Ravinia 2019, Issue 1, Week 2

real life to create memorable, weathered characters who struggle with or con- template difficult, relatable, everyday situations and obstacles. He infuses these characters and their tangled sto- ries with keenly turned phrases of hope, emotion, honesty, and human frailties and foibles. But most definitively, Prine brings zest to the mundane and urgency to the ordinary. In another interview for NPR, Prine explained how he inserted his personal imprint while recently writing with Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys: “I was trying to gather songs up for The Tree of Forgiveness , and I liked a song we wrote, ‘Boundless Love,’ except I didn’t think there was enough of ‘me’ in it. So I called up Dan and said, ‘Instead of the word, ‘food,’ I’m going to put ‘frying pork chops’ in, and I’m going to replace the whole second verse with, ‘My old heart is like a washing machine, it bounces around till my soul comes clean.’ And that’s what I did. I ‘John Prined’ the song up. And it came out really pretty.” Though Prine first emerged during the 1970s’ folk revival, his quirky compositions have consistently crossed many musical terrains over his more than 20 albums, including country, blues, and rock. For example, his 1991 Grammy-winning album The Missing Years has a rock flavor, produced by the late Heartbreakers bassist Howie Ep- stein. It features a Springsteen cameo on “Take a Look My Heart” and includes the standout tracks “Picture Show,” “All the Best,” and “Everything Is Cool.” The 1995 follow-up Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings , also produced by Epstein, had a more bluesy rock tone and centered on “Lake Marie,” the almost-instant Prine standard of divorce and disillusion. On 1999’s country covers collection In Spite of Ourselves , Prine shared a microphone with a host of talented singers including Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, and, most memorably, Iris DeMent. And injecting spice into the egg-nogged holidays, 1994’s A John Prine Christmas tickled and warmed the heart as Prine brought his brand of yuletide cheer to standards like “Silver Bells” as well as his own paradoxical “Silent Night All Day Long.” In 2010, this writer attended a special benefit concert Prine performed for a sold-out and energized crowd in the cramped and creaky auditorium of his high-school alma mater, Proviso East in Maywood. Prine played with pride and gusto, mistily recalling his school days, sharing childhood memories of the sur- rounding neighborhood, and revealing the local inspirations for some of his best-known songs. “Fish and Whistle,” for one, refer- ences a job the 14-year-old Prine had at Skip’s Fiesta Drive-In, a burger joint in Melrose Park across the street from the iconic former amusement park Kid- dieland, where he scraped dried frozen custard off the parking lot. And the clas- sic “Lake Marie” refers to the chain of lakes along the Illinois-Wisconsin bor- der, a frequent escape for the teenaged Prine and many young Chicagoans. And through these various verbal snapshots—spoken and sung—Prine subtly and cleverly connected the dots of his life and his career to his songs. It’s all about the songs. James Turano is a freelance writer and a former entertainment editor, feature writer, and columnist for national and local magazines and newspapers. He is also a Chicago radio personality and host, heard regularly on WGN Radio 720AM. 36 RAVINIA MAGAZINE | MAY 31, 2019 – JUNE 16, 2019