Unheard recordings of Johnny Cash playing to prisoners have been released 35 years after they were performed.

The seven tracks, including Sunday Morning Coming Down, A Boy Named Sue, prison lament San Quentin and an instrumental version of the celebrated I Walk The Line, have been released as part of a revised edition of Johnny Cash Live at Osteraker Prison.

The late, legendary “Man in Black” visited the Swedish jail in 1972 to play for inmates, and while an album of the event was released the following year, seven of the tracks were left off.

Versions of the Carl Perkins hits High Heel Sneakers and Blue Suede Shoes, featuring the famous songwriter as a guest, and a Folsom Prison Blues instrumental were among them.

The oft-arrested singer, who fought drug and alcohol addictions, never served time but cultivated an outlaw image and had an empathy for prisoners. He recorded an array of songs about living behind bars, including Folsom Prison Blues, San Quentin and Cocaine Blues, and famously went on to play at Folsom Prison in 1968 and San Quentin in 1969.

Recordings of the two events became infamous, after prisoners could be heard cheering when Cash’s deep, distinctive voice sang the line from Folsom Prison Blues, “But I shot a man in Reno just to watch him die”.

The Grammy-award winner’s show at Osteraker Prison was his first jail performance outside his native America, but he was greeted just as warmly by inmates after he learnt enough Swedish to tell them: “Thank you my friends, I hope you like our music.”

Cash died in 2003, aged 71.

Pa Osteraker: Live at Osteraker Prison, Sweden 3 Oct 1973/35th Anniversary Edition is out now.

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