Remembering John Prine: A Brooklyn Perspective

The late, great John Prine, who played two memorable concerts at the Kings Theatre in 2016 and 2019, is fondly remembered as an inspiration by a number of Brooklyn artists. Here’s what some of them have to say about him.

John Prine- Guitar In Hand/ photo by Rett Rogers / courtesy of Oh Boy Records

Annie Keating, who titled her compilation CD “All the Best” after the Prine-penned tune that closes the album, tells Brooklyn Roads that, “John Prine inspired me more than any other songwriter or artist. He made me want to write better songs. He dared me to try to craft songs that speak of the human condition with simplicity and honesty.”

“We lost a proficient commentator on the shared human experience when we lost John Prine,” says Bobtown’s Katherine Etzel. “He managed to mine the depths of commonality for lyrics and clever turns of phrase that spoke to everyday folk, often wrapping them in the simplest of song structures.”

When Glenn Spivack of The Haggard Kings saw John Prine in the early 1970s, he found him to be “very warm [with] a wicked sense of humor and a modest demeanor. You felt like you knew him forever and had always cherished his company.” Prine’s songs “could move you to tears or to laughter, and sometimes both in the same song,” Spivack tells us. “His departing from us will leave a huge rent in the fabrics of many of our lives.”

John Prine at Pier 84 in NYC on July 16, 1982 / photo by Al Pereira

Prine is an artist Mariela Flor Olivo looks up to because, “[His] lyrics say and teach so much through their simplicity, grace, and often humor, and speak truths that linger long after the record has stopped.”

Carolann Solebello tells Brooklyn Roads that she learned several Prine classics — including “Angel From Montgomery,” “Hello in There” and “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness” — from other artists. ”In my naïve understanding, these were songs that had always existed [and] it almost surprised me to learn that a single human being had written them all. Perhaps therein lies the genius of John Prine.”

“[He] was a true inspiration for all of us to follow,” says American Nomads’ Walter Kenul. “In today’s music climate, we are in need of [such] accomplished  artists.”

Annie Keating sums it up this way: “John Prine was the songwriter’s songwriter. He wrote about the human condition with an unmatched wit, simplicity, insight and authenticity. His songs will live on in our hearts and minds forever.”