Perennially on the Edge of Stardom-John Prine

[a1aara]

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

"Perennially on the Edge of Stardom"


'I'm not sure what I did for the first 49 years of my life," says the singer John Prine in his easygoing, washboard rasp. "It all happened when I turned 50."

Mr. Prine, who turned 59 last week, is reflecting a few hours before a show in Albany this summer, during a yearlong tour. His new album, "Fair & Square," an unusually quiet, subtle mix of folk-inflected songs highlighting Mr. Prine's goofy yet bittersweet sensibility, is the first album of originals he has released in a decade.

Grayer and heavier than he was a few years ago, Mr. Prine seems rejuvenated by the album and his tour. He is scheduled to head to Europe later this month for some shows -- including in Ireland, where his wife is from and where he now spends most of his summers -- before returning to the U.S. in December. Balancing newer material with some of his earliest songs from the late 1960s, he has been drawing enthusiastic and diverse crowds of baby boomers and teenagers -- slightly mystifying to him, but welcome.

In the mid-1990s, Mr. Prine was enjoying something of a minirevival, with two successful records, one of which, "The Missing Years," had won a Grammy in 1991. But then his life started to turn upside down.

First came an instant family, when his wife had two sons just 10 months apart -- Mr. Prine's first. (The marriage is his third.) After years of touring, recording and writing whenever he felt like it, Mr. Prine says, he found that his boys -- now 10 and 9 -- left him both overjoyed and overwhelmed.

"The children made a huge difference to me," he says. "As a person, I'm just a whole lot more grounded." At the same time, they forced him to cut back on his working and touring to spend more time at home. "Just because it's time to make a record," he says, "Daddy can't disappear from the whole family."

A more serious adjustment came with his 1997 diagnosis of squamous cell carcinoma, a cancer on the side of his neck -- devastating for anyone, but especially so for a singer. Surgery and radiation in early 1998 took a piece of Mr. Prine's neck, forced doctors to reset his bite and sapped his vocal strength. He spent months in speech therapy regaining stamina and learning to sing in his new, lower timber. (Along the way, he underwent a hip replacement, which left him with a slight limp.)

"I'd never stopped since I started at 24," he says. "It all kind of put it under a microscope for me -- your music, your life. It made you slow down and when you slow down, you can't help but reflect."

The enigmatic, mostly slower songs of "Fair & Square" seem to reflect these changes. Mr. Prine again explores unrequited love and portrays oddball loners, but the songs are both mellower and at times more unsettling than some of his earlier work. The loveliest love song, "Long Monday," is a melancholy tune about parting after a weekend. In another wistful song, a lost man who's "just gettin' by" visits an old girlfriend and feels "about as welcome as a Wal-Mart superstore." "The Other Side of Town" chronicles the thoughts of a man being yelled at by his wife -- a guy, Mr. Prine is always quick to add with a smile, that he read about. As a writer, Mr. Prine says, his point of view in most songs is "sort of like, 'Why don't we go get a beer and talk about it?'"

Mr. Prine has been talking about it for 35 years. He began writing and performing in Chicago in the late 1960s, playing local clubs at night after clocking out from his day job as a mailman. His unusual, gruff nasal twang and well-crafted songs quickly drew devoted fans -- among them Kris Kristofferson, who helped Mr. Prine land his first record contract.

When his first, highly acclaimed, eponymous album appeared in 1971, Mr. Prine was dubbed a "new Bob Dylan" by some critics. Early songs like "Sam Stone," about an addicted Vietnam vet, and "Paradise," a tribute to the Prine family's Kentucky hometown that was bulldozed by a coal company, became widely covered -- and have held up, Mr. Prine says, far better than he expected when he wrote them. Performers including the Everly Brothers, Bonnie Raitt and Bette Midler have recorded Prine songs; George Strait's 1998 version of "I Just Want to Dance With You" sold well enough to pay for Mr. Prine's hospital bills.

Still, Mr. Prine has never quite broken through to the mainstream. After flirting with stardom, he spent a decade bouncing among producers and making a lot of records. But while albums like "Sweet Revenge" and "Bruised Orange" were often artistic successes, they never fulfilled the early commercial expectations of record executives.

In the early 1980s, Mr. Prine decided to embrace his status as a niche artist, slow down and seek creative freedom by launching his own independent label. With his longtime manager Al Bunetta, he formed Oh Boy Records. Besides backing Mr. Prine, the Nashville-based label has assembled a small stable of indie artists and reissued works of some forgotten stars; Mr. Prine's combined catalog alone has sold more than a million copies through Oh Boy.

Despite some disappointments -- even occasional thoughts of quitting -- Mr. Prine says he now feels glad to stay on the edge of stardom. "I wouldn't have been happy living out somebody else's expectations," he says. "I can pay all my bills, and I've got a great family. I've got friends everywhere, and I can travel around and sing my songs. I can sell out a small concert hall just about anywhere now, and I know people like this music. If there's such a thing as success, that's it."

Besides, he adds, "My secret theory is that if you manage to stick around 35 years and never have a hit, people aren't asking, 'When is your next hit?' You're still climbing toward the pinnacle, you haven't peaked, you know."

The first time he performed after surgery, he says, he knew he wanted to keep working "until they carry me off the stage," and in recent years he has found new ways to stretch. He acted in a Billy Bob Thornton movie, "Daddy and Them." Six years ago, he released an album of classic country duets, "In Spite of Ourselves," that is one of his best; it gave him a chance to sing with partners including Iris Dement, Trisha Yearwood and Lucinda Williams. For "Fair & Square," he served for the first time as his own producer -- providing the financing but also picking songs, arrangements and musicians -- work that he says was time-consuming and at times excruciating, but ultimately gratifying.

