@EasyAce
That was one hell of a album,and a brilliant decision at the same time. Who could resist hearing a album recorded at one of the most famous prisons in history back then? IMHO,that album did a lot to pull more people into country music while making Johnny Cash acceptable to a non-country audience.
It doesn't make any difference how good you are if you can't get anyone to listen to you.
The San Quentin set came about in the wake of the live album that
really put Johnny Cash back on the crossover
map:
Johnny Cash at Folsom Prison; that pair of shows was performed before Luther Perkins's tragic death. I think
both Cash and Columbia Records hoped they could catch lightning twice and brother did they catch it.
Johnny Cash
at San Quentin also had the one thing the Folsom Prison album, successful as it was, didn't have: a crossover
hit single, "A Boy Named Sue."