By Paul T. Mueller “I’m getting used to living alone,” Eliot Bronson sings on the title track of his new album, Empty Spaces. “I’m getting used to nobody there when I come home… I’m getting used to the empty spaces that you used to fill.”
And that’s one of the happier songs on this 10-song collection.
Empty Spaces is one fine breakup album – written, as Bronson says, as therapy in the wake of painful breakup and a move to a new city. It’s got everything one would expect – sadness, confusion, bitterness, resignation – and, of course, emptiness. One could easily imagine most of these songs on breakup mixtapes, if that’s still a thing. The album is also a pretty good metaphor for the times we’re living in, as we navigate the transition between the world we used to know and the new, harsher reality we find ourselves in.
Several albums into a solo career, Bronson is only getting better as a writer. Around every corner here is another skillful turn of phrase to capture experience and emotion. “Don’t give me words, words can confuse,” pleads the weary narrator of “Let Me Go.” “Words can conceal the weapons we choose.” Confusion and frustration fuel “Good for You”: “If it’s so good for you, why aren’t you kinder? If it’s so good for you, why don’t you step lighter?” And in “Montana,” a sweetly sung bit of misplaced hostility, Bronson vents his rage on a proxy instead of his real target: “Your mountains in the night/Look like the edges of a knife that cut me… You took her away from me, and how could I ever compete with what you’ve got?” In “Gone,” the album’s bleak closer, he sings, “I listen to the rain play on the leaves/Like seconds ticking away, tiny thieves,” accompanied by twangy guitars and a lonely-sounding harmonica.
Empty Spaces encompasses a range of musical genres. “Visitor” is introspective singer-songwriter pop, while “Good for You” has a glossier feel. There’s a little country in “Good for You” and “She Loves the Mountains,” and “With Somebody” is packed with ’80s-style guitars and drums. The title track is a lovely, timeless pop song, full of sweet melody and catchy hooks, layered vocals and understated playing.
The album is also a showcase for Bronson’s talent for composition and arrangement. He shares credit for the project’s atmospheric production with bandmate Will Robertson, who also plays guitars, keyboards and bass. Other contributors included Bret Hartley (guitars), Colin Agnew (percussion), Marla Feeney (violin), Andrew Colella (viola), and Prisca Strothers (harmony vocals).
Bronson has been doing weekly livestreamed shows for the past few months, and for the most part they’ve been lively and upbeat – not surprising from a guy who last year came up with a funny novelty song based on that viral tweet about “30-50 feral hogs.” That he’s written and released an album’s worth of downbeat songs speaks to his skill as a writer, as well as his willingness to bare the darker side of his soul. It’s been said that artists turn pain into art, and Eliot Bronson has certainly done that with Empty Spaces.
“Getting the band back together” is a common fantasy in popular music; sometimes it works, more often it tanks.
The good news is that the Mustangs of the West are in the plus column. Launched in the ’80s as the-all female Mustangs, they’re back almost three decades later with a new name and two new members.
Although they’ve been described as “cowpunk,” their sound today is an engaging brand of country rock, reminiscent of ’70s and ’80s Poco.
TheFree Speech Center at Middle Tennessee State University wants all Americans to know and use their First Amendment rights, and its new awareness effort has some star-studded support to get out the word across the country.
Nashville’s taking center stage in the center’s new 1 for All Campaign for the First Amendment effort with help from artists, authors and athletes including multi-Platinum award-winning artist Kane Brown; the legendary Loretta Lynn; multi-Grammy Award-winning musicians Rosanne Cash, Jason Isbell,Brad Paisley and Darius Rucker; Olympic gold medalist Scott Hamilton; and bestselling author and Pulitzer Prize finalist Ann Patchett.
They’re among nearly two dozen Nashvillians sharing the critical need nationwide for Americans to know, and practice, our First Amendment rights to free speech, a free press, peaceable assembly, religion and petitioning the government.
