A previously forgotten and unreleased live album from Johnny Cash is getting its first release amid huge excitement from the Man in Black’s fans. The iconic show was captured by Owsley Stanley and will now be released in full.
Though always sounding impeccable in the studio, Johnny Cash always felt most at home with an audience in front of him. Given the glaring eyes of his fans, Cash always kicked things up a notch. It meant that he was often the subject of live album releases. However, it would appear that one potential live LP had been forgotten… until now.
Recorded at the Carousel Ballroom in San Francisco on April 24, 1968, the record is a perfect reminder of Cash’s bristling talent. Performing a year after the summer of love at the epicentre of the counterculture movement may not have been the brightest move for any regular country singer — but this was Johnny Cash.
As a known supporter of the causes of many hippies, Cash and his then-new wife, June Carter, were welcomed into the city with open arms, even managing to pry Owsley Stanley from Haight-Ashbury to record the show.
Titled Bear’s Sonic Journals: Johnny Cash At The Carousel Ballroom, April 24 1968 the album will be released on September 24 via the Owsley Stanley Foundation’s Bear’s Sonic Journals series.
The new release will arrive digitally as well as a CD edition and a double LP release. They will come equipped with essays from Johnny Cash and June Carter’s son John as well as Owsley Stanley’s son Starfinder and the Grateful Dead’s Bob Weir. There is also new artwork from Susan Archie and a reproduction of the original Carousel Ballroom poster.
The new album will boast a serious run of tracks from Cash’s canon including the first release from the record ‘Going to Memphis’, which you can hear below.
Tracklisting for Bear’s Sonic Journals: Johnny Cash At The Carousel Ballroom, April 24 1968:
- Cocaine Blues
- Long Black Veil
- Orange Blossom Special (CD and Digital only)
- Going to Memphis
- The Ballad of Ira Hayes
- Rock Island Line
- Guess Things Happen That Way
- One Too Many Mornings
- Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
- Give My Love to Rose
- Green, Green Grass of Home
- Old Apache Squaw
- Lorena
- Forty Shades of Green
- Bad News
- Jackson
- Tall Lover Man
- June’s Song Introduction
- Wildwood Flower
- Foggy Mountain Top
- This Land Is Your Land
- Wabash Cannonball
- Worried Man Blues
- Long Legged Guitar Pickin’ Man
- Ring of Fire
- Big River
- Don’t Take Your Guns to Town
- I Walk the Line