John Prine

 

It's almost embarrassing to admit that I first learned of John Prine due to my sister's love of John Denver and his cover of Prine's terrific "Spanish Pipedream" ("blow up your TV"). But, I should really be embarrassed as I can still listen to early Denver, as well! I have been reminded of Prine (and Denver) relatively recently with Las Vegas' Big Like Texas covering this same song. In any case, I never really explored too much of Prine's work and don't believe that I have ever owned any full albums of his, so I thought it was time to rectify that.

With a Dylan-esque drawl and a folk/alt-country sound, comparisons to Zimmerman are inevitable, but regardless, Prine definitely has his own sound and style. With simple backing, John sings and plays basic acoustic guitar and provides humorous numbers like the opening "Illegal Smile" and the aforementioned "Spanish Pipedream" but then gets melancholy and serious in tales of relationships running their course ("Hello in There"), veterans fighting drug addiction ("Sam Stone"), the inevitable demise of small towns to "progress" ("Paradise" - this has a nice, easy, bluegrass feel due to the fiddle addition) and lots more.

He borrows a bit of melody from Dylan for "Pretty Good", but the guitar and organ gives it a laid back rocker-feel, humor'n'politics collide in the country-styled (complete with pedal steel) "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore" that has a bit of melodic similarity with "Spanish Pipedream" - no one says you can't steal from yourself, do they? More pedal steel work highlights "Far From Me", another sad story of relationships gone south, with further terrific imagery, an old woman lives with dejection'n'depression in the catchy "Angel From Montgomery", "Quiet Man" has a nice, mid-tempo feel with a brief bit of nice lead guitar and lyrically is seems to be an exercise in clever couplets, "Donald and Lydia" is a slow, waltz tempo tale of small town romance broken up by the military, "Six O'Clock News" tells of a one-night stand which results in a single mom struggling and the son growing up to kill himself - pretty damn harrowing in a traditional folk song kinda way - and then the proceeding close with the more upbeat "Flashback Blues" in which the narrator relives his youth.

Prine's lyrics are pretty exceptional, he is a fine story teller, and the music is a nice 70's mix of singer/songwriter, folk, a touch of country'n'bluegrass, along with whatever else strikes his fancy. Not always as musically memorable as some of his contemporaries, but fine stuff, regardless.