The cast assembled for the Folsom concert was larger than what Cash typically brought to a prison show. The Tennessee Three — Luther Perkins on electric guitar, Marshall Grant on bass guitar, and W.S. Holland on drums — were Cash’s core band, the musicians who had been with him through the Sun years and beyond. Carl Perkins (no relation to Luther) opened the show and played guitar throughout. The Statler Brothers — Lew DeWitt, Don Reid, Harold Reid, and Phil Balsley — served as vocalists and opening act. June Carter, by this point Cash’s fiancée, was there for duets. Cash’s father, Ray Cash, was there. The Reverend Gressett was there.
Bob Johnston set up two four-track recorders and placed Shure microphones close to the musicians. The cafeteria’s concrete walls would have made ambient recording difficult — the natural reverb of the space would have swamped everything — so the team miked the musicians directly and captured their signal cleanly. No equalization was applied to the signal before it reached the recorders. The sound that went to tape was essentially the sound that came out of the instruments and the voices.
About 2,000 inmates had been assembled in the cafeteria. Armed guards watched from catwalks. The MC, Hugh Cherry, introduced the show and urged the inmates to respond. Carl Perkins played his set, the Statler Brothers played theirs, and then Cherry told the inmates to hold their reaction until Cash introduced himself.
Cash walked out. He said hello and gave his name. The crowd’s response, captured on tape, was immediate and enormous — the sound of several thousand people who had been waiting, some of whom had been writing letters asking Cash to come to their prison for years, recognizing a performer who had been part of their lives through a radio speaker or a record player in a prison common room.