Johnny Cash At San Quentin CD

While the 2000 edition of this classic Johnny Cash performance, AT SAN QUENTIN (THE COMPLETE 1969 CONCERT), led listeners to believe that it presented the show in its entirety, this comprehensive two-CD/one-DVD reissue set proves that notion to be not quite true. Boasting a total of 31 tracks, the audio discs feature all of the songs from SAN QUENTIN's previous incarnations, most notably the country icon's definitive reading of the witty Shel Silverstein tune "A Boy Named Sue," but it also makes room for additional Cash numbers, including the fierce "Blistered," and tunes by other members of Cash's traveling show, such as Carl Perkins (a rollicking version of his own "Blue Suede Shoes") and the Statler Brothers (the upbeat "Flowers on the Wall"). The DVD documentary focuses on both Cash and his venue of choice, making this version of SAN QUENTIN ideal for aficionados of the Man in Black.

One of country music's unequivocal stars, Johnny Cash retained respect for the travails of the audience elevating him to that position. Recorded live at one of America's most notorious prisons, this album displays an empathy bereft of condescension and captures a performer combining charisma with natural ease. The material is balanced between established favorites and new material including "Wanted Man" (an unrecorded Bob Dylan song), and the lighthearted hit "A Boy Named Sue." It was not the first time Cash had recorded in a penal institution, but this appearance, at a time when American values were vociferously questioned, suggested the artist's rebelliousness had not dimmed.

To put the performance on At San Quentin in a bit of perspective: Johnny Cash's key partner in the Tennessee Two, guitarist Luther Perkins, died in August 1968, just seven months before this set was recorded in February 1969. In addition to that, Cash was nearing the peak of his popularity -- his 1968 live album, At Folsom Prison, was a smash success -- but he was nearly at his wildest in his personal life, which surely spilled over into his performance. All of this sets the stage for At San Quentin, a nominal sequel to At Folsom Prison that surpasses its predecessor and captures Cash at his rawest and wildest. Part of this is due to how he feeds off of his captive audience, playing to the prisoners and seeming like one of them, but it's also due to the shifting dynamic within the band. Without Perkins, Cash isn't tied to the percolating two-step that defined his music to that point. Sure, it's still there, but it has a different feel coming from a different guitarist, and Cash sounds unhinged as he careens through his jailhouse ballads, old hits, and rockabilly-styled ravers, and even covers the Lovin' Spoonful ("Darlin' Companion"). No other Johnny Cash record sounds as wild as this. He sounds like an outlaw and renegade here, which is what gives it power -- listen to "A Boy Named Sue," a Shel Silverstein composition that could have been too cute by half, but is rescued by the wild-eyed, committed performance by Cash, where it sounds like he really was set on murdering that son of a bitch who named him Sue. He sounds that way throughout the record, and while most of the best moments did make it to the original 1969 album, the 2000 Columbia/Legacy release eclipses it by presenting nine previously unreleased bonus tracks, doubling the album's length, and presenting such insanely wild numbers as "Big River" as well as sweeter selections like "Daddy Sang Bass." Now, that's the only way to get the record, and that's how it should

Additional Tracks

Liner Note Authors: Johnny Cash; June Carter Cash; Marty Stuart.

Recording information: San Quentin (02/24/1969); San Quentin State Prison, CA, Unites States (02/24/1969).

Photographer: Jim Marshall .

Personnel: Johnny Cash (vocals, guitar); June Carter Cash, Carter Family, The Statler Brothers (vocals); Luther Perkins, Bob Wootton, Carl Perkins (electric guitar); Marshall Grant (bass guitar); W.S. Holland (drums).

AudioEntertainment Weekly (p.97) - "[Cash was] all but inciting riots with his rockers and incendiary remarks, then calming the captives with hymns." -- Grade: A
Q (p.126) - 4 stars out of 5 -- "[A] gruff, no-frills performer with a voice like a bag of rusty nails scattering noisily over his career highlights."
CMJ (6/19/00, p.32) - "...This beefed-up landmark release reissue contains nearly an album's worth of extra material..."
Dirty Linen (p.56) - "[I]t is certainly the stuff of legend, and this expanded edition brings the drama and excitement of that evening back to life."