CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 8/7/2018

Johnny Cash at Folsom and San Quentin, empowered as if by divine authority

"On January 13, 1968, at Folsom State Prison, California—and then again on February 24, 1969, at San Quentin Prison just outside San Francisco—Johnny Cash walked through the gates of an infamous jailhouse, empowered as if by divine authority with songs and dialogue that transported those congregations of prisoners to a sparkling world where they could freely breathe, far beyond the grim daily existence of being locked away behind stone walls and steel bars… Cash sang his songs with heartfelt conviction, and he knew that the prisoners knew exactly what he was singing about. He delivered them from the depth of his being, conveying the kind of wisdom that can only be earned by living—or at the very least fully comprehending—the weight of each and every word. The absolute beauty of those prison concerts is the sheer empathy, understanding, love and kinship that John R. Cash offered to every man in his audience." —Marty Stuart, Johnny Cash at Folsom and San Quentin: Photographs by Jim Marshall