"All the Songs I Stole": Ballad Collection and the Conditions of Collective-Making in Johnny Cash's Prison Concert-Albums

In the mid-to-late twentieth century, singer-songwriter Johnny Cash recorded and released three live prison concert-albums composed of many ballads and songs drawing upon a ballad tradition. I question the degree to which these albums, as performed and commercialized ballad collections, create realities of unity between Cash and his audiences. Reviewing three ballads for their aspects of balladry and performance, this thesis finds that Cash’s albums echo and make echoes of isolating conditions and possible collectivities, demonstrating a fragility of “folk” in the shifting scenes of music and prison.