John Prine - ever heard of him?

[A_B]

John Prine - have you ever heard of him?

[Sabo]

Dick.

ETA: I mean AB is a dick, not John Prine (whoever the hell he is).

[mister d]

If you (internally) say "yeah, he's a _______, right?", does that count as a yes or do you need certainty?

[A_B]

If you (internally) say "yeah, he's a _______, right?", does that count as a yes or do you need certainty?

If you have a general sense of what he does, I think it's a yes.

[sancarlos]

John Prine is awesome. I saw him in concert before some Swampers were even born.

[mister d]

Way to ruin it, man.

[Steve of phpBB]

John Prine is awesome. I saw him in concert before some Swampers were even born.

I've never seen him, but I'm sure there will be a correlation between "Yes" and "Old Fuck".

[DSafetyGuy]

Never outside of the Swamp.

[Pruitt]

Heard of him, not sure that I've ever really heard him.

[GoodKarma]

I've heard of him...my Dad is a casual fan. He was from Chicago-ish I believe.

[Rex]

Love me some Prine.

[Rush2112]

There is a recording of the Prine show at Telluride a few years back available for download in the old fogey music thread.

[DC47]

Prine's first album was legendary. When this came out in the early '70s, I thought it was as good as anything Dylan had done. I recall hearing that he wrote much of it while working as a mailman in Chicago. When he had the time, he'd sit inside a big public mail boxes on his route and write.

Paradise, Hello In There, Angel From Montgomery, Far From Me (an undiscovered gem), Sam Stone, Donald and Lydia, Illegal Smile, Quiet Man. He was writing about what I was thinking about, and more. Radical politics, Vietnam and social commentary. Getting stoned and addiction. Man destroying nature. Loneliness and love; losing love. Darkness of the soul. Amazing lyrics, lovely melodies, and a sweet mix of country and soul musicianship.

[media]https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... GeKHO2-z82[/media]

[DC47]

Magical poetry, powerhouse song. Sung by the perfect woman to give it life.



Another brilliant rendition: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=toJ3ZYWRh24

[DC47]

My favorite Bonnie Raitt clip. Perhaps because this is about the year I first saw her play. Incredible band.

Harp player Norton Buffalo was leading his own bands around the Bay Area, and was always terrific. In this song he's a tour de force. Yes, the rapid key changes are a bit of a stunt. Kind of like Hendrix picking with his tongue. But this is also brilliant, melodic musicianship.



I later played guitar with a guy who was in a band with Bonnie's brother, who I knew as a carpenter working up in the coastal mountains of northern California. But I never saw her except on a stage. Of all the people I regret not meeting -- a long list -- in California in the 70s, she's at the top of the list.

[howard]

I saw Norton Buffalo several times. Bummed to see from his wiki page that he died a few years ago.

[Rush2112]

This is fantastic.

[DC47]

Yeah. I've seen a few great harp players. Norton is my favorite. Here's some more of the young Buffalo, playing with his frequent associate up in SF, Elvin Bishop.

This clip is from the famed country bar The Palomino Club in Hollywood. Starting in the 50s this was the watering hole for country acts on the west coast. The one-name guys all played here. Merle. Johnny. Willie. Jerry Lee (counts as one). Buck. Later the country rockers made the scene. The Burrito Brothers. Emmylou. Jerry Jeff Walker. Linda Ronstadt.

Norton lights it up. He was great to have in a band, any band. Just throw it to him and you get a stream of great licks and high energy. Check it out later in the clip when Elvin wanders the crowd and hands his guitar off to the great Johnny V. Now this is a cool jam session. They're just not doing it like this anymore.

[HDO45331]

John Prine is one of my very favorite singer/songwriters. I first heard about him in 1973, when Kris Kristofferson started his concert by saying his first two songs were from one of America's greatest poet laureats, John Prine. He did Billy the Bum, and The Late John Garfield Blues.

Prine co-wrote you Never Even Call Me By My Name with Steve Goodman, made famous by David Allen Coe.

The first time I saw Prine was in the late 70s, opening for Bonnie Raitt, at Red Rocks. Well, they average 3 days of rain during the summer, and I got one of them. They moved the concert to McNichols Auditorium (Nuggets home) and while the concert was fantastic, Red Rocks would have been great.

The second time I saw him was in the late 80s or early 90s, at the Victoria Theater in Dayton. He opened for Arlo Guthrie. Arlo put on a very good show, but I loved Prine.

The last time I saw him was a few years ago, in Columbus. Maura O'Connell, an Irish singer, opened for him. Fantastic show.

Prine's first album was a masterpiece, and it is funny that he starts our with a song, Illegal Smile, that shows the reason for the rest of the album.

He is in my top 10 of living singer/songwriters.

[Nonlinear FC]

I don't remember what I was looking for or what the connection was, but I found John Prine using the "original" Pandora, when it was all lines linking similar/related artists to each other.

Without really digging around on his background, I began going through his work and was instantly hooked.