Prine show in Memphis draws excited, singing crowd

Chase Farmer
dm senior staff writer

Most people's list of greatest songwriters would probably include Bob Dylan, James Taylor, Jim Croce, possibly Jerry Jeff Walker, Willie Nelson or Merle Haggard. Add in Jerry Garcia and Bob Marley and you have a pretty good list. It's not complete though.

No list of songwriters is complete without John Prine and his wistful commentaries.

Don't be alarmed if this name doesn't ring a bell; Prine remained unknown to me until I was eighteen and I feel somewhat awkward writing this. But here goes.

Prine burst onto the scene in the early seventies after Kris Kristofferson discovered him at the Fifth Peg in Chicago. Prine was immediately -- along with several other up-and-coming songwriters -- labeled the new Dylan. He quit his job as a postman in Chicago, signed on with Atlantic Records and made five records with that label. In doing so, he raised some eybrows but didn't quite live up to the "Dylan" prediction. Prine then went on to release three albums on Asylum Records, of which "Bruised Orange" received the most attention. It was listed in Time magazine as one of the ten best albums in 1978. In 1980, Prine formed his current label, Oh Boy Records. His work on this label has been nominated for three Grammy Awards, one of which he won. His latest album, "In Spite of Ourselves," is a collection of duet songs about cheating. In support of this record, he came to the Orpheum Theater in Memphis on Saturday night.

I bought my tickets in February, and still sat four rows up in the balcony. As I listened to the opening act and duet partner Iris DeMent, the energy in the theater overwhlemed me. Memphis had waited a long time for Prine to return and they were not going to let him down. During almost every song of his two and a half hour set the crowd joined Prine in singing. If you had made a live recording of the show, you would have to call the album, "John Prine and the Orphuem Choir." The scene was amazing.

This show was much different from the one that I saw in Birmingham almost a year ago. Prine was fresh from his bout with throat cancer that night, and seemed to be feeling the effects of the treatment. On Saturday night, though, the 54 year old Prine was at the top of his game, bouncing around stage, telling stories and playing more songs than anyone could have expected. He played off the crowd, who, out of devotion, would request songs at every chance. To these requests, Prine would reply, "I know them all."

Saturday night's set consisted of a healthy dose of old material, including nine songs off of his self-titled first album. Songs like "Illegal Smile" and "Sam Stone" brought the crowd into a frenzy of cheers and singing. He also played several songs off of the new album with the aformentioned Iris DeMent as his partner. Prine could have played all night and the crowd could not have gotten enough.

Prine is still one of the best songwriters going. He shows this with the title track on "In Spite of Ourselves, which is the only new song written by him on the album. He also showed that he is one of the best performers still going today.

He's right up there with Bob Dylan on my list.