CHARLESTON, Maine — Nearly 100 inmates at the Charleston Correctional Facility and Mountain View Youth Development Center filed into the medium-security prison’s gym on Thursday, creating a scene reminiscent of when Johnny Cash recorded his live “At Folsom Prison” record in 1968 in California.
“He went there because he wanted to provide the inmates with hope,” Andrew Crowe, one of four performers who portray the country music legend in Penobscot Theatre Company’s “Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash,” said as the group drove north toward the prison campus. “He had a big heart for people on the inside. Johnny wanted to send a message that they’re not forgotten and they’re cared for.”
“It’s compassion for the underdog,” piped in fellow musician Ira Kramer.
“We want them to know they are not nailed down to their current situation,” Jeremy Sevelovitz added.
“It doesn’t take a lot to change a person’s life,” Galen Smith said from the backseat of the passenger van.
Crowe, Kramer, Sevelovitz, Smith and actress Ashley Lewis went to the Charleston prison to perform Cash’s music, hoping to inspire inmates to do more with their lives. Each actor depicted a different time in the singer’s life, and Lewis handled the roles of his mother and second wife, June Carter Cash, during the hour-long performance.
They opened with “Country Boy” and included “Ring of Fire” and “Folsom Prison Blues” in the 16 songs, ending with “A Boy Named Sue.” They also did a modified version of “I’ve Been Everywhere” using Maine community names and encouraging the inmates to yell out when their hometowns were heard. That song drew a response from the inmates, who started to loosen up a little, some tapping their feet to the music and others slapping their knees to the rhythm of the music.
“You’re worth something” is the message Lewis said she hopes the inmates got from the performance. “That their lives are going to expand beyond this space.”
Cash, who used drugs and had brushes with the law, reached new audiences after the “At Folsom Prison” record was released. He sang about prisons but never served hard time, and Lewis and others in the group believe, that’s because he found music.
“How many times did it give me the way out of a dark place,” she said.
Kramer said he can associate with each and every inmate because he’s put himself into situations in his life that could have resulted in jail time.
With different decisions, “I could be where they are,” he said.
The performers greeted the inmates as they entered the gymnasium and made it a point to say goodbye and shake hands with as many as possible as they filed out.
“I’ve been here 3½ years, and I’ve never smiled this much,” one inmate in the new Young Male Offender Program at the Mountain View Youth center said to Kramer.
He responded, “Thanks man. Keep that with you.”
The “Ring of Fire: The Music of Johnny Cash” continues at the Penobscot Theatre in Bangor through Oct. 3. To purchase tickets, call the Penobscot Theatre Company at 942-3333 or visit penobscottheatre.org.