Johnny Cash Bear’s Sonic Journals: Johnny Cash at the Carousel Ballroom, April 24, 1968 Limited Edition Box Set Vinyl BMG / Warner

After a tumultuous 1967 for Johnny Cash, the year 1968 was bookended by what would become his two iconic, highest-grossing albums, At Folsom Prison and At San Quentin. But now, fifty-three years later, a lost chapter has emerged to enrich and complement the story of that very good year.

Johnny Cash - At the Carousel Ballroom, recorded on April 24, 1968, captures the Man in Black at the height of his charismatic powers. Confidently departing from the more formalized setlist he’d been doing, we hear him in playful and powerful dialogue with his new bride June Carter and his long-time musicians—guitarist Luther Perkins, bassist Marshall Grant and drummer W.S. Holland—connecting with an audience more accustomed to the Grateful Dead and Jefferson Airplane.

What makes the performance even more significant is that it was recorded by the innovative sound wizard Owsley “Bear” Stanley in a verité style that startles with a clarity and dimension missing from the two more well-known releases. In 1968, it was just another entry in Bear’s continuing “sonic journal” of recorded shows, a means to keep improving his art. But thirty years later, Stanley would recognize it as one of a handful of the most significant performances he’d captured.

Tracklisting 

1. Cocaine Blues
2. Long Black Veil
3. Going To Memphis
4. The Ballad Of Ira Hayes
5. Rock Island Line
6. Guess Things Happen That Way
7. One Too Many Mornings
8. Don't Think Twice, It's All Right
9. Give My Love To Rose 
10. Green, Green Grass Of Home
11. Old Apache Squaw
12. Lorena
13. Forty Shades Of Green
14. Bad News
15. Jackson - Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash 
16. Tall Lover Man - Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash
17. June Carter Medley
18. Long Legged Guitar Pickin' Man - Johnny Cash & June Carter Cash
19. Ring Of Fire
20. Big River
21. Don't Take Your Guns To Town
22. I Walk The Line