JOHN PRINE IRELAND 2005 CONCERT REVIEWS

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Town Hall Galway, IE
12-November-2005 - Support PAul Mulligan - Guest back up Pat McLaughlin - Surprise Guest - Philip Donnelly

By: PaddyIrishman
Great show. We were treated to 25 songs including a three song encore featuring Philip Donnelly (Blue umbrella, Speed, Paradise) Bruised Orange got an airing which I enjoyed. No Illegal Smile or that's the way the world goes around which we would have loved, but he has so many to choose from, you can't complain really. Only gripe was the sound on a few songs. When JP used the electric guitar, it was far too loud and drowned out the melody and vocals (Ain't hurtin', You are my everything) and Jason's guitar took somewhat from Hello in there. That may be down to the smallness of the venue - I don't know if anyone else felt the same. Hopefully JP will relocate to Ireland as he has planned and plays gigs here every year! Selfish I know...

By: John Curtin
Ennis & Galway, Ireland - Took the opportunity to see John Prine on successive days in the West of Ireland. Wife thought I was mad to go and see the same (!) concert two evenings in a row. Having seen J P on all recent visits to Ireland I must say that these performances were absolutely stunning even by his standards. The two musicians with him were of the highest quality and the man himself was in superb form. The venues , approx 400 seaters in each case , allowed a brilliant atmosphere to develop and the reception given to J P and his band told its own story of how things went.. This guy just gets better and better.

By: NEIL LAVITT
I have seen JP in big concert halls like the Waterfront in Belfast; hotel function rooms like the Mount Errigal in Letterkenny and in old cinemas like the Rialto in Derry. But I have never savoured a night like JP'S "homecoming" to Galway in the Town Hall, a venue he said he had long wanted to play because he and his wife Fiona had seen so many fine shows and plays there in their time. The place could not have been better...less than 400 seats and packed to the rafters with his friends and musical allies from County Galway. He talked of lock-ins at Hogan's pub and of sessions at Mary Green's in Kinvara and he sang like a man inspired by the warmth of the feelings for him from people who know and love him. Memorable and well worth the 10 hour round trip from Belfast, where i had seen and enjoyed JP at the start of the week too. What a man!

Glor, Ennis Co Clare Ireland
11 - November - 2005 -Support Philip Donnelly - Guest back up Pat McLaughlin

By: jim ryan
John a great show in Ennis Co Clare. Looks like the little drop of benlyn kept the throat nicely sooth. I am a Tipperary native so it was nice to see the Cashel man on stage with you. cheers

Millenium Forum, Derry City, County Derry, NI
9 - November - 2005 - Support Philip Donnelly - Guest back up Pat McLaughlin

Preview - Wed 10 NOV 2005
By: Liz Kennedy
Prine Treats Fans To Another 'Stormer' 
  You can tell a lot about an artiste by his audience, and John Prine's fans are as much of a delight as he is. The two men sitting behind me before the concert started were complete strangers before the gig. 
  They exchanged the usual chatter about routes to the concert: in their cases from east Tyrone and west Armagh, because people had travelled from across the Province to see John and one then asked the other if he was "hooked up yet" (to the internet to get John's albums). 
  As he wasn't, the other then gave the most comprehensive and fascinating lesson on technology (sorry for eavesdropping) and explanation of how search engines work, that I have ever heard. By the end of the concert they were firm friends, as indeed we all felt we were, having spent the time in the company of a unique troubadour. 
  Courteous and gracious, John is a survivor and counting. He made his 59th birthday on October 10 and we all hope for good things from his muchimproved health. 
  Having suffered from cancer of the neck, his voice is maybe an octave deeper than previously. There were times I was nearly fearful for him in his blistering two-and-a-quarter hour set on the stormy night he told us was "a good night to be inside". Indeed it couldn't have been a better night to be one of the "in crowd" and his audience in Londonderry is in for a treat tonight. 
  John Prine sang much from his back catalogue, including the legendary Sam Stone, but the songs from Fair and Square are already classics. Crazy As A Loon and Some Humans Ain't Human are brilliant songs. They were worth every minute of the five years John told us it had taken in the studio to put the album together. And as John said before he sang She is my Everything: "It's good to have good song about your wife." His Donegal love is a lucky woman and also came in for a mention before The Glory of True Love, concerning Mr Prine's friendship with songwriter Roger Cook: "He's from Bristol and talks like Cary Grant a little. I told him that I had my wife Fiona in mind when I was writing this, but I was hoping that he didn't!" One song from late great songwriter Blaze Foley, Start Talkin' Again, made it into the set, brilliantly supported by Dave Jackson on bass and Jason Wilber on everything else from slide to harmonica, but in the main, it was John's night of songs. 
  As we went into the night, phrases rang around my head: "There's a hole in daddy's arm where the money goes"; "Give my feet to the footloose"; "Her dishevelled appearance speaks volumes of shame" and, arousing a whoop from the crowd, "Some cowboy from Texas starts his own war in Iraq." Lake Marie was another beautiful moment in the array of memorable lyrics by a songwriting genius. Dubliner and support artist Philip Donnelly joined the band on stage for the encore. It doesn't get better than The Speed of the Sound of Loneliness to send us home happy, but my personal favourite is Ain't Hurtin' Nobody. 
  Keep on not hurtin' us, John, and highlighting how the uncaring ones are. 
  "There's roosters laying chickens, and chickens layin' eggs; Farm machinery eating people's arms and legs: I ain't hurtin' nobody; I ain't a-hurtin' no-one." 
  Millennium Forum, Londonderry tonight. 
  Full Story link - http://www.newsletter.co.uk/story/23977

