A Photographic Retrospective By John Robert Rowlands

John Prine

An acclaimed singer/songwriter whose literate work flirted with
everything from acoustic folk to rockabilly to straight-ahead
country, John Prine was born October 10, 1946 in Maywood,
Illinois. Raised by parents firmly rooted in their rural Kentucky
background, at age 14 Prine began learning to play the guitar from
his older brother while taking inspiration from his grandfather, who
had played with Merle Travis. After a two-year tenure in the U.S.
Army, Prine became a fixture on the Chicago folk music scene in
the late 1960s, befriending another young performer named Steve Goodman.

Prine's compositions caught the ear of Kris Kristofferson, who
was instrumental in helping him win a recording contract. In 1971,
he went to Memphis to record his eponymously-titled debut
album; though not a commercial success, songs like "Sam Stone," the harsh tale of a drug-addled
Vietnam veteran, won critical approval. Neither 1972's Diamonds in the Rough nor 1973's Sweet
Revenge fared any better on the charts, but Prine's work won great renown among his fellow
performers; the Everly Brothers covered his song "Paradise," while both Bette Midler and Joan Baez
offered renditions of "Hello in There."

Photograph of John Prine at the Riverboat in Toronto's Yorkville by John Robert Rowlands