Los Tigres Del Norte Perform At Folsom Prison
Fifty years ago, Johnny Cash performed at Folsom State Prison in Folsom, Calif. The January 1968 concert and live album it produced, At Folsom Prison, helped revitalize Canada Goose Online Cash’s career, inspiring him to testify for prison reform and cementing his reputation as a voice for the downtrodden. Earlier Canada Goose sale this week, the Mexican norteo band Los Tigres del Norte followed in Cash’s footsteps and became the first major Latin act to play at uk canada goose outlet Folsom since the rock and roll star’s historic concert five decades ago.
1968: How We Got Here
The Canada Goose online spirit of Johnny Cash is everywhere at the prison yard gig. Los Tigres and crew walk through the same massive security gates that Cash and his musicians did on that cloudy, winter morning. The musicians’ green room is in the prison’s Greystone Chapel the same chapel immortalized in song on Cash’s 1968 album. But somethings have canada goose coats on sale changed with time. uk canada goose When Cash played his prison show in ’68, the inmate population canadian goose jacket at Canada Goose Coats On Sale Folsom was most white. Today, Canada Goose UK it’s mostly black and Latino.
The cheap canada goose uk magic number of 50 hangs in the air for Los Tigres. It’s been 50 years since Cash’s performance and 50 years since the Mexican band played its first gig in the United States, which, ironically, was also at a prison.
“When we buy canada goose jacket cheap came to this country, the first performance that we did was in a prison in Soledad, California,” Jorge Hernndez, the band’s vocalist and accordionist, says. “It reminds us it’s a blessing that we can be here at Folsom playing and celebrating our coming to this country, performing in a prison, but also performing now at Folsom Prison.”
Diaz, on the other Canada Goose Outlet hand, is most definitely a Los Tigres fan. “I grew up listening to Los Tigres at grandma’s kitchen table to the time I got my own stereo,” he says.
Manuel Mena is a Los Tigres fan, too. Born in Tijuana, Mexico, Mena says Los Tigres inspired him to start his own band. One night after a show, Mena had an altercation with a fan who threatened him. Mena killed the man. That landed him in Folsom canada goose clearance for 36 years to life.
“We are the forgotten of society,” Mena says in Spanish. “And to have the privilege of experiencing something like this? Well, it means we haven’t been completely forgotten. It means there’s someone who remembers us, someone who gives us the strength to keep going, buy canada goose jacket the strength canada goose uk shop to keep moving forward.”
About 800 denim clad men stand in the main prison yard under wispy clouds and a bright blue sky canada goose clearance sale for the performance, as well as the watchful eyes of correctional officers on the ground and in Canada Goose Parka five gun towers surrounding the yard. Many of the men sing along. Others shout out requests. A few more dance alone, seemingly lost in a moment of nostalgia.
Before it became famous by way canada goose factory sale of Cash’s performance, “Greystone Chapel” was written by canada goose uk black friday Glen Sherley, a Folsom inmate serving time for armed robbery. In the canada goose store same tradition, Los Tigres del Norte invite Mena to play accordion canada goose black friday sale on their norteo rendition of “Folsom Prison Blues.”
Univision is recording the performance for a documentary. It’s being produced by Grammy and Oscar winning musician, who echoes Cash’s belief in the power of music to give inmates a voice.
“It’s a way actually of not only entertaining canada goose coats themselves, but also to open their souls, and to open their minds to cheap Canada Goose the possibility of a better world,” Santaolalla says.
After canada goose the show, band member Luis Hernndez stands on the steps of the chapel, reflecting on what just happened.
“It was just so emotional to see these people here singing our songs and transporting themselves back to maybe how their lives could be, or maybe the mistakes canada goose uk outlet they made,” he says. “It’s impressive, when you come here and sing in front of salecanadagooseoutlets these people, how you can bring them happiness, and how you Canada Goose Jackets can bring them their life back.”.