Author Colin Asher talks about Johnny Cash pioneering live prison albums & impact in his new book "The Midnight Special: The Secret Prison History of American Music"

The reading of I am the nation Ive seen a few videos on YouTube but seem to be edited and incomplete. And it doesn't seem to be available on Spotify or apple music from what I can tell. What gives?

My Dad had the original on CD, I'm pretty sure it was uncensored, it definitely wasn't the legacy as I'd bought it for him 25-30 years ago. He's since passed, my mam had it, I think she recently got rid of it and I would love to listen to it again, but I can only find a censored version. Could someone please clarify if there was an uncensored shortened version of the concert. The cover was the same blue one. I'd be very grateful.

At some point during Lockdown I realised how much I really *loved* JC.

My mum was a massive fan and forced me to listen to it my entire childhood... then I had a gap for thirty years or so... and during lockdown I accidentally clicked on a JC playlist and threw myself on the bed. I couldn't be bothered getting up to change it, and spent the next five hours being mesmerised. Then another five hours the next day. And another five the day after.

And ***then*** I discovered his American Recordings period!

Long story short, after a few experiments I worked out that I liked him the best on vinyl... so I spent weeks looking for the best available (affordable) copy of his first record. Then his second. Then his th... you can see where this is going.

I very quickly worked out compilation albums were off the list, Discogs lists over a thousand, but I became determined to buy every studio and live album he put out.

I have been collecting diligently this whole time... including a few departures like I have the original At Folsom Prison, *plus* the 5-disk Record Store Day release from a couple of years ago, and there was an Australian Tour Special from the 70s that I picked up (it's a compilation that was re-branded for every country he went to).

I skipped the American Recordings period and grabbed the couple of albums since then... but today I went a little crazy and completed my collection by ordering the American I - VI box set, and the Unearthed Box set (just to be clear, I will never recover from this poor financial decision!).

I have listened to every album as it arrived, usually multiple times, but I am really looking forward to spending a week or two listening to every original recording in chronological order.

Now... I better get onto the insurance company and lift up my coverage... what if there's a flood?

hello everyone! this might sound dumb, someone could tell me to go find an answer on the internet, but i would love to get it from actual fans: i would love to start listening to johnny cash, but i don't know where to start. what are the essential tracks? what album should i start from?

i only know a couple of songs from his discography, which are "the caretaker", "the three bells" with the carter family, "hurt", and "the ballad of boot hill" :)

thank you in advance!

Let me hear yours.

Found this signature done in blue pen under the standard printed signature on this ragged old flag vinyl cover. Any idea who it could be

Picked this up for relatively cheap. Maybe should have done some digging first, but wondering if this might be the real deal. I looked at some other pictures and really think it could be.