By Patrick Donovan
UNDERSTANDABLY, Johnny Cash's 1955 song Folsom Prison Blues was a huge hit among jailbirds.
While Cash hadn't been to jail, he wrote the empathetic song after watching Crane Wilbur's 1951 film Inside the Walls of Folsom Prison while serving in the US Air Force.
After countless requests from inmates, the ''Man in Black'' performed two shows at Folsom State Prison at Folsom, California, in 1968.
They were recorded for the album At Folsom Prison , which is regarded as one of the finest live albums.
It revitalised Cash's career, and led to a release of a second prison album, At San Quentin .
Now Australia's own ''Man in Black'', Tex Perkins, is set to replicate Cash's shows with two performances at Laverton's Port Phillip Prison on Monday, August 31.
Perkins is no stranger to Cash's material, having sung half a dozen Cash songs in the early 1980s with his band the Dum Dums. So he didn't have to do much research.
''I'm an old hand at Johnny Cash. I feel like it's my territory. In fact, ever since I have been trying not to sing like Johnny Cash.
''My inner Johnny has been sitting back patiently all these years. Now I can just relax and let him out.''
It will be Perkins' first prison visit since making Dead Set , an AIDS education film for the penal system, with Marcus Graham and ''Angry'' Anderson in 1991.
Tex Perkins can next be seen in Sydney at on Sauturday October 10.
http://www.themaninblack.com.au
© 2007 The Sydney Morning Herald