“Over the past few weeks, we’ve seen the First Amendment in action on the streets of America,” said Ken Paulson, director of the Free Speech Center in MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment. “Citizens using their freedom of speech, right to assemble, freedom of the press, the right to petition and freedom of faith have changed America for the better. (Disclosure: Paulson is also the editor of Americana One.)
“Our goal is to have Americans better understand the scope and impact of the First Amendment and never take it for granted.”
Surveys by the Freedom Forum First Amendment Center indicate that one-third of Americans can’t name a single freedom in the First Amendment and that a vast majority have very little understanding of these liberties.
Lynn, a multi-Grammy-winning singer-songwriter and author with a career spanning six decades, makes her appreciation for the First Amendment clear in her typical blunt and succinct manner.
To remedy that, the campaign ads direct members of the public to http://1forall.today, where they can learn all they need to know about the First Amendment, including tips on how to help preserve and protect these essential freedoms.
“My free speech showed up in songs like ‘The Pill’ and ‘You Ain’t Woman Enough (To Take My Man).’ I always say — and sing — exactly what I mean,” Lynn said in supplying the text for her poster for the campaign.
Using lyrics from his latest release, “Worldwide Beautiful,” a song urging peace, reason and equality that’s already topped the U.S iTunes sales charts as well as Billboard’s new music poll, Brown called for using the First Amendment to create more harmony.
“We’ve still got some work, but we still got a dream,” Brown said, adding, “let’s use our freedoms of speech, press and assembly to build understanding and mutual respect. The dream is within our reach.”
Hamilton, a U.S. and world figure skating champion who won Olympic gold in the 1984 competition, said that protecting one of the First Amendment’s freedoms helps preserve them all.
“My faith is the driving force in my life every single day. Thanks to the First Amendment, what I believe, say and write is protected by this amazing one-of-a-kind nation,” Hamilton said.
This new 1 for All effort, which includes support from 1 for All program-founding partners The Tennessean, Gannett/USA Today, the Tennessee Press Association and the Tennessee Association of Broadcasters, also includes national support from the Associated Press and news organizations from across the country.
Brown, Lynn, Cash, Isbell, Paisley, Rucker, Hamilton and Patchett are being joined in the campaign by fellow First Amendment advocates:
• Ruby Amanfu, singer-songwriter and co-writer of the Grammy-nominated “Hard Place,” performed by H E R.
• John Cooper,
co-founder of the multi-platinum, Grammy-nominated and Billboard Music Award-winning rock band Skillet.
• Billy Ray Cyrus, singer-songwriter and actor featured in Lil Nas X’s No. 1, 10-million-plus-selling hit “Old Town Road” and the “Still the King” TV series.
• Colton Dixon,
singer-songwriter and former American Idol fan favorite/finalist.
• Mary Gauthier, Grammy-nominated singer-songwriter whose “Rifles & Rosary Beads” album, featuring songs co-written with U.S. military veterans and their families, earned the International Folk Music Awards’ 2018 album of the year honor.
• Marcus Hummon, Grammy-winning singer-songwriter, performer and member of the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame.
• Amy Kurland, founder of Nashville’s famed Bluebird Cafe.
• Kathy Mattea, multi-Grammy-winning and platinum-selling singer featured in Ken Burns’ “Country Music” documentary.
• Ketch Secor, co-founder of the multi-Grammy-winning Old Crow Medicine Show and featured in the Burns “Country Music” documentary.
• Aubrie Sellers, singer-songwriter and 2020 nominee for the Americana Music Association’s emerging artist of the year.
• Ruta Sepetys, bestselling author and winner of the Carnegie Medal.
• The Rev. Becca Stevens, social entrepreneur, author, priest and founder of the Thistle Farms organization for women’s recovery.
“We’re grateful to the artists and authors who support the campaign,” Paulson said. “They’re critical to ensuring that a new generation takes notice. We’re marketing the First Amendment to young citizens who can make history using its freedoms.
“The 1 for All campaign is nonpartisan and apolitical. Our only positions are that the First Amendment’s five freedoms are at the heart of a great nation and that every American needs to better understand and respect these core liberties.”
