JOHN PRINE
REVIEWS
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JOHN PRINE: IN PERSON & ON STAGE
BY JOHN PRINE
2010
Manufacturer: Oh Boy Records
This live album is a culmination of John Prine's last few years touring and contains 14 songs, perfectly balanced between classic hits and new treasures from the Grammy Award-winning “Fair & Square” CD.
Track list:
1. Spanish Pipedream
2. She Is My Everything
3. In Spite Of Ourselves (with Iris DeMent)
4. Long Monday
5. The Late John Garfield Blues (with Sara Watkins)
6. The Bottomless Lake
7. Bear Creek Blues
8. Saddle In The Rain
9. Angel From Montgomery (with Emmylou Harris)
10. Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore
11. Mexican Home (with Josh Ritter)
12. Unwed Fathers (with Iris DeMent)
13. Glory Of True Love
14. Paradise (with Kane Welch Kaplin)
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LYRICS
Chords
Get yours at Oh Boy Records
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Some four decades since his remarkable debut, John Prine has stayed at the top of his game, both as a performer and songwriter. Recently honored at the Library of Congress by US Poet Laureate Ted Kooser, he’s been elevated from the annals of songwriters into the realm of bonafide American treasures.
Long considered a “songwriter’s songwriter,” John Prine is a rare talent who writes the songs other songwriters would sell their souls for. Evidence of this is the long list of songwriters who have recorded gems from his extensive catalog, including Johnny Cash, Bonnie Raitt, the Everly Brothers, John Denver, Kris Kristofferson, Carly Simon, Ben Harper, Joan Baez, and many others.
“He’s so good, we’re gonna have to break his fingers,” Kris Kristofferson once said after being justifiably stunned by a Prine performance. Bob Dylan remarked, “Beautiful songs… Nobody but Prine could write like that.”
And now he’s back with a brand new live album, In Person & On Stage, which is perfectly balanced between classic hits and new treasures from his Grammy Award-winning Fair & Square. It’s a culmination of his last few years touring and features duet renditions of some of early songs such as “Angel From Montgomery” (here in a breathtaking duet with Emmylou Harris) as well as later ones like “Unwed Fathers” (with Iris DeMent) and one of the most poignant songs ever from a husband to a wife, “She Is My Everything.”
The album hits stores on May 25 on Oh Boy Records, Prine’s own independent label which he started with long-time manager Al Bunetta, and whose initial release was in 1981. Hand-picked from hundreds of recent concerts, these recordings represent Prine’s most memorable live album to date. If his biggest fans had a collective voice, it’s no doubt these would be the recordings they chose.
From “Long Monday” to “Saddle In The Rain” and “The Late John Garfield Blues (with Sara Watkins),” Prine’s songs are so hauntingly evocative of the laughter and tears inherent in the human condition, so purely precise and finely etched, that lines from them linger in our hearts and minds like dreams, separate from the songs.
Always seeking to strike a balance in his work, Prine said he wrote funny songs so as to get back to the tragic ones. The fan-favorite and whimsical “In Spite Of Ourselves” is a highlight on the record, thanks to the juxtaposition of Prine’s vocals with those of his longtime-collaborator Iris DeMent.
Then on the deeply touching “Mexican Home,” Prine shares the microphone with the immensely-talented Josh Ritter, who often shows flashes of Prine brilliance in his own writing. And the track is rounded off with great electric guitar and bass work from longtime Prine bandmates Jason Wilber and Dave Jacques.
With his moving performances on In Person & On Stage , John Prine has melded his staggering penchant for detail, his proclivity to be both hilarious and deeply serious (and often in the same song), with a visceral embrace of roots music. This new album is further evidence that the passion and poignancy instilled in his songs is unmatched.
For a free preview of the live album, please visit ohboy.com/freetrack and download “She Is My Everything. ”
Words by Paul Zollo.
