John Prine's John Prine

- Blurb -

He is known as the Mark Twain of American songwriting, a man who transformed the everyday happenings of regular people into plainly profound statements on war, industrialization, religion, and the human condition. Marking the 50th anniversary of the album' s release, John Prine chronicles the legendary singer-songwriter' s Middle American provenance, and his remarkable ascent from singing mailman to celebrated son of Chicago. "Illegal Smile," "Hello in There," "Sam Stone," "Paradise," "Your Flag Decal Won' t Get You Into Heaven Anymore," "Far from Me," "Donald and Lydia," and "Angel from Montgomery" are considered standards in the American Songbook, covered by legions of Prine' s peers and admirers. Through original interviews, exhaustive research, and incisive commentary, author Erin Osmon paints an in-depth portrait of the people, places, and experiences that inspired Prine' s landmark debut. After exploring his roots in rural Western Kentucky and suburban Maywood, Illinois, the book takes readers on an evocative journey through John Prine' s Chicago. Its neighborhoods, characters, and clubs of the 1960s and 70s proved a formative and magical period in Prine' s life, before he was a figurehead of the new Nashville scene. It' s both a journalistic inquiry and a love letter: to Prine' s self-titled debut and the Midwestern city that made him.