New Johnny Cash Photos Found

Gene Beley was Ventura Star-Free Press reporter when he, and the newspaper’s chief photographer, Dan Poush, were invited to accompany Johnny Cash to Folsom Prison for his landmark 1968 concert. New pictures taken at that event recently surfaced  when Beley returned to the prison a few months ago to participate in a BBC radio documentary marking the 40th anniversary of the concert. Beley brought along the photos to give to Jim Brown, a retired correctional officer and operations manager of the Retired Correctional Peace Officers Museum at Folsom Prison.

Beley was with Cash’s party in a room at West Sacramento’s El Rancho Hotel the night before the concert when Rev. Floyd Gressett, asked Cash to listen to a tape recording by Folsom Prison inmate Glen Sherley. Gressett was a friend of Cash’s who ministered to California inmates, had worked with the prison’s recreation director, Lloyd Kelley, to set up the concert.

Copies of these new photos are available only at the Museum at Folsom Prison and a shop in Billings, Mont. (The Sacramento Bee)

Related posts:

1. Johnny Cash Folsom Prison Show Legacy Edition – 10/14
2. Happy (Belated) Birthday – Johnny Cash – Feb. 26, 1932
3. Johnny Cash – 5 Years On
4. PopMatters.com on Johnny Cash – At Folsom Prison: Legacy Edition
5. Johnny Cash’s “The Great Lost Performance” to Be Released July 24, 2007