John Prine

Last night, I was in the same room with John Prine. The auditorium was on a college campus by the ocean in Jim Morrison's hometown of Melbourne. The place was retro and smelled like old wood. The instruments were beat up, especially John Prine's guitar (his 1968 Martin D-28). He looked older, but he was the same John Prine.

The first thing he said in his raspy Prine voice was, "I've never been here before, so I'm gonna stay a while." That began an intimate night that turned out to be the best concert I'd ever seen.

The first song he sang was called "Spanish Pipedream".

Blow up your T.V. throw away your paper
Go to the country, build you a home
Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches
Try and find Jesus on your own

Two band members accompanied John Prine. Guitarist Jason Wilber (a handsome young red headed man) used his black Telecaster to conjure twangy leads, pedal steel guitar effects and bottle-slide riffs. Dave Jacques (a tall, thin man in a black suit) thumped along on upright bass, occasionally using a bow. Prine, Wilber and Jacques smiled up a storm. The audience was smiling too, as they were in the same room with one of their heroes.

Prine cracked jokes and sang each song as if he just wrote it, or perhaps he just relived the past as he sang. Before each song, he told us why he wrote it. He spoke about his early days, writing songs such as "Souvenirs" on his Chicago mail route. He smirked as he said, "The government paid me to write songs." He recalled for the crowd how he first imagined that he had come up with a song so complicated that he couldn't play it on guitar, then realized "it was just the same three chords I always used."

Prine's sly humor was on display all night, most obviously on a well-timed monologue in the middle of "That's the Way That the World Goes 'Round." That bit, tied together his misunderstanding of a Fats Domino lyric he loved when he was a boy to a much loved Prine story in which a lady from San Francisco thought 'half an inch of water" in "That's The Way the World Goes 'Round" was "happy enchilada".

Prine explaining the happy enchilada song:



His songs were sad, eerie, morbid. They were funny, intimate, witty, silly and deep. One song was all of these things. This song is called "Lake Marie".


Prine singing "Lake Marie":



He sang a song about strip mining in Kentucky ("Paradise"), one about a war veteran with a drug addiction ("Sam Stone"), a few about the demise of a relationship. One song called "Fish & Whistle" was one of my favorite ones. The chorus goes like this:

Father forgive us for what we must do
You forgive us we'll forgive you
We'll forgive each other till we both turn blue
Then we'll whistle and go fishing in heaven.

Prine said he could not pass up a chance to sing a song about an astronaut since Melbourne was so close to Nasa. Then he sang "Space Monkey", a funny song he wrote about an astronaut monkey from the 50's. Every song was like a story being told by a good friend.
It went on for over 2 hours. Even then, folks were shouting out requests.
"I know 'em all," Prine joked. There was something comforting about being in that auditorium with Prine—sort of like being with an old friend.





John Prine was the highlight of the concert for me, but the opening act was also wonderful. Josh Ritter, a 30-year-old folk musician from Idaho sang his heart out. He immediately evoked that intimate feeling which was the theme of the night. He was smiling from ear to ear the whole time. Ritter was modest and obviously very honored to be on tour with John Prine. He complimented Prine several times and they even did "Paradise" together at the end of the show. Ritter beamed at Prine during their performance together.

Josh Ritter was charming. He sheepishly thanked the audience profusely and remarked at the large crowd. He was handsome, with a bunch of curly blond hair and a vintage suit. His songs had depth and revealed his influences—Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Bob Dylan, and even John Prine. He was really something. He started with a song about a woman and a joke about Sarah Palin (which I loved). His song was about a girl with a bright smile and dark eyes. It was lovely. As with many of his songs, it featured a folk character, Calamity Jane.

Ritter singing "Bright Eyes":



He also sang Harrisburg, a song with lyrics highlighting another folk constant—trains and railroad tracks. I love songs about trains.

It's a long way to Heaven; it's closer to Harrisburg
And that's still a long way from the place where we are
And if evil exists its a pair of train tracks
And the devil is a railroad car

Ritter singing "Harrisburg":



My favorite song performed by Josh Ritter was a version of Mississippi John Hurt's "Louis Collins", called "Folk Bloodbath". It is a song featuring a few well-known folk heroes. Josh Ritter said he wanted to "kill them off in one song". It turned into a lovely and sad song.

Josh Ritter singing Folk Bloodbath:





Between songs, Ritter told stories as well, and made two more jokes about Sarah Palin (which were surprisingly well received). He told of how he was originally going to be a neuro-scientist like his parents, but realized two weeks into it that he would end up as a musician by default. I, for one, am very glad of that.

I can now say I've seen John Prine in concert and I was glad to discover someone else as well. Music is lovely, isn't it?