Established in August 2019 as a nonpartisan public policy center, the Free Speech Center at MTSU strives to build understanding and support for the five freedoms of the First Amendment through education and information.
The Free Speech Center’s resources include the unique First Amendment Encyclopedia, the world’s single most comprehensive free reference work on the five freedoms guaranteed by the first item on the U.S. Constitution’s Bill of Rights. All center resources are open to the public anytime at http://freespeech.center.
“What better place to launch a national First Amendment campaign than at Middle Tennessee State University?” Paulson asked.
“We have scholars versed in democracy, media and government at the Free Speech Center, the John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies, our American Democracy Project chapter and the Albert Gore Research Center. We have a nationally recognized College of Media and Entertainment and both the expertise and facilities to create content for multiple media and platforms. It all fits together to make this mission possible.”
For more information on the 1 For All Campaign, visit http://1forall.today. For information about the Free Speech Center at MTSU, visit http://freespeech.center. And for more on MTSU’s College of Media and Entertainment and its programs, visit https://www.mtsu.edu/media.
You may know Thomm Jutz from his work with David Olney, Mary Gauthier or Nanci Griffith. Or maybe his collaborations with Eric Brace and Peter Cooper.
You may also have come across his 1861 Project, which chronicled the Civil War in three striking volumes. Or you may know his other work as a producer, with more than 70 albums to his credit.
His new album “Live in Two Worlds Vol. 1” showcases his musicianship and songwriting, telling compelling stories along the way. We spoke with him recently about his new project and what to expect from Vol. 2.
Eliza Gilkyson probably couldn’t have made a timelier album. The Austin-based singer-songwriter’s recently released 2020 captures the essence of the troubled times we’re currently enduring. And if she unflinchingly depicts the anger and despair many are feeling, she also channels more positive counterparts such as faith, sympathy and hope.
“We’re on fire, we’re on fire,” Gilkyson acknowledges in the opening track, “Promises to Keep,” before stating her resolve in the chorus: “Thoughts and prayers will never make things right/and I have promises to keep.” That’s followed by “Peace in Our Hearts,” an anthem to what some might call hippie sentiment – “Gonna stand for the earth and our children too.” But there’s toughness, too, as revealed in the final verse – “Gonna stare into the face of the hateful mind/with peace in our hearts.”
Songs such as “One More Day” and “Beautiful World of Mine” take a softer approach, exploring themes such as love, forgiveness and the beauty of nature. They’re essentially the kind of “secular hymns” that have become a Gilkyson trademark in recent years.
Gilkyson bares her lyrical fangs on the ominous “Sooner or Later,” in which she recounts the sins of the oppressors – “They take the oil from the earth, put their coal dust in the sky/Their poison in the water, they don’t care if people die” – before warning, “Sooner or later, it’s a natural fact/Gonna rise up, gonna take it all back.” Age has taken its toll on Gilkyson’s voice, but she’s in excellent form on this track.
Most of 2020 comprises Gilkyson’s writing, either alone or with co-writers, but there are some notable covers. “Beach Haven,” a plea for racial harmony that sets Woody Guthrie’s words to Gilkyson’s music, is described as an adaptation of Guthrie’s 1952 letter about a segregated Brooklyn apartment complex called Beach Haven that was owned by Fred Trump, father of the current president. Gilkyson also gives a haunting rendition of Bob Dylan’s “A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall,” and an impassioned take on Pete Seeger’s “Where Have All the Flowers Gone” – both sadly still relevant after all these years.
The album closes on a gently hopeful note with “We Are Not Alone,” an ode to community that she wrote with Robert McPeek. “A flickering flame each soul holds high/Searching for another kindred spark,” she sings. “We are not alone/We are not alone/Not alone.”
Gilkyson’s son, Cisco Ryder Gilliland, contributed drums and percussion, as well as fine production. He had plenty to work with in the way of contributors – an all-star cast of Austin notables including Mike Hardwick on guitar, Chris Maresh on bass, Bukka Allen on keyboards, Warren Hood on fiddle, Kym Warner on mandolin, and BettySoo and Jaimee Harris on vocals.
