John Prine coming to Atlanta
John Prine is the blueprint for the Americana Man. The press shots on his very cool website make him look like a quintessential cowboy gentleman living an Idyllic life on a racnh somewhere in New Mexico. And he wouldn’t be out of place in such a setting either. His songs are among those that have sculpted how we see America. Songs of highways and heartbreaks and good old American values dot his discopraphy and tell us tales of how the real America lives.

In reality though, John lives between the Hubbub of Nashville and the peace and tranquility of Ireland. He married a Donegal girl a few years ago (a good choice I might add) and has many close ties with the cream of the Irish music scene including many of whom were guests at his wedding.

This tie to Europe isn’t that surprising as John spent some time in Germany as a guest of Uncle Sam before returning to Illinois and the beginning of a career which has spanned 30 odd years and some 17 albums. His 1999 release In Spite of Ourselves was nominated for a grammy and although it only featured one of John’s own songs had some great collaborations with people like Lucinda Williams, Trisha Yearwood, Melba Montgomery, Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Connie Smith, Fiona Prine and our own magic Dolores Keane. And in case that wasn’t enough Irishness he also now appears on the new Chieftains album Further Down the Old Plank Road.

Some of his biggest successes have been at the hands of others with his songs being recorded by a host of stars. Nancy Griffith has in a lot of ways made Speed of the Sound of Loneliness her own and his songs have been covered by music luminaries as diverse as Bonnie Raitt, Silly Wizard, Johnny Cash, Tammy Wynette and back at home our own Paul Brady.

With all of this Prine still has time to run his own record label. Oh Boy records is Nashville based and has many well respected names on it’s books. Janis Ian has a new live album coming out on it soon and the generations are brought together with new releases from legendary singer Kris Kristofferson and the relatively younger but no less brilliant Todd Snider. John’s own stuff is also available from their online store as is a new live recording from Ricky Skaggs.

John is currently avoiding the Carndonagh weekly cattle mart while on tour of the states with his band. He plays Lafayette Georgia as part of the Harvestfest weekend on September 27th and that’s where we will catch up with Ireland latest adopted son and buy him a well earned pint.

Related links

John’s own Site http://www.ohboy.com/johnprine.html
Harvestfest http://www.harvestfest.com

or you can check out our Harvestfest preview right here on JigTime HarvestFest