Album Review - Johnny Cash - At San Quentin: Legacy Edition

The 53-minute documentary that is included with the expansive "Legacy 
Edition" of Johnny Cash's top-selling concert set At San Quentin might 
be a bit off-putting to fans who simply want the emphasis to be on the 
music. Although it features a sizeable chunk of The Man in Black's 
legendary performance at the maximum security prison, the songs are 
separated by interview segments with both guards and inmates. As a 
result, the piece, which was created for British television in 1969, 
becomes, in actuality less about the historic event and more about 
American society and its justice system. Nevertheless, the new contexts 
that are created by these juxtapositions shed light upon and inform the 
intimate and decidedly moving atmosphere that was created when Cash 
ventured into one of the toughest penitentiaries in the country.

In staging the event, Cash followed the format that he typically 
utilized for his concert performances, and subsequently, mini-sets by 
Carl Perkins, The Statler Brothers, and The Carter Family were 
intertwined seamlessly with his own repertoire. Outside the unveiling of 
his newest tune San Quentin, the set list that was employed by Cash and 
his entourage was fairly routine: Carl Perkins' ripped through Blue 
Suede Shoes. The Statler Brothers strolled through Flowers on the Wall. 
The Carter Family provided a reprise of its age-old hit Wildwood Flower, 
and Cash accordingly delved into I Still Miss Someone, Big River, I Walk 
the Line, and Folsom Prison Blues. As the show progressed, however, a 
grander plan gradually was revealed.

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