Don’t look for Eliza Gilkyson at your local arena any time soon, but with 2020, she has produced a highly relevant musical chronicle of our times that both describes the trouble we’re in and prescribes what we need to do about it. There are voices that need to be heard in times of crisis. Eliza Gilkyson’s is one of them.
We remain big fans of Adam and Shannon Wright, who collectively perform as the Wrights. Adam now spends most of his time writing songs in Nashville and you’ll find his work on releases by Lee Ann Womack, Alan Jackson and Aubrie Sellers. He’s also proven to be one of the hotter songwriters in bluegrass.
His collaboration with Brandy Clark – “A Bigger Boat” – is one of our favorite songs of the year.
On this – the 50th edition of the Americana One podcast – Adam Wright talks about his success and approach to songwriting.
Minutes ago, the Americana Music Association released its list of nominees for this year’s Honors and Awards. It’s a big year for Brandi Carlile, with her own nomination for artist of the year, her nods as a member of the Highwomen and nominations for Tanya Tucker’s “While I’m Livin'” which she co-produced with Shooter Jennings. The association’s announcement:
Album of the Year:
“And It’s Still Alright,” Nathaniel Rateliff, Produced by James Barone, Patrick Meese and Nathaniel Rateliff
“Country Squire,” Tyler Childers, Produced by David Ferguson and Sturgill Simpson
“The Highwomen,” The Highwomen, Produced by Dave Cobb
“Jaime,” Brittany Howard, Produced by Brittany Howard
“While I’m Livin’,” Tanya Tucker, Produced by Brandi Carlile and Shooter Jennings
Artist of the Year:
Brandi Carlile
Brittany Howard
John Prine
Tanya Tucker
Yola
Duo/Group of the Year:
Black Pumas
Drive-By Truckers
The Highwomen
Buddy & Julie Miller
Our Native Daughters
Emerging Act of the Year:
Black Pumas
Katie Pruitt
Aubrie Sellers
Billy Strings
Kelsey Waldon
Instrumentalist of the Year:
Ellen Angelico
Annie Clements
Brittany Haas
Zachariah Hickman
Rich Hinman
Song of the Year:
“And It’s Still Alright,” Nathaniel Rateliff, Written by Nathaniel Rateliff
“Bring My Flowers Now,” Tanya Tucker, Written by Brandi Carlile, Phil Hanseroth, Tim Hanseroth and Tanya Tucker
“Crowded Table,” The Highwomen, Written by Brandi Carlile, Natalie Hemby and Lori McKenna
“My Love Will Not Change,” Aubrie Sellers featuring Steve Earle, Written by Billy Burnette and Shawn Camp
“Stay High,” Brittany Howard, Written by Brittany Howard
“Thoughts and Prayers,” Drive-By Truckers, Written by Patterson Hood
Some People, the latest effort from folk-rock veterans Wheatfield, is as much a testament to enduring friendship as it is a musical document. The roots of this Texas- and Arkansas-based quartet go back to 1973 – an often-told story describes how two of the members, already alumni of a Houston high school, attended the graduation ceremony of a third, eagerly awaiting the moment she received her diploma and joined the band full time. The fourth joined a few years after that, and all these years later – after tasting success for a few years, breaking up, and re-forming after a quarter-century hiatus – they’re still at it.
Wheatfield earned critical praise and loyal followers during the first go-round, playing a mix of folk, rock, jazz, soul and even classical music. The band could be forgiven for playing nostalgia gigs for aging fans, and it’s true that several of the old songs are still staples of Wheatfield shows, such as they are these days. But when the quartet restarted the band in the early Aughts, it was with the idea of continuing to create new music, and they have. Some People is a bit uneven, but the album’s 10 original tracks are worthy of the fine reputation the band established long ago.
(Full disclosure: This reviewer has been a Wheatfield fan at least since 1976 and counts these musicians as friends, having come home one evening a few years ago to find them in his living room, set up to play a surprise birthday party house concert.)