Mr. Prine sees more challenges ahead -- particularly for his songwriting. He says he has only begun to absorb the changes in his life.

"Everything that's gone on with the boys and my illness, I don't think all that's come out on this last record yet," he says. "It takes a while for that to set into your writing. It's like a stew -- you have to warm it a couple of times before it gets its full flavor." ---

Mr. Murray is deputy national news editor for the Journal.

[CadiRita]

I just discovered John Prine in the past couple years. Love him!

You'd think that with him & Buffett having so many mutual friends, they'd have hooked up to do something together, but so far they haven't.

I am curious about Prine's friendship with Iris DeMent. Has it always been purely professional, or is there some personal connection there too? Past relationship, family friend, anything?

[Jahfin]

I just discovered John Prine in the past couple years. Love him!

You'd think that with him & Buffett having so many mutual friends, they'd have hooked up to do something together, but so far they haven't.

I always thought the same thing. In fact, I've even heard Prine mention Buffett in concert (in a favorable way) but I think maybe their connection isn't quite as strong as it used to be since their mutual friend Steve Goodman passed away. I hold out hope that Buffett will one day truly return to his roots and cut an album with folks like Prine, Jerry Jeff, Todd Snider, Lyle Lovett, and others that have more in common with Buffett's beginnings than the big name "country" stars he's been rubbing shoulders with in recent years.

I am curious about Prine's friendship with Iris DeMent. Has it always been purely professional, or is there some personal connection there too? Past relationship, family friend, anything?

I don't think they've ever been anything more than friends but he certainly did a wonderful job of penning the liner notes for her first record. By the way, if you're an Iris fan I highly recommend seeing the movie Songcatcher which not only boast a brilliant appearance by Iris herself but a soundtrack that rivals O Brother, Where Art Thou? which was out around the same time.

[CadiRita]

I just discovered John Prine in the past couple years. Love him!

You'd think that with him & Buffett having so many mutual friends, they'd have hooked up to do something together, but so far they haven't.

I always thought the same thing. In fact, I've even heard Prine mention Buffett in concert (in a favorable way) but I think maybe their connection isn't quite as strong as it used to be since their mutual friend Steve Goodman passed away. I hold out hope that Buffett will one day truly return to his roots and cut an album with folks like Prine, Jerry Jeff, Todd Snider, Lyle Lovett, and others that have more in common with Buffett's beginnings than the big name "country" stars he's been rubbing shoulders with in recent years.

I am curious about Prine's friendship with Iris DeMent. Has it always been purely professional, or is there some personal connection there too? Past relationship, family friend, anything?

I don't think they've ever been anything more than friends but he certainly did a wonderful job of penning the liner notes for her first record. By the way, if you're an Iris fan I highly recommend seeing the movie Songcatcher which not only boast a brilliant appearance by Iris herself but a soundtrack that rivals O Brother, Where Art Thou? which was out around the same time.

Very cool! Thanks! We currently have Daddy & Them rented from Netflix, but haven't had the time to watch it yet.

I just added Songcatcher to the queue.

[Jahfin]

I just discovered John Prine in the past couple years. Love him!

You'd think that with him & Buffett having so many mutual friends, they'd have hooked up to do something together, but so far they haven't.

I always thought the same thing. In fact, I've even heard Prine mention Buffett in concert (in a favorable way) but I think maybe their connection isn't quite as strong as it used to be since their mutual friend Steve Goodman passed away. I hold out hope that Buffett will one day truly return to his roots and cut an album with folks like Prine, Jerry Jeff, Todd Snider, Lyle Lovett, and others that have more in common with Buffett's beginnings than the big name "country" stars he's been rubbing shoulders with in recent years.

I am curious about Prine's friendship with Iris DeMent. Has it always been purely professional, or is there some personal connection there too? Past relationship, family friend, anything?

I don't think they've ever been anything more than friends but he certainly did a wonderful job of penning the liner notes for her first record. By the way, if you're an Iris fan I highly recommend seeing the movie Songcatcher which not only boast a brilliant appearance by Iris herself but a soundtrack that rivals O Brother, Where Art Thou? which was out around the same time.

Very cool! Thanks! We currently have Daddy & Them rented from Netflix, but haven't had the time to watch it yet.

I just added Songcatcher to the queue.

Although it definitely has it's shortcomings (there is a reason it never saw major release) I really enjoyed Daddy and Them. Griffith and Prine steal the show.

[Crazy Navy Flyer]

I used to listen to him back in the 80's, haven't in many years. Maybe it's time to dig out some of his old stuff, maybe get the new album.

[CadiRita]

I used to listen to him back in the 80's, haven't in many years. Maybe it's time to dig out some of his old stuff, maybe get the new album.

There is no "maybe" about it you Crazy Navy Flyer you! It's a moral imperative.

Better yet, go see him on tour this year. If not, pick up the DVD: Live From Sessions at 54th.

[Jahfin]

I used to listen to him back in the 80's, haven't in many years. Maybe it's time to dig out some of his old stuff, maybe get the new album.

The new album is good but be prepared for the change of register in his voice. If you've picked up Live On Tour, Souvenirsor In Spite of Ourselves it's evident there too but being the trooper he is, Prine's wisely used it to his advantage.

[CadiRita]

I used to listen to him back in the 80's, haven't in many years. Maybe it's time to dig out some of his old stuff, maybe get the new album.

The new album is good but be prepared for the change of register in his voice. If you've picked up Live On Tour, Souvenirsor In Spite of Ourselves it's evident there too but being the trooper he is, Prine's wisely used it to his advantage.

I have In Spite of Ourselves in the CD player in the truck! And I like the 2 CD set: Great Days.