Verizon Wireless Theater Houston Tx  - Date: June 10, 2006

By: David Stone
What a pleasure it was to finally see one of the world's great songwriters (arguably THE greatest) in performance. Read the blog post here: http://stoneposts.blogspot.com/2006/06/john-prine.html

By: Ann Becker
John Prine was unbelievably excellent which was no surprise. He can really connect with the audience by giving anecdotes of his fascinating life. He also paid respects to his MD Anderson doctor, his beautiful black-haired bride and his Mother and her cooking. Talk about being able to jam...the man never stops for long. Hopefully the next time he is in town, he'll visit my used bookstore, Becker's Books. It would certainly be one of the highlights of my stay on this planet.

By: SEW
Twice in my life, I've taken friends who could have cared less about John Prine to prine concerts. Both times, they left the concerts as diehard fans. The June 10 show was just great, not as many pre-song stories/anecdotes as in past shows I'd attended, but the music was spot-on and Prine himself seemed to be having a great time. Todd Snider also did a phenomenal job as the opener and came back out during Prine's encore to duet on "Paradise." I can't describe how much fun it is to see John Prine in concert. it's almost like a close friend is sitting on a barstool next to you, a master storyteller talking about life in song. He'll make you laugh. He'll make you damn near cry.

June 9, Majestic Theatre, San Antonio TX - with Jason Wilber, Pat McLaughlin, Dave Jacques   support: Todd Snider

PREVIEW:
By: Jim Beal Jr.
Prine serenades with heartache and humor - - - Web Posted: 06/08/2006 12:00 AM CDT - - - San Antonio Express-News - - - Full Article here:
   John Prine knows exactly what inspired him to start playing guitar and writing songs.
  "My brother taught me," Prine said. "My oldest brother, Dave Prine, taught himself to play guitar and took a liking to old-timey music. I saw him playing and it struck a chord. I thought, 'If he can play guitar maybe I can play guitar.' - - -
   "He recognized that and he knew I had a bad attention problem. He told me I had to pay attention to play guitar. One day I played a Carter Family song and then I had a natural inclination to write my own songs. I thought it was a hobby — and then I did it to impress girls. I liked all kinds of music, but I had no great inclination to play Chuck Berry or R&B songs, though those are the records I'd buy."
  Prine turned that hobby/girl-impressing pursuit into a full-time job. Prine, who started recording his songs in the early '70s, has won Grammy awards and heard his songs covered by artists ranging from Bonnie Raitt to George Strait to Bette Midler to String Cheese Incident. He's on the road with his latest Grammy winner, "Fair & Square," released on his Oh Boy label. - - - Prine and his band, bassist David Jacques and multi-instrumentalist Jason Wilber, augmented this time around by songwriter Pat McLaughlin, co-writer of some of the "Fair & Square" songs, on mandolin and rhythm guitar, tonight will work the Majestic Theatre.
   John Prine
   Where: Majestic Theatre,
    224 E. Houston St.
    When: 8 p.m. Friday
    For openers: Todd Snider
    Tickets: $42.75-$49.75 at Ticketmaster outlets

------ More Coverage - - -
   It's all in the story for John Prine
   Todd Snider, a former Oh Boy-label singing songwriter, will open. Listen for Snider to offer previews from his upcoming CD "The Devil You Know," scheduled for release Aug. 8. Showtime is 8 p.m. Prine has written some of the most serious songs going ("Sam Stone," "Hello in There," "Christmas in Prison") but also has penned funny tunes, including "Illegal Smile," "Jesus the Missing Years" and, with Peter Case, "Space Monkey."
   "I guess it hasn't been conscious. I know it hasn't," he said. "Some songs have turned out funny. 'That's the Way that the World Goes 'Round' is not particularly humorous. But when I wrote it I had to get outside myself and I realized there's a thin line between heartache and humor."
   Prine knows there are some songs he has to do in concert.
  "There are certain songs that I know I have to play," he said, 'Sam Stone,' 'Hello in There' and some others. When I have a new record, the sets have to get longer or the chatter has to get shorter. I try to fit everything into two hours. I keep the ones I know they're gonna be hollering for, but I'm not sick of 'em either. I've pretty much made friends with all of them."
   Prine can be funny and he can be serious, but he's also a realist. Take his reaction to the "Fair & Square" Grammy win, for instance.
  "With a Grammy and $4 you can get a cup of coffee at Starbucks," he said, laughing. "But winning a Grammy for me is a boost. My label is me and two other guys. When you go up against guys from Sony and win, it's a big thing for an independent label. I'm not waiting for the next thing. I write when I'm inspired to write and when I get 10 or 12 songs, I record. No matter what's going on in the world I can say what I think."
   On "Fair & Square" Prine did a song called "Some Humans Ain't Human," a not-too-kind take on the current administration and the war in Iraq. "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore" appeared on his 1971 album "John Prine." He's never shied away from saying what he thinks.
   "My wife is Irish. We have a house in Galway. I needed one or two songs to make a record and Bush visited over there to meet with a bunch of European politicians," Prine explained. "There were 20,000 people demonstrating against the war and they kept the demonstrators 20 miles away from the airport so Bush wouldn't see them.
  "When you're an American in Europe, most people assume you agree with the president. I couldn't not say anything. The song turned out to be more pointed than I usually write. With most antiwar songs, you're preaching to the converted. I do have people who sent angry letters. And I have had people walk out of my concerts and they don't walk out quietly.
  "Things are not at all like they were during the Vietnam War. Then you had hippies and hawks and you pretty much knew who was who. I'm glad I wrote the song and I want to go on record that I lived through the Bush administration and wrote that song. But the reaction is so much different than the reaction to 'Flag Decal,' 'Sam Stone' or 'The Great Compromise.' People agree with those songs but not this one. Most Americans think we were attacked so there must be an enemy. But why send tanks to Iraq? I don't understand who we're after and it doesn't seem like the government does, either."
   Still, Prine is a happy man. He had a battle with cancer in 1998, but recently had a checkup and received a clean bill of health.

