With new songs at Riverside, Prine shows he’s among greats
It took several decades, but John Prine is finally getting the level of recognition he deserves.
Sure, the singer-songwriter has long been heralded as one of the greats, with Dylan, Kristofferson, Baez and Bon Iver’s Justin Vernon on his infinite list of accomplished admirers.
But with “The Tree of Forgiveness” this month, Prine, at 71, had the greatest week of album sales of his career.
It’s a case of absence making the heart grow fonder; Prine hasn’t released an album of original songs in 13 years, and appreciation for his work has only deepened since then. He was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015, and Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell and Dan Auerbach all collaborated on “Forgiveness.”
Prine has earned the renewed interest and new achievement. At the Riverside Theater Wednesday, nine “Forgiveness” tunes blended in beautifully with Prine’s humbly presented, emotionally engaging catalog of plain-spoken heartbreakers and wry slices of comic wisdom.
Prine got stand-up-quality guffaws Wednesday discussing the origin for his favorite new tune, “Lonesome Friends of Science,” after “being ticked off … when I read in the newspaper one day that Pluto was no longer a planet.”
“Once a mighty planet there/Now just an ordinary star,” Prine sang Wednesday. “Hangin’ out in Hollywood/In some ol’ funky sushi bar/Uh huh.”
Behind the humor, though, there was a touch of poignant sadness, with Prine welcoming the end of the world, “‘Cause I don’t live here anyway/I live deep down inside my head/Well long ago I made my bed.”
“The end” also appeared Wednesday during “When I Get to Heaven,” a sweetly whimsical depiction of the afterlife, complete with playful kazoo, and Prine fantasizing about opening up a nightclub, “The Tree of Forgiveness,” and smoking a cigarette that’s “nine miles long.”
“I might even invite a few choice critics, those syphilitic parasitics,” Prine said Wednesday with a warm crackle.
“Buy ‘em a pint of Smithwick’s and smother ‘em with my charm.”
It’s a testament to the quality of the new song that the crowd singalong for the chorus was just as loud and enthusiastic Wednesday as it was for more festive Prine classics like “Lake Marie.” Yet even that song had a touch of longing, with Prine reminiscing about late loved ones.
And when it comes to matter-offact assessments of life’s disappointments, Prine is without peer.
On the surface, subtly cinematic “Forgiveness” centerpiece “Summer’s End” had an optimistic glow, with Prine pining for a distant loved one to “Come on home/You don’t have to be alone.”
But live especially, there was an ache to Prine’s voice, an uncertainty perhaps that the invitation won’t be accepted, or that a reconciliation won’t compensate for lost time.
“I still love that picture of us walkin’,” he sang with fragility Wednesday. “Summer’s end came faster than we wanted.”
Prine’s songs are so impeccably crafted that they elicit new reactions and interpretations even after years of listens. But he nudged that sense of rediscovery along Wednesday throughout the 23-song, two-hour set.
His four-piece backing country band brought additional texture and tenderness, particularly for set-opener “Six O’Clock News,” with Jason Wilber playing a lonesome harmonica solo, then trading it for rustic electric guitar.
Prine also performed three songs solo, his scratchy voice (the result of a 1998 surgery to treat squamous cell cancer on his neck) making the anguish of a song like “Souvenirs” all the more despairing. (”Memories they can’t be bought/They can’t be won at carnivals for free . ... I don’t know how they slipped away from me.”)
And he was joined by his opening act, the folk duo Milk Carton Kids, for three songs, including a cover of “If I Could Only Fly” by the late Blaze Foley, and for set-closer “Paradise.” Also singing by Prine’s side for that grand finale was his wife, Fiona, whom Prine thanked earlier in the set for saving his life 23 years ago.
He may not have had a 9-mile-long cigarette at his disposal, but Prine at that moment appeared to be in a heavenly state.