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I bought this Greatest Hits album of Johnny Cash especially for disc 2: Live in Concert. I can't find any more information about this concert other than it is released on this CD. Does anybody which year or where this was recorded? The concert itself doesn't give much information.

I have tried narrowing it down through the rarely played Sixteen Tons (according to setlist.fm it was only played 3 times) but none of those shows are the show on this disc.

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  • Are the "live in concert" songs from the same day (doest it seem that the tracks melt each other)? – Bebs Jan 30 '20 at 13:54
  • There is always a fadeout (as if the volume is turned down) so I think it may be indeed different concerts. I'll listen next time more carefully if I can hear some difference in the quality of the recording or in Cash's voice – Noosrep Jan 30 '20 at 14:33
  • It could be from the live at a Folsom prison maybe, you can compare the acoustics with this one. – Bebs Jan 30 '20 at 14:49
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I did the same filtering with "Goodbye Little Darlin'" to try and narrow this down.

I then went to the webpage of the record label and played the sound samples. They are of a pretty horrible sound quality as if a very glossy compression has been applied to fit 16 songs onto the CD. This seems borne out by the the review of the record label that I found (bottom of the web page.)

As this label seems to have a habit of copying Columbia records CDs I looked through Columbia's catalogue of Johnny Cash live recordings. I was unable to locate any set list, including the bootleg recordings, approximating the set list on the CD that you had bought.

I then searched through the official Jonny Cash website, the Wikipedia discography of Cash's live releases and various bootleg websites and couldn't locate a set list similar to that in the CD.

I presume, because you would have told us otherwise, that before "Ring of Fire" begins, the set is not opened by the rep from Columbia Records introducing their star (the sample on the Not Now webpage doesn't include this). This would suggest that the CD doesn't represent an official release.

The conclusion that I draw from all of this, somewhat circumstantial evidence, is that the record label has stitched together a number of songs that have been performed live and is not a recording of any single concert.

For clarification to previous responses, who may not be aware, the set is not from Folsom Prison for the following reasons:

  • the set lists (in any order) don't remotely tie-up

  • the sound of the backing band is different and audience cheering throughout the song's is quite different, even allowing for the horrible compression

  • June features more prominently during the Folsom performance

  • Cash didn't debut the song "A Boy Named Sue" until his Live at San Quentin performance a year later

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  • Whatever the reason for the compression, it's certainly not to fit 16 songs on a CD: the audio is not compressed. Dynamic compression has become fashionable, that's probably what you are referring to. – PiedPiper Oct 3 '20 at 12:13
  • Thanks for the clarification. – LittleVoice Oct 3 '20 at 12:36

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