The music, as always, is an eclectic mix of styles and influences. The title track, written by Craig Calvert (vocals, guitar, mandolin, flute) is a funky look at real-world tensions between work and fun, money and time. “When the Fog Rolls In,” by Calvert and Ezra Idlet (vocals, guitar, banjo, percussion) is a gentle, jazzy meditation on life’s simple pleasures. “Sweeter Side,” by Idlet, Connie Mims Pinkerton (vocals, guitar, percussion) and Keith Grimwood (vocals, bass) celebrates seeking the good in life; it features Idlet’s banjo and some fine four-part harmonies. (Idlet and Grimwood make up folk duo Trout Fishing in America, which began as a side project in the ’70s and is still going strong.) “Different Games,” by Mims Pinkerton and Calvert, is metaphorical look at personal struggles; “Cup of Moon,” co-written by Calvert, harks back to the band’s roots as an acoustic trio. “Better Days,” credited to all four members, is an up-tempo ode to hope and perseverance that seems well suited to current times.
The only song not written by one or more band members is a folky-bluegrassy rendition of U2’s “I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For” that highlights Grimwood’s soulful vocals and Idlet’s skillful banjo. There’s a message there: Almost five decades on, at or near retirement age, Wheatfield’s members are still seeking. The writing on Some People is thoughtful, the playing is excellent, the harmonies are as lovely as ever, and the production, by Calvert and Idlet, is clean. Wheatfield isn’t exactly a full-time band anymore, but its members continue to explore the musical landscape, and what they’re finding there is worth hearing.
I try never to walk into a record store without buying something, but I was stumped one day in the mid-’90s. I felt like I had already bought everything I wanted in the pop, rock, country and R&B bins.
Dar Williams on the Cayamo Cruise 2020
So I walked over to the often-neglected folk section and came across an album called Mortal City by a young artist named Dar Williams. It was one of those “I think I’ve heard good things about her” moments and I took it to the register.
Good decision. Mortal City was an incredible album, book-ended by the exuberant opener “As Cool As I Am” and the captivating title cut about a new relationship forming during the worst of storms. Stunning.
That album came early in Dar’s career, but its ambition, honesty and compelling melodies can be found throughout her body of work.
We were pleased to visit with her earlier this year. Here’s our wide-ranging conversation with Dar Williams:
Just released is Bill Lloyd’s Kill the Messenger , a fine collection of power pop from the versatile Lloyd, whose work you may know from Foster and Lloyd.
I first saw John Prine onstage at Chicago’s Ravinia Festival in July of 1972. Prine was the main attraction, but the animated young man who shared the stage with him that night was a close second.
You might know Steve Goodman as the writer of “City of New Orleans” or as a close friend and collaborator of Prine’s, but he was also one of the most electric singer-songwriters ever to grace a stage. Goodman engaged an audience like no other, with songs that moved you or made you laugh, hilarious stage patter and rapid-fire acoustic guitar. If you saw him, you never forgot him.
Goodman died of leukemia in 1984 at age 36, which is part of the reason he’s not better known today. Last August, Omnivore Recordings reissued his final four recordings from the ’80s with bonus tracks, but it was pretty clear that the archives were empty. We would never again see a new Steve Goodman album.
Until now. In an unexpected move, Omnivore has released Steve Goodman Live ’69, a recording of a performance for a local Chicago folk music show. It’s a fascinating document and the sound is surprisingly good.
It’s from so early in Goodman’s career that his performance didn’t include any of his own songs. It’s very much a recording of its time. There’s a cover of Bob Dylan’s “Country Pie,” traditional folk (“John Barleycorn”) and “Ballad of Spiro Agnew,” a brief political joke masquerading as a song, written by Tom Paxton.
But it’s the rest of the album that is revelatory. The same guy who floored audiences throughout the ’70s is right there in 1969, opening with a full-throttle version of Willie Dixon’s “You Can’t Judge a Book By Its Cover,” offering up a charming cover of Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried” and tackling an odd medley of “Where Are You Going/Eleanor Rigby/Drifter/Somebody to Love.”
