John Prine

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Yesterday, Tuesday, was for us and many of our generation truely the day the music died. The news is that John Prine has passed away from COVID-19 complications in Nashville. He was 73 years -- we are of a similar age so it hits hard.

We only got to see him a few times over the many years in spite of being die hard fans. Mariposa '91 at Ontario Place in Toronto was a notable time. The picture at left is a signed copy of his CD "Diamonds in the Rough" that we bought at the festival  -- click on the image to see some scanned photos of John from that event. There's a story there.

We had picked up a couple of his early CD's that had recently been re-released at a "merch tent".  We were replacing much loved LP's  (this was a transitional time between analogue and digital media). We bumped into John having lunch (or perhaps his late breakfast) at a sunny outdoor patio and had caught his concert in the Forum the night before. I approached him to ask if he would sign the CD's and had a brief conversation. He was surprised to see these early albums on CD and told me he didn't have them. Really? How can that be? He went on to tell me that his first records were still the property of the record companies and he hadn't, as yet, been able to buy back his rights to them. I offered to give him the CD's and he said something to the effect of "Oh no, don't be foolish". He happily signed them and I returned to our friends.

When I told Kate and our friends this story we all agreed that John ought to have his own CD's and decided that we'd buy another one, sign it our selves as loyal fans and give it to him later in the day when we were to see him at a workshop with Jimmie Dale Gilmore. We did -- I went back stage and gave him the CD we had signed. John, and Jimmie too, had a bit of a laugh about it. We really hope he appreciated this token of our affection for him and his music. It can't be often that your fans give you their autographs.

Here's another funny story from the same event. At the Friday night concert in the Forum there was a drunk in the audience who kept yelling out, "Play Sam Stone, play Sam Stone!". After a bit, in response, John replied "We play no song before it's time." He had a set list and he was working his way through it. Sure enough, "Sam Stone" was on the set list and John did sing it after a bit. However, a few tunes after that the same drunk yells out, "Play Sam Stone, play Sam Stone!". John rolled his eyes and everyone had a good chuckle. The joys of playing live music to an appreciative audience.

We hope John is in Paradise, chewing some fat with Jesus, maybe hammerin' some planks with his grandpa, meeting up with that Angel from Montgomery, Pamela from the 4-way stop delimma, Donald & Lydia, and all those other rich characters we know so well.

Finally, at Christmas we always first play our "Christmas in Prison" mix-tape collection. This year we got a pair of "Sitting on a Rainbow" T-shirts from the Oh-Boy record store to celebrate our 40th anniversary. Because, after all, "we're the big door prize". We'll miss you John.