PopMatters’com writer Jason Gross has a nice write up on the Legacy Edition release of the Johnny Cash classic country music milestone At Folsom Prison. Gross does a fine job of not only setting the stage for that day at Folsom State Prison in Folsom, California on January 13, 1968 – which this release highlights the full Cash and the Tennessee Three work as well as that of the other players June Carter, Carl Perkins, and The Statler Brothers – but also the recordings place in the cannon of concept records. There is also details of Cash’s attention to prison reform that led to his decision to do not only this best selling release (featured as number 88 on Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 500 greatest albums of all time) but also led to his follow up prison recording At San Quentin in 1969.
For Western and Jimmy Stewart fans PopMatter.com’s Matthew Sorrento features a piece on the new collection of James Stewart: The Western Collection. I really liked Sorrent’s detail of Stewart’s work with Anthony Mann (Winchester ‘73, The Far Country and The Naked Spur)