At San Quentin

After the success of his critically acclaimed and commercially successful “At Folsom Prison”, Cash decided to come with a follow-up. “At San Quentin” is the 31st overall album by Johnny Cash, recorded live at San Quentin State Prison on February 24, 1969 and released on June 4 of that same year. The album was nominated for a number of Grammy Awards, including ‘Album of the Year’ and won ‘Best Male Country Vocal Performance’ for “A Boy Named Sue”.

According to Robert Hilburn, Cash spontaneously decided to perform “A Boy Named Sue” during the show and neither the TV crew nor his band knew he planned to do it, he used a lyric sheet on stage while the band improvised the backing.

Johnny Cash remembers the forgotten men. They love him. Singing inside a prison to men whose spirits are being destroyed by our mindless penal system is Johnny Cash’s kind of revolution. Music becomes spirituality in the context of the prison. Music is inherently destructive of everything penology stands for. Music affirms. Music liberates."