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Pa Osteraker – Liner Notes Excerpt

The words Johnny Cash and Prisons have been inextricably linked for more than half a century. Prison reform had been a major issue with Cash and over the years he had been a consistent and high-profile voice on the subject. He had spoken out during many interviews and, on 26 July, 1972, a few months before the Österåker concert, addressed a US Senate sub-committee working towards prison legislation. He was introduced by Senator William Brock from the state of Tennessee who, in his introduction of Johnny Cash, mentioned the scheduled performance. During his address Cash stated that reform was necessary to give a man some hope in prison and to give him encouragement to be a better citizen while in prison and thus becoming a better citizen when he is released. If any further proof was needed to demonstrate Cash’s affinity with the prisoner we need look no further than Glen Sherley. A convict when Cash played Folsom Prison in 1968, he walked free three years later thanks to Cash who had agreed to employ him.

Johnny Cash gave his first free concert in 1957 at the Huntsville State Prison, Texas and then on New Years Day 1960 he played at the notorious San Quentin Prison in California. In the front row at the concert was future country music star Merle Haggard. Over the next ten years he would play close to thirty prison shows with his appearances at Folsom Prison in 1968 and San Quentin in 1969 recorded for record release. However, Cash had never played a prison concert outside the confines of the USA. This would all change on 3 October 1972 when he brought his show to the Österåker Prison situated a few miles north of Sweden’s capital city, Stockholm. It was Olof Arvidsson, a celebrity lawyer, who was instrumental in making the event a reality. Arvidsson had met Cash previously and talked to him about giving a concert at a prison in Sweden. Cash was enthusiastic and agreed to do the show for free. He also suggested that the show be filmed and recorded.

Arvidsson then approached the Swedish Prisons and Probation Administration who gave their permission for the concert to go ahead, not least because of the PR angle. They also chose the venue. Österåker Prison, built in 1969, was a relatively new facility and had good security provisions in place along with a suitable auditorium in which to stage the show. However, not all the arrangements went smoothly. Cash’s idea to have the show filmed fell foul of the Prisons and Probation Administration. Legal reasons meant that the concert, and more importantly the inmates, could not be filmed but arrangements were put in place to record the show for record release.

Cash had performed enough concerts in front of convicts to understand what they wanted to hear. His shows were always a mix of songs with crime, prison, separation, loneliness and despair as their central theme and whilst you would expect to hear applause at the end of a song, there were moments during these performances that the prisoners would react to individual lines that, in many cases, were very close to home.