SIX O'CLOCK NEWS
I GOT EXCITED JUST BEING PART OF THAT SCENE
REVIEWS OF THE
JOHN PRINE CONCERT TOUR 1999
ENGLAND SHOW

GUINNESS FLEADH, FINSBURY PARK, LONDON ENGLAND, JULY 10

• FROM: Maher Mughrabi, Aberdeen, Scotland
  Well now, I guess I'm just the latest in a long line of people (but not long enough) to have had that same experience Kris Kristofferson had all those years ago. Last Saturday (July 10) I was at the Fleadh, a Celtic music festival held at Finsbury Park in London. A friend invited me, and I had come down from Scotland to see it. I was there to see people like the Barenaked Ladies and Elvis Costello and Eddi Reader, but when I saw John Prine's name it made me stop and think. I hadn't wanted to see Van Morrison, an old hero of mine, 'cos his voice is shot, and Prine was on at the same time.   I only knew one song of his - The Speed of The Sound of Loneliness - from Nanci Griffith's Other Voices, Other Rooms album. But I liked it, and my recent enthusiasm for people like Nanci, Townes van Zandt and Guy Clark (all sparked by a Chip Taylor concert I went to, but that's another story) told me this might be worth seeing.   Prine was on the second stage in an old big top tent - much more intimate than the festival's main stage. Unlike Kristofferson, though, I was surrounded by people, most of them much older than me (I'm 26). I had no idea how old Prine was (the photo in Nanci's album notes is of a young man) but when he finally sang it seemed his age was finally starting to fit the things his songs had to say.   Remember that I knew none of these songs - there was no easy familiarity for me. But each one ushered me into another world, and at times it was as if I'd always known them. On this site I've tracked many of them down. He made us laugh with Dear Abby and Whistle and Fish, he rocked the place but most of all he moved us deeply with spare, unadorned performances of songs like Sam Stone, Lake Marie, Souvenirs and Angel From Montgomery. His only accompaniment was his acoustic, a bassist and a young guy who alternated between electric guitar and mandolin. There was just one song I'm having trouble tracking down, a song to a woman fallen on hard times. I wish I could tell you more of the words, but the one moment that sticks out in my head was Prine closing his eyes and singing "Come on baby, spend the night with me" as if he had no energy left for a stronger plea. In one hour he took us through the whole gamut of emotions, ending with Lake Marie. Nothing I saw that day or in damn near 15 years of musical obsession from heavy metal to soul to rap to reggae to opera has ever topped it. Maybe the Indigo Girls in Edinburgh came close.   Yet he seemed genuinely surprised and flattered by the roar of acclaim at the end - everyone in the world knows Johnny Cash and Willie Nelson, and they're great performers, but he was their equal in every way and their superior in my eyes that day. I bought my first Prine CD (a best of) on Monday morning.    I've just found another one he sang - All the Best!

"YEAH LITTLE BUDDY GONNA GET YOUR CHANCE -
MAKE THE PUBESCENTS ALL WET THEIR PANTS"