash, it takes several records to finally end up with the ones you like.

This guy is unsurpassed for his putting his soul out there, and his beat is something else. This is his classic album.

My 16 yr old loves the man in black and has since he was little.
He now plays along on guitar with the CDs.
Thanks for the fast service and great quality.

I owned LP many years ago & was pleased to replace with CD & updated tech.product. I am very pleased with it. I recommend to all JR fans.

I saw "Walk the Line" and fell in love with Johnny Cash, this is a great CD. Absolutely fabulous.

I saw Johnny Cash live on stage in 1972 in Utica, New York,
Johnny, June and his band just blew me away. This man has been everywhere! There is nothing like his live concerts. Buy this cd, you will love it.

Couldn't stop playing it. Had to buy more Johnny Cash after this.

This is a powerful, give you the chills CD. The liner notes are great and the pictures are wonderful. The music is of course, amazing.

A great album to be sure, and a great place to start for any Johnny Cash fan. But you need to go further into his later career with 'At San Quentin' and 'The Essential Johnny Cash', to name but a few.

Good stuff...

For anybody thats tempted to buy a Johnny Cash Album, this should be your first. Great from beginning to end.

My husband could not find this CD any where. As soon as I logged on to Amzon I was able to locate it!
He loves it!

I was very pleased with this album. It has a nice range of hits and wonderful sound quality. I would definetly recommend it.

This is a great album. Don't waste your time reading these long reviews, you should just get the album. It's got fire!

what a show. side talk and all it is one of the best live shows I own.

i've only recently become interested in johnny cash's music and this was my first album. the live recording does a great job of filling in the lines on who johnny cash was in addition to a good sample of his music. i am enjoying getting to know cash.

good purchase.

Great music from one of the greatest country singers of our time. With his wife June Carter Cash, their music is legendary.

This is vintage Johnny Cash. You can listen to him draw the tough crowd into his concert. Not for the young kids though, some profanity and honky tonk type songs. If you love Johnny cash, you'll love this album.

I have always loved Johnny Cash. I am trying to replace all my music with CD's. This is awesome.