John Prine

John Prine

John Prine (born October 10, 1946, in Maywood, Illinois) is an American country/folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a recording artist and live performer since the early 1970s.

Biography

Prine is the son of William Prine and Verna Hamm. It is widely believed, but untrue, that his grandfather played guitar with Merle Travis. Prine himself started playing guitar at age 14. He was a postman for five years and served in the Army before beginning his musical career in Chicago.

In the late 1960s, while Prine was still delivering mail in Maywood, Ill. he began to sing on open mike evenings at the Fifth Peg on Armitage Av. Chicago Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert heard him there and wrote the first review Prine ever received, calling him a great songwriter. He became a central figure in the Chicago Folk Revival, which also included such singer-songwriters as Steve Goodman, Bonnie Koloc, Jim Post and Fred Holstein. Joined by the already-established musicians such as Jethro Burns and Bob Gibson, they performed frequently at such clubs as the Earl of Old Town, the Quiet Knight, Somebody Else's Troubles and the Bulls,

In 1971 Prine's eponymous debut album was released. He and friend Steve Goodman had each been active in the Chicago folk scene before being "discovered" by Kris Kristofferson. The album included his signature songs "Illegal Smile", "Sam Stone", and the folk and country standards "Angel from Montgomery" and "Paradise." The album also included "Hello In There", a song about aging that was later covered by numerous artists and "Far From Me," a lonely waltz about lost love for a waitress that Prine later said was his favorite of all his songs. The album received many positive reviews, and some hailed Prine as "the next Dylan." Bob Dylan himself appeared unannounced at one of Prine's first New York City club appearances, anonymously backing him on harmonica.

Later albums include Sweet Revenge (1973), containing such fan favorites as "Dear Abby", "Grandpa Was A Carpenter" and "Christmas In Prison", and Common Sense (1975), with "Come Back to Us Barbara Lewis Hare Krishna Beauregard". The latter album was Prine's first to be charted in the US top 100 by Billboard, reflecting growing commercial success. Many veteran Prine fans view the release of 1978's Bruised Orange as a creative highpoint. The Steve Goodman-produced album gave listeners songs such as "The Hobo Song", "Sabu Visits the Twin Cities Alone" and the title track showing that he could capture the human condition as easily as writing politically-inspired anthems.

In 1991, Prine released the Grammy Award-winning The Missing Years, his first collaboration with producer and Heartbreakers bassist Howie Epstein. The title song records Prine's humorous take on what Jesus did in the unrecorded years between his childhood and his ministry. In 1995, Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings was released, another collaboration with Epstein. Prine followed in 1999 with In Spite of Ourselves, which was unusual for him in that it contained only one original song - the rest were covers of classic country songs - and all were duets with well-known female country vocalists, including Lucinda Williams,Emmylou Harris, Dolores Keane and Iris DeMent. (John referred to them as his "favorite girl singers".)

In early 1998, Prine was diagnosed with throat cancer and underwent surgery to remove the tumor followed by radiation therapy. Some of Prine's listeners believe that the surgery has added "gravel" to his voice. In 2003, he was given a Lifetime Achievement Award for songwriting by the UK's BBC Radio 2 and that same year was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame. The following year saw his classic "Sam Stone" covered by Laura Cantrell for the Future Soundtrack for America compilation.

In 2005, Prine released his first all-new offering since In Spite of Ourselves, the album Fair & Square, which tended toward a more laid-back, acoustic approach than, for example, Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings. The album contains songs such as "Safety Joe", about a man who has never taken any risks in his life, and also "Some Humans Ain't Human", Prine's protest piece on the album, which talks about the ugly side of human nature and includes a quick shot at President George W. Bush. Fair & Square won the 2006 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. The album contains original songs plus two covers: A.P. Carter's "Bear Creek Blues" and Blaze Foley's "Clay Pigeons."

Prine received the Artist of the Year award at the Americana Music Awards on September 9th, 2005. The award was accepted in his name by awards host and long-time friend Billy Bob Thornton.

His song "Storm Windows" appears on 4 CDs ["Storm Windows", "Great Days" (CD2), "Live On Tour", "Souvenirs"] and is track seven on all four of the CDs.

Discography

Albums

Year	Album	Chart Positions				Label
		US	US Country	US Internet	US Indie
1971	John Prine	154				Atlantic
1972	Diamonds in the Rough	148
1973	Sweet Revenge	135
1975	Common Sense	66
1976	Prime Prine: The Best of John Prine	196
1978	Bruised Orange	116				Asylum
1979	Pink Cadillac	152
1980	Storm Windows	144
1984	Aimless Love					Oh Boy
1986	German Afternoons
1988	John Prine Live
1991	The Missing Years
1993	Great Days: The John Prine Anthology					Rhino
	A John Prine Christmas					Oh Boy
1995	Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings	159
1997	Live on Tour
1999	In Spite of Ourselves	197	21	19
2000	Souvenirs
2005	Fair & Square	55		19	2
2007	Standard Songs For Average People (with Mac Wiseman)			23	37

External links

• Official John Prine Website
• John Prine Shrine - Official John Prine fan site
• A Pictorial Trip to John Prine's Paradise, KY
• A Literary Evening with John Prine and Ted Kooser. March 9, 2005. The Poetry and Literature Center at the Library of Congress.
• Interview with John Prine - KyndMusic, September 2005
• 1971 Radio Interview with John Prine on WGLD Oak Park - fr JOHNPRINE.NET
• John Prine at IMDb