JOHN PRINE

1946 -2020

Heart broken to hear of John Prine’s death from Covid-19 overnight. A personal hero and one of America’s greatest singer songwriters (a Bob Dylan favourite) discovered and lauded by Kris Kristofferson, admired by all in country music and wider and loved by countless fans worldwide, he had been ill for some time but soldiered on, touring at one of the most extraordinary times in his career, travelling the world to play for us, having beaten two bouts of throat cancer and only when struck by this corona virus did he finally succumb at 73. He leaves behind a loving family and current wife and label manager, Fiona, who keep everyone informed as to his struggle.

This posted from Big O:

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JOHN PRINE R.I.P. 1946 - 2020 

John Prine, who for five decades wrote rich, plain-spoken songs that chronicled the struggles and stories of everyday working people and changed the face of modern American roots music, died Tuesday April 7 at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He was 73. The cause was complications related to COVID-19, his family confirmed to Rolling Stone.Prine, who left behind an extraordinary body of folk-country classics, was hospitalized last month after the sudden onset of COVID-19 symptoms, and was placed in intensive care for 13 days. Prine’s wife and manager, Fiona, announced on March 17th that she had tested positive for the virus after they had returned from a European tour.As a songwriter, Prine was admired by Bob Dylan, Kris Kristofferson, and others, known for his ability to mine seemingly ordinary experiences - he wrote many of his classics as a mailman in Maywood, Illinois - for revelatory songs that covered the full spectrum of the human experience. There’s “Hello in There,” about the devastating loneliness of an elderly couple; “Sam Stone,” a portrait of a drug-addicted Vietnam soldier suffering from PTSD; and “Paradise,” an ode to his parents’ strip-mined hometown of Paradise, Kentucky, which became an environmental anthem. Prine tackled these subjects with empathy and humor, with an eye for “the in-between spaces,” the moments people don’t talk about, he told Rolling Stone in 2017. “Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism,” Dylan said in 2009. “Midwestern mind-trips to the nth degree.” - Rolling Stone 

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An indication here as to why I loved John Prine so much . . . . sad loss, we are all the poorer for the passing of a troubadour, a minstrel and folk musician extraordinaire, the greatest of story tellers in that great tradition of singer songwriters who tell the human condition with grace humour and insight

I can’t quite recall whether it was through Nanci Griffith covering this song or Bonnie Raitt covering his ‘Angel from Montgomery’ when I first heard the work of John Prine but the words made me sit up and take notice and I thought who in the heck wrote this? I was hooked ever since and went out and bought every album I could find.

Goodnight now, Handsome Johnny

‘Awww baby, we gotta go now’

I first saw him play on the Teevee when they broadcast a concert he played live with his band at the Point in Dublin and he interrupted his full set to introduce a guest spot of some 7 or so songs from an unknown singer songwriter with his Cello player, John Hagen, Mr Lyle Lovett! Who DOES that!? 
Wonderful set wonderful concert if you can get it buy it!

John Prine Obituary at NPR

UPDATE: Tribute to John Prine from BB Chronicles