By: Peter Culshaw
Belfast and Derry City Preview: Why my cancer was a blessing
  Singer John Prine, once dubbed 'the new Dylan', talks to Peter Culshaw about his first new album for 10 years 
  The music industry has never quite known how to handle John Prine. 
  "On my first album, they had me pose on a bale of hay. I'd never seen one close-up before, and I've never seen one since," recalls the Chicago-born singer-songwriter, whose 60th birthday this month had alternative radio stations in the US programming a whole day of his songs. 
  After his debut album in 1972, numerous critics dubbed Prine "the new Dylan" (the old Dylan used to come to his shows to check out his rival), and albums like The Missing Years - named after his song Jesus The Missing Years - featured high-profile admirers like Bruce Springsteen, Tom Petty and Bonnie Raitt. 
  While he hasn't troubled the mainstream charts in the States, his albums, now released on his own Oh Boy label, have sold in their hundreds of thousands, and he's built up a harder core of die-hard supporters than many more famous artists (there is a "Prine Shrine" on the web for true fanatics). 
  Prine's done well enough out of his music - I meet him in his holiday house on the coast in Galway, Ireland. True to form, his new album Fair and Square, his first CD of new material for 10 years, is riding high in the American folk and country charts, and features a typical mix of wry, sentimental and humorous lyrics. 
  The decade-long wait for new songs came after he was diagnosed with cancer of the neck 10 years ago. "I didn't even know you could get that," he says. "It took me a long time to get my strength back. 
  "Until then, my mind was racing all the time. I had to be totally still and watch the world go round. It was, in some ways, a blessing in disguise - I can't imagine anything else on earth that would have slowed me down like that." A side-effect of the cancer is that his voice is noticeably deeper now. 
  The other thing that happened 10 years ago was that he got married, and soon afterwards had kids. "Why are all the best songs sad?" he muses. "If your girl or wife leaves you, you've got all the time to write sad songs. If things are going well, who has the time to write songs?" 
  At least, I suggest, there's some benefit for the songwriter from a failed romance. "At this point in my life," he drawls, "I prefer to have a happy marriage than 10 new, great, sad songs." 
  Although he was born in Chicago, country music was the soundtrack to Prine's childhood. "When I wanted to prove to my dad that I was a songwriter, I wrote songs like Hank Williams. And he loved them; they went straight to his heart. He didn't want me to be in the music business, though." 
  Prine adds that he was very cautious about giving up his day job as a postman. "I wasn't foolhardy about it. I remember when I came and told my dad I'd been in New York and been offered a contract for $25,000 - more money than he'd ever had in the bank - and I was leaving my job. He just looked at his shoes, and all he said was: 'Look out for the goddamn lawyers.' " 
  Prine's father was a tool and die maker, and a union organiser with a steel workers' union. Prine claims that one of the driving forces behind setting up his own label was his father's worldview. 
  "The music business was making me run away from music which I loved," he remembers. "Dealing with record companies was tearing my gut apart." It was a risk, but "the reception was amazing - so many cheques came in that the record was paid for before I even went into the studio". 
  Prine takes me out for a few pints of Guinness in his local pub, and when someone starts singing he points out why he finds it so charming. 
  "In America you'd get thrown out of the bar for that - people would think you were a public drunk. I always loved that about Ireland - people breaking out into music for no reason at all in pubs." 
  'Fair and Square' is out now on Oh Boy Records. John Prine plays in Belfast on Mon (tickets: 028 9033 4455) and in Derry City on Wed (028 7126 4455).pop vision 
  Read the full article here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/arts/main.jhtml?xml=/arts/2005/11/03/bmprine03.xml