By: Jim Beal - SAExpress
Full story here:
   Lots of people write songs. Some people write good songs. Not so many people write great songs.
   One thing that sets the great apart from the good in the songwriting world is the ability to write serious songs that are funny, funny songs that are serious and songs that are stone cold serious with no touch of mawkishness. - - - That's one reason John Prine is among the greats. Another reason is the man knows how to entertain. Friday night, in front of a crowd of about 1,200 in the Majestic Theater, Prine and his long-running band, Jason Wilber (guitar, mandolin, harmonica) and Dave Jacques (bass), augmented by singing songwriter Pat McLaughlin (mandolin, guitar) worked through a 26-song, 2 hour and 15 minute set that served as a powerhouse Prine songbook overview. And, just in case you're keeping score, it took 67 minutes for someone to yell for “Illegal Smile.”
  Prine mixed it up well, opening with a couple of classics, including “Blow Up Your TV” and “Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore,” both of which qualify for funny/serious, and “Come On Baby, Spend the Night With Me,” from the stone cold serious side of the ledger.
  With, “Fair & Square,” his Grammy winning CD, still fairly new, Prine did an excellent job of delivering old songs and new, doing “Crazy as a Loon” and “Taking a Walk,” both from the new disc and both written with McLaughlin, as well as “Fish & Whistle,” “Grandpa was a Carpenter,” “Souvenirs,” “Hello in There” and others that count as classics.
  In the middle of the show, Prine worked solo and still hit the old/new balance with “Long Monday” and “Other Side of Town” sharing space with “Donald and Lydia,” “Dear Abby” and “Sam Stone.”
  By the time the encore rolled around, everybody in the house and on the stage worked together for “Daddy's Little Pumpkin” and, of course, “Illegal Smile.” Opener Todd Snider joined Prine and company for the evening-ending “Paradise.”
  Snider, who honed his chops at Cheatham Street Warehouse in San Marcos and recorded for Prine's Oh Boy label, was the perfect opening act. His talking-blues-meets-quirky-folk dovetails nicely with Prine's work. The audience recognized that and got behind Snider from note one of “Can't Complain.” They stayed with Snider through “Play a Train Song,” “Ballad of the Kingsmen” and a preview of songs such as “Carla” and “If Tomorrow Never Comes” from a new CD, “The Devil You Know,” scheduled for release in August. - - -
  When great writers and audiences come together it makes for a great Friday night.