Closing out the set was what would go on to be a staple of Goodman’s live set, a stellar rendition of Leroy Van Dyke’s “The Auctioneer.”
Steve Goodman Live’ 69 is a treasure – unexpected, unpredictable and delightful. So was Steve.
Lucinda Williams’ latest release, Good Souls Better Angels, will probably be a big hit with fans who have embraced her late-career evolution into a kind of rock ‘n’ roll godmother. It may not prove so popular with those who fell in love with the introspective poetry of her earlier days as a folkie singer-songwriter.
Williams has been moving in this direction for a while, so
there aren’t a lot of surprises on Good Souls. The album’s 12 tracks
find her contending with demons both internal (“Wakin’ Up,” “Pray the Devil
Back to Hell,” “Down Past the Bottom”) and external (“Bad News Blues,” “Man
Without a Soul”). “Big Black Train” reads as Williams’ metaphor for approaching
death (“I can hear it comin’ from miles away/And I don’t want to get on
board”).
Williams has trod this ground before, but her lyrical style
has evolved (some might say devolved) from the meticulous songcraft of, say,
“The Night’s Too Long” and “Car Wheels on a Gravel Road” to simpler stories and
repetitive choruses. It’s a style well suited to live performance and extended
jams; Williams, on a good night, is still a force of nature. But it’s hard to
imagine these gruffly delivered anthems inspiring the same kind of lasting
devotion as do earlier gems such as “Passionate Kisses” or “Pineola.”
Words aside, there’s a lot of listening pleasure to be had here,
courtesy of Williams’ longtime band, Buick 6. Guitarist Stuart Mathis, bassist
David Sutton and drummer Butch Norton are consummate musicians who have been
playing with Williams for years and know exactly how to weave the instrumental
framework behind her vocals. Sutton and Norton provide the solid rhythmic
foundation, while Mathis wrings every possible sound from his guitars, from subtle
picking to soaring solos to noisy distortion. There’s also some atmospheric organ
playing by Mark T. Jordan, and all of it is showcased by clean production by
Williams, Ray Kennedy and Tom Overby.
If you have any questions about why Little Richard is such a pivotal figure in the history of popular music, just listen to the 23rd second of the Beatles’ “I Saw Her Standing There.”
“I’ll never dance with another…whoo!”
There it is. The “whoo!”
That’s Paul McCarney singing and the Beatles shaking their heads on that syllable, but the sound is pure Little Richard.
There are no Beatles without Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Little Richard, and McCartney was particularly indebted to the latter two, Holly gave him songwriting structure and ambition; Little Richard gave him joy and abandon.
Of the founding fathers of rock ‘n’ roll, there’s just Jerry Lee Lewis left. Fats Domino, Carl Perkins, Bo Diddley, Chuck Berry and Elvis are all gone. But only Richard could justifiably claim to be the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll – and he did. The rest were all pioneers, innovators and idols, but Little Richard was the essence – truly unique, outrageous, flashy, confident and totally himself.
Were there ever more expressive lyrics than A-wop-bop-a-loo-bop-a-wop-bam-boom?
I’ll never forget the day I spent in a hotel ballroom on Sunset Strip shooting interviews for our Speaking Freely TV show, then in about 65 U.S. markets. The show featured conversations with artists, authors and public figures about free expression in America.
On that day in Hollywood, we talked with Roger McGuinn of the Byrds, pornographer Larry Flynt and Rickie Lee Jones. And then there was Little Richard, resplendent in a red suit.
It’s a bit of an out-of-the-body experience to interview an iconic figure in full flamboyance. It’s a little like interviewing Batman.
Richard didn’t disappoint, telling tales of his early rock ‘n’ roll years and his eagerness to break barriers. Midway through the interview, though, his microphone failed, and we had to briefly interrupt the taping.
“This was supposed to be a show about the First Amendment. When do we get to that?” he asked. I was stunned, but explained that everything we had been talking about illustrated free expression in America. He was freedom of speech personified.
