3. Johnny Cash, ‘At Folsom Prison’ (1968)

Cash's 1968 live album came at the right time for the country legend who had found himself spiraling out with alcohol and drug addictions — not to mention suffering a lull in success, having not scored a Top 40 hit in four years. Though he had been performing in prisons for nearly a decade at the time he arrived at Folsom, Cash's first live recording at the site that inspired the iconic 1955 hit "Folsom Prison Blues" turned out to be exactly what his career needed. "That's where I met Glenn Sherley," said the signer in a 1973 interview with Rolling Stone, referencing the Folsom prisoner whose song, "Greystone Chapel," Cash debuted during the set. "That's where things really started for me again." Brittany Spanos