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.
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.
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
- Cocaine Blues
- Long Black Veil
- Orange Blossom Special (CD and Digital only)
- Going to Memphis
- The Ballad of Ira Hayes
- Rock Island Line
- Guess Things Happen That Way
- One Too Many Mornings
- Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
- Give My Love to Rose
- Green, Green Grass of Home
- Old Apache Squaw
- Lorena
- Forty Shades of Green
- Bad News
- Jackson
- Tall Lover Man
- June’s Song Introduction
- Wildwood Flower
- Foggy Mountain Top
- This Land Is Your Land
- Wabash Cannonball
- Worried Man Blues
- Long Legged Guitar Pickin’ Man
- Ring of Fire
- Big River
- Don’t Take Your Guns to Town
- I Walk the Line