By: Jim Beal Jr.
IT'S ALL IN THE STORY FOR JOHN PRINE
Web Posted: here  06/04/2006 12:00 AM CDT
San Antonio Express-News
   When it comes to writing songs, John Prine knows what he's doing.
   His lyrics aren't necessarily the kind of three-minute pop or rock or country confections that lend themselves to convenient radio airplay. His song's characters — a junkie veteran, Jesus, outsider couples, people who might well prefer solitude, a space-traveling monkey — aren't the characters who populate the tops of the charts.
   Still, the Illinois-bred, Nashville-based Prine has penned the likes of "Angel From Montgomery," "Hello in There," "Paradise" and "I Just Want to Dance With You" (co-written with Roger Cook), songs that have been recorded by artists as diverse as Bonnie Raitt, Joan Baez, Bette Midler, Dwight Yoakam, String Cheese Incident and George Strait. -
  "I've tried (songwriting) every which way, and it doesn't seem to make any difference," Prine said during a phone interview from his Nashville home. "I can use all kinds of excuses to get into it or to get out of it. I find the best songs are inspired. If something more than appeals to you, it's a song already. You just have to chip away the bad parts. And that applies to the ones that are funny and to the ones that are serious."
  While John Prine is the type of songwriter to whom other writers look for inspiration, he's also is a fan of other writers. His latest CD, the Grammy winning "Fair & Square," on Oh Boy — the label he founded in the '80s with Al Bunetta and Dan Einstein — features songs co-written by Cook, Pat McLaughlin, Keith Sykes and Donnie Fritts as well as a cover of the late Blaze Foley's "Clay Pigeons" and of A.P. Carter's "Bear Creek Blues."
  "I never used to co-write except with Steve Goodman, and that's because we spent a lot of time playing guitars in motel rooms while we were on the road," Prine said. "I moved to Nashville, and my best friends are songwriters. We go fishin' and wind up writing songs. That's purely the craft of it. I have a buddy (Roger Cook) who writes nothing but three-minute commercial songs. He's got this internal editing thing that doesn't allow him to ramble. He naturally keeps the reins over the songs. You can't blame a buddy for that."
  Together Cook and Prine have had some writing success. Don Williams had a hit with their "Love Is On a Roll." George Strait took their "I Just Want to Dance With You" to the top of the charts in 1998. The hit couldn't have come at a better time. In '98, Prine was found to have cancer, squamous cell carcinoma, on the right side of his neck. - - - "I walked out of the M.D. Anderson hospital after having radiation treatment and got in a rental car," Prine said. "The radio was tuned to no particular station, and there was my song. George Strait's version of that song paid for all the cancer treatment that insurance didn't. I had recorded that song myself 10 years earlier. (It's on Prine's "German Afternoons" disc.)
  "You never know how those things are going to happen. George Strait needed one more song to finish an album. I sent the song to his producer, Tony Brown, and they went into the studio and cut it. When it happens, it happens."
  Prine did not go home and sit down to write more George Strait hits.
  "If I wanted to chase that, I would. But it's not satisfying to me. I don't like to work that hard anyway," he said, laughing.
  The Oh Boy label has released discs by people who seem to share Prine's songwriting philosophy: Kris Kristofferson, Shawn Camp, Todd Snider, the late Steve Goodman, Slick Ballinger and Dan Reeder.
  Reeder, from the Deep South but based in Germany, might well be the definition of quirky. A painter, Reeder recorded a bunch of songs he wrote and played on instruments he built and then recorded on equipment he built. The result, the CD "Dan Reeder," is a collection of audio art that stands up under repeated spins.
  "I haven't met him yet. I've talked to him on the phone. In September he's going to come over here and do a Canadian tour with us. He got dumped right into my lap," Prine said with another of his frequent laughs. "I don't throw anything away. I like to listen to this stuff. I play these demos CDs while we're on the road. I make the band listen to 'em with me. -
  "Most of them are pretty bad, but Dan struck me as one of those people out there who are not bending over backward to be in show business. I was his favorite artist, so he sent me a CD to thank me, and boy I'm glad he did. I think the good reviews of the CD scared him, though, because he had a tough time with the sophomore effort. He had the sophomore jinx. But he got through it, and the second record will be out in the fall."
   Blaze Foley, the man who penned "Clay Pigeons," was an Austin-based singing songwriter who was murdered in 1989.
   "When I heard 'Clay Pigeons' I couldn't believe I hadn't written it," Prine said. "When I heard even the way Blaze finger-picked his guitar I thought it was me. I've been told that Blaze and me hung out for a week in Austin in the '80s, but I don't remember that. 'Clay Pigeons' is a song I couldn't get out of my system. I don't look for songs to cover, but if a song sticks in my head I have to get into it rather than ignore it."
   Perhaps the people who cover Prine's songs feel the same way.
   "I like people singing my songs around campfires," Prine added. "Basically the covers are all a compliment. Some I like better than others. But I like them now more than when I was younger. I used to be more picky. There are a lot of words to my songs. As long as people tell the story, it's OK."

By: Jack
Through the years I've never passed up an opportunity to see John Prine - and John has never disappointed. It's a bit more expensive to see John these days, but I forked over the cash without hesitation for tickets, not only for myself, but for my wife and two sons. They griped a bit at first, but, by the end of the night, all had fallen under John's spell. What a great human being John is. As long as he keeps crawling up on stage, I'll be in his audience. Unlike other singer songwriters from his generation - eg Michael Murphey the former Cosmic Cowboy turned Capitalist Cowboy - John has managed to to maintain an intergrity and genuiness that that is inspiring.

By: bandyrun
  Majestic Theatre, 224 E. Houston St. Former postman from Illinois has become one of the best and most widely acclaimed singing songwriters in Americana music; he's also one of the honchos at Oh Boy records, a label devoted to like-minded artists. Prine has overcome cancer to continue a career that's now in its fifth decade. His latest release, "Fair & Square," won a Grammy Award in February for Best Contemporary Folk Album.
  8 p.m. Tickets, $42.75-$49.75, go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday at Ticketmaster outlets