In one of the most affecting essays yet written in the wake of John Prine’s death, Jason Isbell—a man who has been credited as one of the next great songwriters —said, “If the artist’s job is to hold a mirror up to society, John had the cleanest mirror of anyone I have ever known. Sometimes it seemed like he had a window, and he would climb right through.”
Fuck, I can’t do better than that.
Across 18 studio albums and almost half a dozen live record, Prine managed to write music that appealed to just about everyone. From tatted-up punk rockers to cowboys in ironed Wranglers and unironic cowboy hats, they could all relate to Prine’s frank stories, almost always wrapped in smart, wry lyrics and delivered with a hummable melody that stuck around for hours.
Whether singing about love and longing (“Angel From Montgomery,” “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness”), addiction (“Sam Stone”), or death (“Please Don’t Bury Me”), he managed to put to music the thoughts many of us have had yet simply lack the talent or ability to put so eloquently.
He also managed to write what is easily the best song ever committed to wax about getting high, a song he eventually admitted was never actually about getting high (“Illegal Smile”).
On April 7, just hours after it was announced that Prine had died in his adopted Nashville home as a result of COVID-19, Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook started populating with a slew of videos from musicians, across all genres, all paying tribute.
Gathered below are just a few of favorites, some filmed last week and others years ago. Enjoy.
American Aquarium (full band, live) covering “Spanish Pipedream”
American Aquarium’s BJ Barham solo covering “Paradise”
The Slow Death covering “In Spite of Ourselves”
Jeff Tweedy covering “Please Don’t Bury Me”
Evan Dando/Lemonheads covering “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness”
Lilly Hiatt covering “Everybody Wants to Be Like You”
Waxahatchee and Kevin Morby covering “Angel From Montgomery”
And here’s Philly’s SOARAIA covering the same song.
Check out more of his music here.
