There are remastered versions of "Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison" and "Johnny Cash At San Quentin" available on CD. |
Lush:
"Live at Folsom Prison" and "Live at San Quentin" are
Johnny Cash's most famous live recordings and have been recently
remastered. The sound quality is OK, but not of reference quality. The
performances are excellent, so the OK sound quality is neither a distraction
or a negative. "A Boy Named Sue" is on the San Quentin album.
The Folsom Prison album was also released on SACD. Both recordings are
from the 1969 time frame, when Johnny recorded for Columbia Records.
There are some other live recordings. "At Madison Square
Garden" is another great performance/OK sounding recording from
1969. "Live from Austin, Texas" will be released in two weeks (on
November 1st). There are also some Louisiana Hayride recordings out there,
but I stay away from those in general, as I have yet to hear a Hayride reording
of any artist that was listenable.
Regards, Rich |
"American IV: The Man Comes Around" is not live, but an interesting CD. I heard it when I was auditioning a pair of Harbeth Super HL-5's down at Jeff's in Bloomington, Indiana.
This CD was produced in Johnny's home by a producer who had always wanted to produce one of his albums. Johnny was dying and the producer actually set everything up in Johnny's living room for him and recorded the CD.
As far as story telling, Johnny knew that he was about to die, and you can tell it in his voice and the songs that he chose to record. It's worth giving a listen to. |
The last recordings of Cash are available on quality vinyl, too. I picked up the one with "Wayfaring Stranger", "don't back down", and "Bridge Over Troubled water". sounds very good. I found mine at the Analogue Room in San jose, CA |
Although they are not live recordings (they are acoustic actually) I would recommend the entire American series. Sonically excellent material and as Krell man says above, tells his story through the songs he chose to cover. |
Thanks guys, I think I'm going to pickup Live at San Quentin, and check out his latest release, I've heard the NIN cover he did and it was pretty cool. There is something about that man's voice that is both hopefull and dreadfull at the same time. |
Folsom Prison is excellent. Get the new remastered version. Any of the American recording 1,2,3,4 are superb values with interesting songs and sound great. The American box set is also a great value especially since it includes Johnny's hymn book. |
Japanese pressings of "Live at San Quentin" are around. I have one and it sounds very good except for the scratches; bought another copy, American, that is pristing but it does not sound as good as the japanese pressing. Both are more than adequate for listening, however; it is the performance that counts. Cash's version of Dylan's "Wanted Man", "The Wreck of the Old 97", and "Starkville City Jail" are are first class as well as the great ballad with June Carter "Let There Be Peace In The Valley".
We all miss Johnny. I was fortunate enough to see him at the Fillmore in San Francisco when he was doing his first "American Recordings" tour. |
The American Series is the one you have got to have. Although I find the first one the weakest of the bunch 2-4 are the stuff legends are made of. After playing these CD's constantly I have come to the conclusion that whenever Johnny Cash covered a song it was his forever. He led such a life,in some parts of the world he was to music what John Wayne was to movies. |
I'm a HUGE Cash fan, so I would probably recommend almost everything he ever recorded. "Folsom" and "San Quentin" are both remastered, and they sound very good, even though they're not "audiophile" recordings. My personal favorites are the four American recordings with Rick Rubin. The last one, "The Man Comes Around" is the most gut-wrenching and emotional album, regardless of genre, I've heard in a long time. The Man in Black went out with a serious bang with that record. And, to follow up on something Sgr said above, the American Recordings box set is as fitting a tribute to the man as has EVER been made. Its five CDs are chocked with outtakes and a ton of unreleased material from those sessions. What's mind-boggling to me is how uniformly high-quality most of the material is. Some of it is just as good or better than what made it onto the official records. And the in-studio chatter is a blast. It gives some real insight into his recording process at the time. Long live John R. Cash! |
I bought "The Man Comes Around" great cd..thanks alot guys. Hurt is a tune I always thought could only been done by Trent Reznor, now...when I hear that song I only think of Cash. What a story teller. I'll be picking up 1 of his live recordings in the future. |
Vinyl versions of the American Recordings are out there new; they sound great. |
Like i said in my earlier post once Johnny Cash covers a song... it's his forever. |
