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## Glen Sherley After Folsom
The story of Glen Sherley did not end well, and it is part of what makes the Folsom story complicated.
After January 13, 1968, Sherley’s situation changed. He was transferred from Folsom to Vacaville, another California correctional facility. He continued writing songs; Eddy Arnold recorded his “Portrait of My Woman” in 1971, making it the title track of an Arnold album. Cash’s publishing company, House of Cash, helped produce a live album that Sherley recorded at Vacaville — *Glen Sherley*, released by Mega Records while he was still incarcerated.
In 1971, Sherley was paroled. By multiple accounts, Cash met him at the prison gates.
What Cash intended by this gesture is not entirely clear from the available record. He gave Sherley a place within House of Cash, the business operation he had built around his music. He brought him on as part of his road organization. In 1972, Sherley was touring with Cash; his children saw him perform at the Los Angeles Forum before approximately 17,000 people. By some measures, the man who had written one song in a prison had been lifted, by Cash’s specific advocacy, into a world that his prior life had given him no preparation for.
The gap between the world of Folsom Prison and the world of a major touring act was too large to bridge. Sherley struggled. He missed flights and call times. He had difficulty with the logistics of a touring life, the constant movement and the constant demands of a professional performance schedule.