John Prine (Courtesy of Jim Shea)
John Prine is flat-out one of the best songwriters of the last 40 years, a voice so distinctive that even Bob Dylan is a fan. “Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mind trips to the nth degree,” Dylan said last year.
“Proustian existentialism?” Prine says with a wry chuckle. “I can’t even pronounce that. But it’s great to hear that from him. I don’t go bowling with
Bob Dylan, but I run into him every 10 years here or there. From the first album, I knew he liked the songs. After all this time to get a quote out of him is pretty flattering.”
Prine, 63, has been living in Nashville since 1980, but he forged his style in Chicago. While delivering mail in suburban Maywood, he became a key member of the Old Town School of Folk Music scene that spawned Steve Goodman, Bonnie Koloc and dozens more in the ‘60s and ‘70s. So it’s only fitting that he should return
March 6 to the Old Town venue to perform a benefit concert.
From his home in Nashville, Prine reminisced about how his Chicago years shaped him as a songwriter. An excerpt of our interview follows.