Johnny Cash

Johnny Cash was always bigger than life and now in death he is bigger still. When I was around eight years old my dad brought home "Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison". I was fascinated with that album. It was a combination of the amazing music and the fact that all the voices heard hootin' and hollerin' for Johnny were, in my mind, stone cold killers - big, thick necked bastards with hair on their knuckles.


This here is my favourite song on the album - Jackson - unfortunately I haven't been able to find that album's version of 'Orange Blossom Special' (turns out it was actually 'Folsom Prison Blues'), with the line "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die", which is followed by a prisoner's shout of longing, hate, pain, and release. It scared the crap out of me when I was ten.

*here's some more - some more recent CASH - this directory is large and often difficult to download songs from. but it can be done.
and more here