Read a Review..... here ..... and another review here
Prine provides perfection
John Prine: In Person and On Stage
By: Nikki M. Mascali - Weekender Associate Editor
Read the full review HERE
For 40 years, John Prine has been one of the most prolific musicians/songwriters around, and the reasons why are clear on his latest live jaunt, “In Person & On Stage.” Accompanying Prine’s lead vocals, acoustic and electric guitar are Jason Wilber (lead guitar, mandolin, backing vocals), Dave Jaques (upright and electric bass, backing vocals), some friends and more than a few of the musician’s humorous anecdotes. The rollicking “Spanish Pipedream” starts things off with plucky guitar and Prine urging, “Blow up your TV/ Throw away your paper” to find Jesus. “She Is My Everything,” a tender ode to his wife Fiona, follows. “Long Monday” features slow strumming guitar, and Prine’s rugged voice as he sings “like a honey bee buzzin’ ’round a glass of sweet Chablis” is magical. Sara Watkins donates her haunting vocals and fiddle on the poignant “The Late John Garfield Blues,” which precedes a catchy rendition of “The Bottomless Lake.” Try not to tap your foot along to “Bear Creek Blues,” where the water “tastes like cherry wine,” or be affected by the dark “Saddle In The Rain,” which features Prine’s guitar at its best. The latter is a standout with imagery that truly proves why he is considered a “songwriter’s songwriter.” Emmylou Harris helps on the majestic steel-guitar tinged Prine classic “Angel From Montgomery,” a song from his self-titled 1971 album that’s been covered by everyone from Bonnie Raitt to Ben Harper. Prine pokes fun at phony patriotism on the great “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore” and shares how the song came to be in 1968 when he was a mailman who dreaded delivering Readers’ Digest. Closer “Paradise” is delicious, with fiddle by Fats Kaplin, mandolin by Kieran Kane and backing vocals courtesy of Kane Welch Kaplin. “In Person & On Stage” is a fine addition to Prine’s extensive catalog — and a great glimpse into who exactly is the man, the musician and the legend. Rating: W W W W 1/2
By: David Burger
Prine shows he is a master of the live album -- Grade: A- Music » Country-fried folk singer-songwriter John Prine will perform at Red Butte Garden on Aug. 19. Just in time, the wicked singer with a twangy croak releases a live acoustic album, "In Person & On Stage." The generous 72-minute, 14-track collection features appearances with Emmylou Harris, Josh Ritter, Sara Watkins and Iris Dement, and includes songs from his eponymous 1971 debut to his 2005 album "Fair and Square," which won a Grammy. These gorgeously-recorded songs are deceptively simple, always with a wry twist to make sure you'll still listening. And listen, with delight, you will. http://www.sltrib.com/features/ci_15151185
By: Just another Prine fan!
This is a great Review! here
Nothin’ But Big Old Hearts Dancin’ In Our Eyes: John Prine ---Reflection--- May 11, 2010 at 10:58 AM | by City Arts Online
written by Maggie Jackson, special to City Arts
So, I saw John Prine at the Paramount on April 17, back at the start of Spring, when it actually felt like Spring. Spring was in the air, and by Spring, I mean love, and nobody knows more about love than Prine. In a career that’s spanned four decades, and produced over twenty albums, Prine has met love, left love, given love, lost love, ridiculed love, and all-in-all hunted love down and named it from every angle you can imagine. The album he’s on tour for, John Prine: In Person & On Stage, features the best of the best of the best of Prine’s love.
One of these kinds of love is nostalgia, something most artists are rightfully wary of, but Prine goes headlong into it and that’s part of what makes it work. It’s honest. And a beautiful thing about Prine’s long career is that this nostalgia has had a chance to double.
A quick personal segue: I’ve been working on an independent film project about Kentucky’s bourbon industry and all its intersections with the community, history and landscape. One of these crossroads runs through my family’s farm in Danville, Kentucky, where I grew up. This is Central Kentucky, not exactly the same coal mining region of Muhlenberg County that’s referred to in Prine’s “Paradise,” but an impossible-to-return-to paradise just the same.
“Paradise,” written for his father, was on Prine’s self-titled debut album released in 1971. He often encores with this song, which allows his body of work to come full circle. It was the same this time at the Paramount. I was there, wrestling with my own intersections — considering love and a move back to the south, and there was Prine, whose voice has accompanied me through a thousand other such changes, when at the end of the show, that showcased nearly every brilliant song he’s ever written, came the familiar opening stanza:
When I was a child my family would travel Down to Western Kentucky where my parents were born And there’s a backward old town that’s often remembered So many times that my memories are worn
I can’t imagine the world without John Prine. ----
To say his voice is authentic is to under-appreciate the legacy. His unparalleled songwriting has inspired musicians across all genres. Prine is a lover, a friend, an ex, a drinking buddy, a grandfather and a rhyme-making guru. “You Got Gold,” for example, offers this little jewel:--- Life is a blessing, it’s a delicatessen Of all the little favors you do.
Or, from the end of, “The Sins of Memphisto:”
Esmeralda and the Hunchback of Notre Dame They humped each other like they had no shame They paused as they posed for a Polaroid photo She whispered in his ear “Exactly Odo Quasimoto."
I mean, c’mon, that is awesome.
On a cross-country road trip, a friend of mine once smirked that Prine must be an acquired taste. I fumed silently for a few minutes and then retaliated by insisting we listen to every Prine CD that I had in the car. That friend ultimately went to see a Prine show later the same year.---- As for you: if “Angel from Montgomery” isn’t already a personal anthem, take it for a spin this weekend. Whatever season you’re going through, I promise there is a Prine song for it. ---
By: Randy Ray
Listen up, gentle and sharp folk. It’s 2010, and John Prine is still alive and kicking some substantial roots rock doors down. Let one and all follow, whether they are listeners, who are most fortunate to have the man’s live tunes piping out from their speakers, or the artists, who have been touched and influenced by the songwriting icon, on the tribute CD. http://www.jambands.com/reviews/cds/2010/05/24/john-prine-various-artists-in-person-on-stage-broken-heart-and-dirty-windows-songs-of-john-prine
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