John Prine - Fair & Square
Listen to a condensed audio version of this review by Greg
Where have I been? What have I been doing for 44 years? If you have been reading or listening to some of my reviews, you might be wondering whether my passion for each album is legitimate. “This guy goes nuts over any album”. I crave experiences. I crave that sunlight that peaks slowly through the clouds. I crave those pockets of rhythm, when you know for four or five minutes, you and that songwriter are the only ones in the room. It is you and them, together on a journey. John Prine’s Fair and Square came at me like a runaway train. I was just sitting there on the proverbial couch and it struck me. Afterwards, I sat there, wounded and wondering, “where have I been”?
Released in April 2005, Fair and Square is a country folk music album. Prine’s writing offers little resemblance to the pop country stars of the 80’s, 90’s and today. You better bring your passport with you when you drop a needle on a John Prine album, especially this one. With its anthems, love songs, deep cuts and long jams, it offers you each of the four musical food groups.
Born in 1946, John Prine grew up in Maywood, Illinois, just outside of Chicago. He did not pick up a guitar until he was fourteen, but by then he had already made up his mind. He was going to be a musician. After serving in the military, Prine returned home to Chicago in the early 1960s, and began to write songs.
John released his first album in 1971. Soon after the public found him, there was a buzz. Offering a mixture of folk, rock n’ roll, blues and country, Prine’s music takes you through a story. In each of his songs, you feel as if you are riding along with him, experiencing everything he was experiencing at that moment. Prine has a way with storytelling. During each song, I picture myself sitting in front of a crackling fire with scotch in my glass, listening to my grandpa tell stories of flying fighter planes in the war. My eyes do not blink, my mouth dries up, my ears block everything else out in the room. I want to hear everything.
Do you listen to music when you drive? Do you carefully select your first song, or do you let the radio guide your ride? Fair & Square opens with a picture-perfect driving song, titled, Glory of True Love. This song gives you a blues/country feel. You listen to John tell his story. Looking at the album cover, you can feel what he was feeling when he chose that picture. A picture of John walking down a lonely road, back turned away, guitar in case, dressed in black. This track inserts a true positive vibe into your veins, helping lift you from your worries that day as you drive to nowhere. You are content just driving.
Crazy as a Loon satisfies that country urge, scratching that itch. Prine tells the story of moving to Nashville, falling in love and getting his heart broken. Fairly cliché, I know, but give this a chance. There is something incredibly organic and real about a singer songwriter. Despite my love for heavy guitar riffs and distortion with a wah-wah pedal, when someone sits in front of you and pours their heart out to you with just a guitar, It brings a more powerful vibe that can move you to tears. Unlike modern day country, Prine has more of a Willie Nelson influence. The bottleneck slide guitar sound recorded over Prine’s smooth acoustic guitar softens your mood, putting a smile on your face influencing you to keep listening.
The album’s third track, Long Monday, reminds me of the villain in “India Jones and the Temple of Doom”. The guy who pulls your heart out. As a kid in the movie theatre, I would yell at the screen when he would open his hand, revealing his long fingers and reach for some poor soul’s heart….”Nooooooooooo! Do not let him grab your heart! That is what Long Monday is to me. It is the guy who pulls your heart out. John’s sweet lullaby tells another story of a lonely man, wishing he were back in the company of a woman he met and once danced with. By now, if you are not wondering why you, too, have not heard much John Prine, join the club. Keep listening.
Taking a Walk, Some Humans Ain’t Human, My Darlin’ Hometown and Morning Train slide the groove and melody across that wood floor, up your leg and right into your blood. They reflect pure country blues. Some Humans Ain’t Human is a highlight (one of many). This is John’s protest song on the album, discussing the ugly side of human nature, including a few shots at politicians in Washington.
My personal favorite on this album is by far, She is My Everything. Yes, I was caught singing this song in line at the grocery store yesterday. A woman gave me a weird stare as I tapped my foot and sang this tune like no one was watching. It is just so damn catchy. The song’s lyrics are pieced together like a puzzle of planet earth that took you seven hours to complete. But when it is done, it is perfect. Each word placed delicately along the other, leaving each sentence to pull together as an addictive rhyme. Just listening to John sing, “She knows everybody. From Muhammad Ali to teaching Bruce Lee how to do Karate. She could lead a parade while puttin’ on her shades in her Maserati. She knows everybody”, you can immediately place him in the hall of fame for singer songwriters. His soul lights the candle at the end of a dark tunnel, ensuring you that despite hard times, things will turn around for the better.
The album rounds off with a live track, Other Side of Town, giving the listener a taste of the live experience at a John Prince concert.
Fair and Square, Prine’s 15th studio album, won him a Grammy award in 2005, giving John his second major music award and his 12th nomination, cementing him in the country folk music Parthenon.
Prine’s tunes have been described by many fellow singer songwriters as “great music for a quiet afternoon”. Bob Dylan told The Huffington Post John was one of his favorite singer songwriters. “Midwestern mind trips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs”, Dylan stated. Johnny Cash wrote in his autobiography, Cash, “I don’t listen to much music anymore, unless I’m going into songwriting mode and looking for inspiration. Then I’ll put on something by the writers I’ve admired and used for years. Rodney Crowell, Guy Clark, Steve Goodman and John Prine are my big four”.
Pink Floyd’s Roger Waters was quoted in a 2008 interview saying, “Certain new music just doesn’t move me in the way, say, John Prine does. He is just extraordinary eloquent music, and he lives on that plane with Neil Young and Lennon”.
John Prine’s life sadly came to an end on April 7th, 2020, just as the COVID-19 pandemic began to rage across the United States. Prine’s wife tested positive for the virus three weeks prior. As she was quarantined at home, John began to experience COVID-like symptoms. He died on that lonely April 7th at the age of 73. His wife buried half his ashes in Kentucky’s Green River where his father grew up and the other half next to his parents’ grave site in Chicago.
2020 took so many loved ones from us. COVID-19 has played a large part in this. John was considered to have “preexisting conditions” after battling cancer in the late 1990s. He recovered after a surgery took a piece of his neck and severed nerves in his tongue. But John pushed on and continued to write music for another 22 years until his passing.
I remember reading about John’s death, but I am embarrassed to admit, I did not know his music. Well, I knew of “Angel from Montgomery” which has been covered by countless musicians. I am disappointed I did not get to enjoy his music live but extremely grateful that I found him. Man am I glad. For I fell in love with John’s music from the first moment I heard it. Yes, that was the night I asked myself, “Where have I been?”
This album has a deeper connection to me. I lost my mother two days before John Prine left this world. 2020 has been an incredibly emotional year. But I am realizing now that I am growing every day. A close friend who also lost a parent told me, “when you lose a parent, especially a parent who was sick, you sometimes cannot help think about the dark times, the times when they were in pain, when they were not themselves and not at their strongest. But when they are gone, it is important to remember that your sadness is a gift. It is a gift because they raised you, they molded you, they shaped your personality, and they would lay down in traffic if it meant saving you. Cherish those memories. Cherish those experiences. Cherish the fact you had the opportunity to be loved.
I hope you rest in peace, John. Even though I did not know you when you were alive, your music will forever live in my memories.
If you have never liked folk, country or blues, I will still encourage you to listen to this album. Pick up a copy for yourself. And if you are up to getting your mind blown, check out John’s live performance of Lake Marie at Austin City Limits in 2018 here.