That didn’t satisfy him, and he reminded me he wasn’t getting paid for this. He was going to walk.
So I turned to another First Amendment right: freedom of religion. “Would you please talk about your faith?”
The devout rocker sat back down, the microphone batteries were replaced, and the interview continued.
Just out is the Reverend Shawn Amos’ new album “Blue Sky” with his band the Brotherhood. We had the pleasure of talking with Shawn about this new release a while back at the 30A Music Festival. He was excited – and we now know why.
Shawn is a dynamic artist and so is the album. Learn how Blue Sky came together and what he has in common with the Who on this edition of the Americana One Podcast.
Here’s a terrific tribute to John Prine from a great group of Nashville musicians, all friends and colleagues of John’s.
Performing the album in its entirety:
Bill Lloyd , Beth Nielsen Chapman. Radney Foster, Stacey and Don Schlitz,Chuck Mead, Shawn Camp, Will Kimbrough,Garry Tallent, Kim Richey and Dan Baird.
Here’s a two-fer : Stan Garfield’s Quarantine Playlist featuring Beth Nielsen Chapman, and a reposting of our American One podcast with this talented artist.
Here’s Stan: “Sand & Water,” written in the wake of Beth’s first husband’s death, and “Happy Girl” are two of my favorites. I have seen her several times at The Ark in Ann Arbor and once at 20 Front Street.
Beth’s life story is incredible. She lost her first husband to cancer, and then survived breast cancer and a brain tumor. Beth has written 7 #1 hits and has had songs recorded by Bonnie Raitt, Willie Nelson, Bette Midler, Elton John, Neil Diamond, Michael McDonald, Keb’ Mo’, Roberta Flack, Waylon Jennings, and The Indigo Girls. She also wrote Faith Hill’s hit “This Kiss,” ASCAP’s 1999 Song Of The Year.
John Prine meant the world to our family. My wife-to-be Peggy and I went to see John, Steve Goodman, Bill Quateman and Bonnie Koloc at Ravinia Festival just after high school graduation in the Chicago suburbs.
John Prine at Americanafest 2017
We were so excited that I missed the exit on the way home and badly blew curfew. Peggy’s mom was …. judgmental. One of my earliest paid writing gigs was a handwritten review of John’s second album “Diamonds in the Rough.” I praised the album, but pointed out his limited vocal range. Punk. His music was everywhere in our household, and we had to convince our 12-year-old son to join us for a Prine concert in New York. He liked “Space Monkey.” Now a music writer for the Tennessean, he just wrote his own celebration of John.
Brandi Carlile and John Prine on Cayamo
We thought of John as our local musical hero because of shared Chicago ties, but then John moved to Nashville. And a decade later, so did we.
It was coincidence, but the best kind. Suddenly our favorite artist popped up all over town, on stage and in the grocery store. One night a dear friend tipped me off that John was going to hold a secret Christmas party in an hour, and sure enough, there he was with his brother Billy, friends and family in a local sports bar. John liked Christmas.
I had the privilege to host John on our “Speaking Freely” TV show on PBS stations years later and saw firsthand what I had been told so often: He was the same guy on stage as he was in-person.
And then just last fall, my wife and I attended “All the Best,” the magnificent festival he and Fiona Whelan Prine staged in the Dominican Republic. There was a truly special night when he took the stage to perform his first album from start to finish, as a full and incandescent moon was reflected in the waves. For the rest of my life, when I think of John, I’ll think of that moment and those songs.
So thankful for that, and for everything John Prine brought into the lives of everyone who loved his music – and him.
The Mastersons were remarkably prescient in recording and releasing their new album No Time For Love Songs.
We spoke with Chris Masterson and Eleanor Whitmore on board the Cayamo music cruise, just about three weeks before a cruise ship was the last place in the world where you would want to spend time.
The timely album is about our polarized world and the willingness of so many to turn their backs on values in the interest of partisanship. And now the COVID-19 pandemic puts an explanation point on their message.