Waterfront Hall, Belfast Northern Ireland
7 - November - 2005 - Support Philip Donnelly - Guest back up Pat McLaughlin

By: Neil McKay
Preview  04 November 2005 
Down a long road but it's Prine's prime time at last 
  Things couldn't be better for songwriting legend, John Prine. Neil McKay talks to the troubadour about how becoming a father later in life has put everything in perspective 

  He's just into his 60th year, he's not long beaten throat cancer, and he's lived a hard rock'n'roll life, but John Prine reckons he's just about into his prime. 
  His fine new album, Fair & Square, his first record of completely new material in nine years, has delighted the critics and his fans, and he's more in demand than ever as a live attraction. 
  And, much as it might surprise you to hear it (and it would have surprised Prine to say it not that long ago), it's all down to a settled family life. 
  Prine has finally found contentment in his third marriage, and he is a doting father to two ten-year-old boys (they were born within ten months of each other). 
  In fact, Prine can see only one drawback in his life of cosy domestic bliss - it makes it harder for him to write songs. 
  Prine, who plays two Northern Ireland shows next week, said: "When I first looked at the songs on the new album I thought 'Gee this is too mellow - I got to stir it up or something'. But there's no use putting something in there that isn't happening, and this is pretty much representative of the way things are going in my life, and that's about the best I can do. 
  "It's difficult, really difficult, to write songs when things are like that. It's much easier to write songs in total chaos with noise going on around you, stressed out of your mind and your heart broke - that's when it's easy to write songs, because there's nothing else to do and you've no place else to go." 
  It's a trade-off Prine is happy to make, even though it helped contribute to the nine-year gap between albums. 
  "It was partly that, partly dealing with the cancer, and partly to do with having to raise a family. 
  "The cancer has been clear for seven years now, and five years is when they consider it safe. When I got the cancer, the boys were just three. I'd been married twice before but I'd never had a home life or something solid to come to when I got off the road. Usually, the life on the road would continue at home for me - it would still be party after party and you'd be out playing music with other friends and stuff, it really was like the road goes on forever. 
  "In fact, I can't think of a better time in my life to have kids. I think if I were to have had kids back in my 20s and 30s, when I was first starting out, a lot of the time I would have opted for the road and I wouldn't have been around very much as a father. 
  "Now I get to pick and choose as far as touring goes - I can stay at home for long periods of time. What I try to do is go out and play gigs on the weekends so that I'm at home all week with the boys and can take them to school, pick them up afterwards, just be here in general so it's more like a normal life. 
  "They're starting to put the pieces together now. They've seen all the interviews I've had to do this year, and they found out, amongst other things, that I've had three wives and I've failed to tell them about that. 
  "One of them interviewed me the other day for a thing he was doing at school called Tennessee entertainers. He figured he'd report on Elvis and me, and he talked to me because he couldn't get Elvis on the phone! 
  "One of them plays drums and the other plays piano and guitar and I'm encouraging them as much as I can. I get a feeling that they're thinking about getting on the road with me because it must look like a pretty good life to them. 
  "This Sunday I've got to take them to a Green Day concert, but my new record is on both their iPods - I've never tried to beat them over the head with my music. When they come to a show it's usually the festivals where they can run around, but they're starting to listen, they've got songs they're starting to ask me about." ----- Prine has been making records since 1971, but has never had anything close to a hit on either side of the Atlantic and is still largely unknown to a mass audience. But he has no complaints. 
  "If you've never had hits it's hard for them to chase you down. I think if you have a hit song it's kind of like a watermark, and after that people go 'oh yeah, he was from the 70s, or he had that hit and never had another one after it'. 
  "I don't regret not having success like a Dylan or Springsteen, not at all, I don't miss any of that. When I go to the grocery store, most people just walk right by me. One out of however many will walk up and go 'My God, I can't believe it's you!'. What if all the people acted like that? It'd be hard to go to the grocery store. 
  "Financially right now, things couldn't be better for me. I would do foolish things if I had any more money than I have - hell, I'm already doing foolish things with it. 
  "I kind of enjoy the popularity that I've got. I walk out on a stage on any given weekend and people usually cheer and ask for my songs, but I can go right back to Nashville, which is full of celebrities, and not even be noticed. I've got the best of both worlds as far as I'm concerned. 
  "It's been a long haul to get here but the pay-off is really good because I'm enjoying it more than ever. And all the stuff I've done in the past, there's nothing I want to bury, it's all good stuff - I don't mind singing it today - and the future looks rosy. There's not much else I can ask for." 
  John Prine plays the Waterfront, Belfast, on Monday, and the Millennium Forum, Londonderry, on Wednesday. A few tickets for the Belfast show were still available at the time of going to press from Ticketmaster outlets. 
  Read the full preview: http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/lifestyle/twentyfourseven/story.jsp?story=667952

