Music Monday ~ A Folsom Anniversary

A musical anniversary is coming up later this week - 50th anniversary of the recording of Johnny Cash's album
At Folsom Prison. From Wikipedia:

On January 10, 1968, Cash and June Carter checked into the El Rancho Motel in Sacramento, California. They were later accompanied by the Tennessee Three, Carl Perkins, The Statler Brothers, Johnny's father Ray Cash, Reverend Floyd Gressett, pastor of Avenue Community Church in Ventura, California (where Cash often attended services), who counseled inmates at Folsom and helped facilitate the concert, and producer Johnston. The performers rehearsed for two days, an uncommon occurrence for them, sometimes with two or more songs rehearsed concurrently by various combinations of musicians. During the rehearsal sessions on January 12, California governor Ronald Reagan, who was at the hotel for an after-dinner speech, visited the band and offered his encouragement. One focus of the sessions was to learn "Greystone Chapel", a song written by inmate Glen Sherley....On January 13, the group traveled to Folsom, meeting Los Angeles Times writer Robert Hilburn and Columbia photographer Jim Marshall, who were hired to document the album for the liner notes.

There is no live film of Cash's show at Folsom Prison, but there are live recordings of the songs.

Johnny Cash - Green, Green Grass of Home, written by Claude "Curly" Putman, Jr. Track recorded Live January 13, 1968 at Folsom Prison.





This comes from another prison concert, referring back to Folsom Prison - the song was written by Johnny Cash in 1953. He was inspired to write it after seeing the movie Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison (1951) while serving in West Germany in the United States Air Force at Landsberg, Bavaria (itself the location of a famous prison). Cash recounted how he came up with the line "But I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die": "I sat with my pen in my hand, trying to think up the worst reason a person could have for killing another person, and that's what came to mind."
(See Wikipedia HERE for more.)