Concert Update - John Prine

Last Friday evening I had the privilege and pleasure of seeing John Prine. Prine is an American country/folk singer-songwriter who has a lengthy discography and won Artist of the Year in 2005. He is hailed as one of the great singer-songwriters in American music history and is known for his humor and great story telling, particularly through song.

The evening began with some BBQ at Bandana's, which was awesome. We then went down to the TouHill Performing Arts Center located on the University of Missouri Saint Louis campus. The opening act was a very talented girl named Carrie Rodriguez. She had a beautiful, yet edgy voice and was unique in that she played the tenor guitar (4 strings) as well as the fiddle. I had never seen an artist who sang and played fiddle at the same time with the fiddle being the main instrument. It was pretty awesome. She got a nice ovation at the end of her 30 minutes set. After a fairly long intermission, the energy began to escalate as the crowd of about 2500 anxiously awaited the legend.

Finally, Prine and his two backup musicians (upright base and guitar/mandolin/harmonica) entered stage left to a very warm standing ovation. They then launched into a wonderful set of songs that lasted nearly two hours. I was really happy that Prine played my favorite song of his, Long Monday. It isn't one of his more popular tunes and it is pretty much 50/50 chance of him playing it live. After about nine songs, his accompanying musicians exited the stage and John played about 4 or 5 songs by himself. He was rejoined by his band mates to close out the evening with a couple more songs. There was of course an encore, during which Carrie Rodriguez was brought out to join the band. They closed with the wonderful piece Paradise which sounded awesome with the three part harmony and fiddle.

This was one of my all time favorite concerts. One left this concert feeling as though they had seen a close friend performing some good music. The atmosphere was so intimate and pleasant. I highly recommend seeing John Prine whether you know his music or not. You will not be disappointed.