As I procrastinate getting back into the swing of schoolwork tonight, I'm listening to Johhny Cash's "My Mother's Hymn Book". It's a beautiful and simple record. It's one of his best, was his personal favourite, and is a favourite of mine, too. As I listen to it, though, I'm reminded of something odd and just plain wrong (in my opinion) that I heard this weekend.


In the show that Cash recorded at Folsom Prison in '68, he opened with "Folsom Prison Blues". In it, when Cash sings, "I shot a man in Reno, just to watch him die," there's a loud cheer from the prisoners, one in particular. The odd and wrong thing about this live recording is that the cheer didn't actually happen. The cheer was added to the mix after the show was recorded. So, when you may get that chill of listening to that prisoner cheer as Cash sings of killing a man for no good reason, take solace in the fact that it didn't actually happen.

I think a live album should be live and virtually untouched, with nothing added afterwards or polished up too much. I like hearing nuggets of info like this, but I hate it when it's about something so cool and legendary as this album.

If you want to hear something really cool from a live album, listen for a particular fan during a very quiet part of "Lenny" from Stevie Ray Vaughan's "Live at Carnegie Hall".