Contains AT FOLSOM PRISON (1968)/AT SAN QUENTIN (1969)/AMERICA: A 200-YEAR SALUTE IN STORY & SONG(1972).
A three-CD budget-priced introduction to the work of one of America's greatest country singers, THE COLLECTION features two of Johnny Cash's prison concerts at Folsom and San Quentin, and his salute to 200 years of American history, AMERICA. On FOLSOM, Cash performs lesser-known songs, like "Send a Picture of Mother," haunting country standards like "Dark as a Dungeon," and outlaw songs like "Cocaine Blues," to a rapt audience that hangs on every word. In AT SAN QUENTIN, the material is balanced between established favorites and new material, including "Wanted Man," co-written with Bob Dylan, and the lighthearted hit "A Boy Named Sue." Cash's AMERICA is a catalogue of key events in the development of the nation, whose songs are interspersed with a running commentary by the artist in a style that's half old-time raconteur, half grass-roots educator.