In 1955 Johnny Cash released the single “Folsom Prison Blues” a tune that resonated with inmates, many of whom wrote him letters requesting that he perform at their prison. The first time that Cash performed at a prison was at Huntsville State Prison in Texas in 1957. Afterward, he continued to perform several prison concerts.
Cash long intended to record one of his prison concerts, but took a while for those plans to come to fruition. This was partly due to resistance from his label Columbia. Finally, on January 13th, 1968, he performed two shows at Folsom Prison, a maximum security penitentiary in California. The performance was recorded and a selection of songs were released as the album At Folsom Prison in May of 1968 (in 2008 the Legacy Edition was released featuring both concerts in their entirety). The landmark album helped revitalize Johnny Cash’s career.
The performance included several prison theme tunes, such as Shel Silverstein’s penned “25 Minutes to Go”. It features gallows humor, giving a minute-by-minute countdown of the final moments of a prisoner awaiting execution.
Another notable tune was “I Got Stripes”, a tune Cash co-wrote with Charlie Williams. It also borrowed from Lead Belly’s (also in Protest Music Hall of Fame) “On a Monday” which detailed Lead Belly’s prison experiences. The raucous tune was well received by the prison crowd.
He also performed the Harland Howard tune “The Wall”. It is a somber story of what is reported by the media as a failed jailbreak but in reality, was suicide.
Cash would go on to perform several prison concerts and released multiple live prison albums including 1969’s At San Quentin, which also achieved commercial success. Cash’s empathy and kinship with the prisoners came across while performing.
Cash was a vocal advocate for the fair treatment of prisoners, including testifying to a 1972 U.S. Senate subcommittee on prison reform. He also pushed for keeping minors out of jail and argued the importance of rehabilitation. Sadly, these reforms are still needed.
To learn more about Cash’s contributions to socially conscious music, check out a list of 10 Johnny Cash protest songs.