John Prine

John Prine was born on October 10, 1946, in Maywood, Illinois, a working class suburb of Chicago, to William Prine, a machinist, and Verna Hamm, whose family roots traced to rural Muhlenberg County, Kentucky. His love for music blossomed at the age of 14, under the tutelage of his older brother, David. Though his older brother Dave had taught him rudimentary guitar fingerpicking at age fourteen, Prine later refined his guitar playing and songwriting in classes at Chicago's Old Town School of Folk Music. After graduating high school, he was drafted into the United States Army during the Vietnam War era, serving as a vehicle mechanic in West Germany before beginning his musical career in Chicago. Settling back home, Prine returned to Illinois and became a fixture on the Chicago folk music scene in the late '60s, befriending another young performer named Steve Goodman while holding down a day job as a mailman. Prine's breakthrough came almost by accident in 1970, when he was playing at the Chicago folk club The Fifth Peg when the young journalist Roger Ebert dropped in for a set, and Ebert wrote a glowing review for the Chicago Sun-Times, essentially launching Prine's music career. Soon after, Goodman found himself opening for Kris Kristofferson and urged him to check out his friend Prine; Kristofferson recognized their talent, and when they visited New York City a few months later, allowed the two Chicagoans to play three songs each at one of his shows. An executive from Atlantic Records was in the audience, who offered Prine a recording contract the next day. The result was his self-titled 1971 debut, recorded in Memphis, which though not a commercial success, was praised by critics, with songs like "Sam Stone" (the harsh but compassionate tale of a drug-addled Vietnam veteran) and "Hello in There" (a first-person meditation on old age) singled out for particular praise. The album has since become a landmark; in 2012 it was ranked number 452 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time, and later ranked number 149 in a revised version of the list published in 2020. Prine's career arc spanned five decades and multiple labels. The acclaim Prine earned from his first LP led to three more albums for Atlantic, then three albums with Asylum Records, before in 1981 he co-founded Oh Boy Records, an independent label where he released most of his subsequent albums. That independent model proved influential in its own right, as the business model, with fans sending in checks by mail, was a success, and early proof that singer-songwriters could survive without the support of a major label. A commercial high point arrived with 1991's The Missing Years, produced by Howie Epstein of Tom Petty's Heartbreakers, which featured guest appearances by Petty, Springsteen, and Raitt. Throughout his career Prine's songs were embraced by his peers, as the Everly Brothers and Johnny Cash both covered his song "Paradise," while Bette Midler and Joan Baez offered renditions of "Hello in There," and Bonnie Raitt memorably interpreted "Angel from Montgomery." He also toured extensively alongside his early champion, since Kris Kristofferson became one of his earliest advocates, and their friendship lasted decades as they toured together extensively over the years. His honors eventually included 4 Grammy awards for his works, as well as the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. In his later years, Prine continued creating vital work despite serious health struggles. Despite facing health challenges, including battles with cancer, he continued to tour and record, producing notable works such as "The Missing Years" and "The Tree of Forgiveness." That final album of original material marked a remarkable resurgence, as he went on to have an extraordinary late-career bloom in 2018 when The Tree Of Forgiveness, his first album of original material in 13 years, reached No.5 on the Billboard chart. Prine died on April 7, 2020, at age 73 from complications of COVID-19, and was remembered by friend and collaborator Bruce Springsteen as the "loveliest guy in the world" and "a true national treasure." His songwriting legacy endures as one of the most celebrated in American music, with critics and peers alike regarding him, in Kris Kristofferson's words, as one of the great songwriters of his time, and his catalog continues to earn posthumous recognition, including the 2021 posthumous Grammys for Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots Song for "I Remember Everything." John Prine's plainspoken warmth and storyteller's eye made him a natural subject for concert photographers who valued authenticity over spectacle, and he found his way into this archive as well. Wayne Dennon photographed Prine at one show back in 2010, leaving behind 13 photographs that remain part of this collection, images that visitors have returned to view 11,874 times over the years. That steady stream of visits feels fitting for an artist whose songs, much like Wayne's photographs, were built on quiet