John Prine on Cayamo
By Paul T. Mueller — If you happened to be looking for an outstanding demonstration of the art of musical storytelling, there was no better place to find it on Sept. 21 than the John Prine-Alejandro Escovedo concert at Houston’s Cullen Performance Hall. Prine and Escovedo, among the finest singer-songwriters working today, approach their craft from somewhat different angles, but the result in each case is excellent, and getting to see both on one bill was an opportunity to be treasured.
Escovedo, a native of San Antonio, opened the show at the beautiful and sonically excellent venue on the University of Houston campus. While his 45-minute set seemed far too short for a performer of his stature and catalog, he made the most of it. Escovedo is well known for using a wide variety of band formats, often including strings, but for this show he went with a basic outfit, dubbed the Sensitive Boys – Billy White on acoustic guitar, Bobby Daniel on bass and Chris Searles on drums. Daniel and Searles provided a solid foundation for White’s playing, which roamed over an impressive range – everything from delicate picking to Telecaster-like twang. Escovedo, a fine guitarist himself, mostly strummed but contributed some impressive picking from time to time.
The nine-song set included four tracks from Escovedo’s Big Station album released earlier this year: the stark “Sally Was a Cop,” about a police officer turned soldier; the country-inflected “Bottom of the World,” a reflective look at how his adopted hometown of Austin has changed; the gentle “San Antonio Rain,” a quiet ballad about his longing for his early childhood home after his family moved to California, and the title track. Earlier works filled out the rest of the list – “Anchor,” “Sister Lost Soul,” “Swallows of San Juan” and “Pissed Off 2 A.M.” – a tale about a washed-up performer that Escovedo noted was “not about us, but about people we know who are kind of like us.” After a brief break, the band returned with the rousing “Always a Friend,” here done in a spare arrangement featuring Escovedo’s guitar, Searles on drumsticks (striking each other, not drums), and White and Daniel contributing harmony vocals and handclaps.
Prine’s set – which mostly featured his longtime lineup of Jason Wilber on guitar and mandolin and Dave Jacques on bass, but also included a stretch of three or four songs played solo – was pretty much a tour of his greatest hits from a career spanning more than four decades. Check them off: “Spanish Pipedream,” “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore,” “Six O’Clock News,” “Souvenirs,” “That’s the Way the World Goes Round,” “Sam Stone” – the list just goes on.
At 66, Prine isn’t young. His voice is rougher than it once was, and maybe a bit shakier, and his dancing to Wilber’s guitar on “Lake Marie” a little less energetic. But he’s still a master at interpreting the emotions of the human heart – bitter, sweet and everything in between – and those emotions still come through clearly in his singing and in the understated brilliance of his band. Wilber’s excellent electric guitar, sometimes with slide, underscored the loneliness that marks many of Prine’s lyrics, notably on “Six O’Clock News” and “Far From Me.” Jacques’ bowed stand-up bass lent an aching poignancy to “Hello In There,” Prine’s sweet, sad song about aging.
Prine made a number of endearing dedications along the way: “Souvenirs” to his brother Doug, who died not long ago; “Speed at the Sound of Loneliness” to Escovedo; the brilliant “Angel from Montgomery” to old friend Bonnie Raitt; “That’s the Way the World Goes Round” to two doctors from Houston’s MD Anderson Cancer Center, where Prine underwent treatment about 15 years ago; and Bob Dylan’s “When I Paint My Masterpiece” to the recently deceased Levon Helm of The Band.
The 21-song main set passed in what seemed like far less than the two hours it actually consumed. For the encore, “Paradise,” Prine invited Escovedo and his band back to the stage. Prine’s lament for the mine-ravaged mountains of Kentucky was nicely accented by Billy White’s fine mandolin and Escovedo’s soulful vocals (mostly harmony, plus lead on one verse). It was a generous ending to an outstanding show.
Happy fans heading for the exits were treated to one final bit of musical lagniappe playing over the P.A. – “Please Mr. Postman,” a nod to Prine’s pre-musician career as a mail carrier.
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