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Unreleased Live Johnny Cash Album From 1968 Due in September

Jem Aswad
·2 min read

On September 24, an previously unreleased 1968 live album by Johnny Cash that was recorded by Owsley “Bear” Stanley, the Grateful Dead’s legendary concert documentarian (and lysergic sherpa), will be issued by the Owsley Stanley Foundation and Renew Records/BMG.

“Bear’s Sonic Journals: Johnny Cash, at the Carousel Ballroom, April 24 1968,” is a 28-song concert — featuring two Bob Dylan covers — recorded in San Francisco by “Bear,” the famously secretive sound engineer and counterculture figure whose recordings make up a large percentage of the Dead’s sprawling concert archive. Recorded in the heart of Haight-Ashbury, just days before the release of Cash’s iconic “At Folsom Prison” album, the recording is a third live document from the era, recorded a venue operated by the Dead and the Jefferson Airplane.

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The live album, which will be released on CD/2LP, features new essays by Johnny and June Carter Cash’s son John Carter Cash, Owsley Stanley’s son Starfinder Stanley, the Dead’s Bob Weir, and Widespread Panic’s Dave Schools, as well as new art by Susan Archie, and a reproduction of the original Carousel Ballroom concert poster by Steve Catron. The release will also be widely available in all digital formats by Legacy Recordings, the catalog division of Sony Music Entertainment.

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The album captured Cash onstage with his then- new bride June Carter, and backed by his legendary band the Tennessee Three: guitarist Luther Perkins, bassist Marshall Grant and drummer W.S. Holland. His set list that evening diverged from other concerts of the time, as Cash chose to cover two Bob Dylan compositions (“Don’t Think Twice It’s Alright,” and his earliest known recording of “One Too Many Mornings”) and perform songs of the overlooked and underserved such as “The Ballad of Ira Hayes.” It also marks the latest entry in the Owsley Stanley Foundation’s :Bear’s Sonic Journals” series, which has previously included Stanley’s live recordings of The Allman Brothers Band, Tim Buckley, Doc & Merle Watson and many more.

JOHNNY CASH AT THE CAROUSEL BALLROOM, APRIL 24, 1968 TRACKLIST

  1. Cocaine Blues

  2. Long Black Veil

  3. Orange Blossom Special (CD and Digital only)

  4. Going to Memphis

  5. The Ballad of Ira Hayes

  6. Rock Island Line

  7. Guess Things Happen That Way

  8. One Too Many Mornings

  9. Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right

  10. Give My Love to Rose

  11. Green, Green Grass of Home

  12. Old Apache Squaw

  13. Lorena

  14. Forty Shades of Green

  15. Bad News

  16. Jackson

  17. Tall Lover Man

  18. June’s Song Introduction

  19. Wildwood Flower

  20. Foggy Mountain Top

  21. This Land Is Your Land

  22. Wabash Cannonball

  23. Worried Man Blues

  24. Long Legged Guitar Pickin’ Man

  25. Ring of Fire

  26. Big River

  27. Don’t Take Your Guns to Town

  28. I Walk the Line

 

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