Music DVD Center

A 2004 reissue of Johnny Cash's At San Quentin album was touted as the complete concert, but in fact this double CD/documentary DVD (which intersperses interviews with San Quentin inmates with concert footage) is the complete show, with most of its 31 tracks seeing the light of day for the first time. The 2004 disc, like the original vinyl release, featured only Cash's performances; this box set finally brings the entire show to disc, in that it features supporting turns by the entire troupe: Carl Perkins, with a blistering version of "Blue Suede Shoes," complete with a startling, fuzzed-out guitar solo; the Statler Brothers, frolicking through a warmhearted treatment of "Flowers on the Wall"; and Mother Maybelle Carter and daughters Helen, June, and Anita, offering a haunting rendition of "Wildwood Flower" -- ahead of introducing the Man in Black, who enters with a surly take on "Big River" and proceeds to blow through a stunning mini-set of monuments on the order of "I Still Miss Someone," "Long Black Veil," "I Walk the Line," et al., before bringing on June to duet on "Jackson" and "Darlin' Companion." Everyone returns on Disc 2 (Perkins is featured on the only live recording ever made of one his best Columbia sides, "Restless"), which is highlighted by the entire troupe's spirited rendition of Perkins's "Daddy Sang Bass" as the centerpiece of a short, potent gospel mini-set; the introduction of Cash's newly penned "San Quentin" and Shel Silverstein's "A Boy Named Sue"; and a rousing closing medley reprising "Folsom Prison Blues," "Ring of Fire," and "I Walk the Line" and adding "The Rebel." Now the subject of an entire book as well as a documentary film, the San Quentin concert is taking on legendary proportions; to have it in its complete form is good news indeed.