Street roots., September 30, 2016, Page 10, Image 10

Street Roots • Sept. 30-Oct. 6, 2016
PRINE, from page 10
business. In fact, Fiona’s got me working
harder than ever!”
“For Better, Or Worse” boasts its share of
CMA Female Vocalists of the Year with
Krauss, Miranda Lambert, Kathy Mattea
and Lee Ann Womack. It also includes
Grammy winner Kacey Musgraves* critics’
faves Holly Williams, Morgane Stapleton and
the lovely Fiona Prine.
“When this Started, Fiona and Jody told
me I was doing the fourth side of “In Spite
of Ourselves” for vinyl, so I did five songs,”
Prine confides. “And then they said, ‘If you
do another nine, we’re going to make it its
own release.’ How do you argue with that
thinking?”
Prine has always been sympatico with
women. Whether it’s the past her prime
barfly looking for love in “The Oldest Baby
in the World,” the heroine of “Angel from
Montgomery” or the heavy girl with the
oddball beau in “Donald & Lydia,” he
tempers his vision of those slightly broken
females with kindness, awareness and a
strong dose of empathy.
“Life’s that way, and who’s ,to say?” Prine
says of the women in his songs. “(Angel)’s
husband wasn’t abusive to her, he just didn’t
talk much or pay her any attention, and it
quietly drove her crazy - and back then
people didn’t want to get divorced because
of the kids or the stigma.
“I always thought I was writing more
observations, anyway. The songs were the
way people lived, how it looked to me, felt to
me, smelled. And a lot of these songs, too,
are about relationships, not so much man
and woman, but more man to man or person
News
to person.”
differently.”
Pausing, his voice drops a little. While
Discovered by Kris Kristofferson, when
ever a gentleman, that doesn’t mean he’s
Prine’s best friend Steve Goodman opened
wide-eyed and believes all people’s
for him, the soon-to-be-movie star flew the
intentions mirror his. “I’m opinionated as
pair of Chicago folkies to New York where
anybody. I see people
they signed to big-
and envision what
time record deals.
their life is like. I
Looking back, Prine
might be totally
marvels at how
wrong, but as a
quickly he went from
"I like to let people draw
invisible mailman to
their own conclusions. Part of writer, I try to come
up with a good story.
being proclaimed “the
what the listener gets from the Raw imagination and
new Dylan,” losing his
songs - that's part of the song, good instincts might
ability to observe
what
they bring to it. And I
surprise you.”
unnoticed.
He certainly
Still, he’s done OK. never want to lit people over
Twenty albums - not
the head, but maybe give them wouldn’t have
including
something they've seen before, imagined playing the
100th Anniversary of
retrospectives - later,
maybe in different colors or
the National Parks at
Prine remains a teller
another way. When yon do that the Grand Canyon
of truths and an
with Emmylou Harris
impaler of, well, jerks. they might see things differ*
and President Obama.
Getting ready to meet ently."
Nor would he have
a friend at the Golden
envisioned “In Spite
Cue for happy hour -
of Ourselves” being
“What happier place
the song that reunited
is there? All that neon
just brings out the lies in people,” he says of Miss Piggy and Kermit the Frog.
“Loads of people write me letters they
the soon-to-be-closed billiards parlor in the
got married to that song,” he says about the
Melrose neighborhood. He talks politics
song that paints relationships in teeny, but
tempered with common sense.
exceedingly accurate detail. “But Kermit
“I don’t want to pick on one person,”
and Miss Piggy? It was the first time they
Prine says. “I like to let people draw their
talked together in over a year! They had to
own conclusions. Part of what the listener
change a few words, but they sang it - and it
gets from the songs - that’s part of the
brought them together.”
song, what they bring to it, And I never
With a gleam in his eye, Prine confides,
want to hit people over the head, but maybe
“People say Jack Whitedid it, hanging with
give them something they’ve seen before,
Kermit and talking about women. But I
maybe in different colors or another way.
know it was the song that broke the ice.”
When you do that, they might see things
Page 11
Merriment is something Prine cherishes.
After three bouts with cancer, he takes
every moment seriously. Wherever he is, he
hopes to find the best part of it - and he also
believes that to honor being alive, one must
be true to the world around them, leave it a
better place.
The craggy-voiced songwriter with a
proclivity for old time music with bluegrass
undertones has done charity shows for
Room in The Inn, Thistle Farms and
Campaign for a Landmine Free World.
Without missing a beat, he offers a
perspective that has its dignity in place. “I
know homeless people aren’t bums, Holly.
They all got screwed out of something,
ended up on the streets because of the
times we live in - and nobody wants to talk
about that part.
“That’s kind of why I wrote ‘Come Back
To Us, Barbara Lewis (Hare Krishna
Beauregard).’ She probably came from
wealth of some kind, ran off to be a hippie,
joined a religious cult, got married. She
tried so many things, she forgot what she
was looking for. It happens. It just does.”
Happy hour is drawing even nearer, and
Prine has people to meet and eight ball to
shoot He’s already started writing new
songs - “the regular records aren’t nearly as
fun,” he concedes - and thinking about what
kind of solo project he might make. Through
all the tough times, challenges and losses,
he’s managed to maintain some grace; it
seems in many ways as if he’s never been
happier. But that doesn’t mean he’s lost
sight of the thread.
Courtesy of Street Roots’ sister paper, The
Contributor, Nashville, Tenn. /INSP.ngo
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