Chasing Our Dream: John Prine

We have an annual membership to the Country Music Hall of Fame. They have weekly songwriter sessions as well as a lot of other great shows. As members, we get advance notice of these shows so we go and enjoy the shows from time to time. We had passes to go to 'A Conversation with John Prine". The Hall of Fame recently expanded and this was held in one of the new spaces - the CMA Theater, which seats about 800 people. In addition to stage and mezzanine level seating, there are lower and upper balconies. A lot of the seats are single row, so you don't have anyone behind you, nor are you trying to see over anyone's head. Great for us short folks.

This 'conversation' was hosted by Peter Cooper, who is a Grammy-nominated singer songwriter, music journalist, speaker, teacher etc.

What a great show! John Prine talked about his childhood, his start in music, the background to some of his songs. His voice sounded really, really gravelly. He had surgery a few years ago to remove cancer in his neck and that, coupled with the allergies in Nashville, took a toll on this voice so he had a tough time singing. The first song he sang he did from his chair, a little uncomfortably.

Those chairs are just not made for a man and his guitar. So before the next song, they brought out a mike and a stool for him. He joked that he never used to sit on a stool, he would set a 6-pack and an ashtray on it. He said he used to begin each song by saying something to the audience and would pause for effect and light a cigarette, resting it in the ashtray while he sang. He would get to take one puff before the song and one after and then he would light another one for the next song. He said these days he takes sips of water instead.

He grew up in Kentucky in a town that's no longer "Paradise". One of his first jobs was as a mailman. He would write songs while he was on his mail route. He said once you got onto the right street, there wasn't really much to occupy your mind while you were out there, so he wrote songs in his head and he was on his mail route.