By: Eddie McIlwaine - Belfast Telegraph 
PREVIEW:  
  The Ulster log: Prine helps raise cash for children -   09 July 2005 
  SINGER-SONGWRITER John Prine is an inspiration to everyone who has ever had a brush with cancer
  He beat throat cancer and is now showing his gratitude by getting involved in the Hands Across the Water project, which raises funds to help rebuild the lives of children devastated by the disaster in south-east Asia
  Chicago man Prine and his wife Fiona, from Donegal, are singing a ballad called 'Til a Tear Becomes a Rose to raise cash
  And Altan's Dermot Byrne is playing his accordion on the CD, too
  You can hear John and Fiona sing the emotive piece when he is top of the bill at Belfast's Waterfront Hall next November 7 and at the Forum in Londonderry two days later. Tickets are on sale at all usual outlets
  Prine is also celebrating the 30th anniversary of his album Common Sense - and obviously he hopes that, at 59, he has acquired a lot of that
  And he's the artist who, at Christmas 1983, dared to cut a cover version of the old Jimmy Boyd number one, I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus - and turned it into a hit all over again
  He was discovered in a Chicago club by Kris Kristofferson, who was in Belfast a couple of weeks ago
  "It's a great feeling when you put something in a song and other people say that's exactly how they feel," Prine says to me. "That's the most gratifying thing about songwriting for me."
read the full story - http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/features/story.jsp?story=651796  

By: Ian H
What can I say?? Pure genius on two legs!! He captivated the audience from the start and never let them go! Second time of seeing JP live and, if anything, this was better!! I read in a previous review about his backing group not being up to scratch! Nonsense. Apart from the fact that the man doesn't need a backing group, they were excellent. Hadn't heard some of his new stuff, but it was the same high standard which we've come to expect. Stay well John, and come back soon!! You're a star John and there aren't many stars about these days!!

Venue: OLYMPIA THEATRE, DUBLIN IRELAND
06-NOVEMBER- 2005  - Support Philip Donnelly - Guest back up Pat McLaughlin

By: Grinder
Wow! I've seen John Prine live a few times before, going back to the late 1980's, but his show last night in Dublin would be hard to beat. He sang loads of the old songs including the wonderful 'Sam Stone', but which was almost ruined for me by some gobshite nearby 'singing' along. 'Angel from Montgomery' was stunning aided by some spooky slide by Jason Wilber - a fantastic guitarist. The new songs from 'Fair & Square' were equally brilliant. I especially enjoyed 'Crazy As A Loon', 'Some Humans Ain't Human', 'Long Monday' and 'The Other Side Of Town'. He finished the set with a great version of 'Lake Marie'. Philip Donnelly joined the guys on stage for the encore, finishing up with 'The Speed of the Sound of Loneliness' and 'Paradise' and sending the full house home very happy indeed. As I said at the start - Wow!!

By: Leroy
A journey from the "fabled" jungles of East St. Paul to catch this one. As the Irish gent next to me kept exclaiming, "Brilliant!" A packed house, one of America's greatest song writers, wonderful band.....and Philip Donnelly.  I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

By: eamonn mccartan
first time at a jprine show.a fantastic show from start to finish.support act dubliner philip donnelly was great,he and john did an encore together.i was really looking forward to the show and it was everything i hoped for and more.come back soon

By: Jerpoint
First time to see John Prine but felt his backing group could be beefed up a bit. The lead guitarist was brilliant but it appeared to me to be a cheap show and could not be compared with Alison Krauss a few weeks ago at same venue. When singing Lake Marie the lack of a good backing group was so evident. Like Brian Kennedy whom I saw a few weeks ago are we now to be given a headline singer with a skimpy backing group.

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