John Prine Album: “Live”

my girlfriend hates this one, maybe i should get rid of her. me i love the thing. the stories this guy can tell. reminds me of a saturday night when the suds were flowing and your best friend was telling all the wacky stories he had lived or had the nerve to make up. This record sounds like a few friends just hanging out and talking about old times and whats happened since last seeing each other. it's all so intimate and close, you forget he's playing to a few thousand people. i am sure everyone in the audience thought the songs were performed for them and isn't that the whole point of a live album.

This could be his best overall record. The songs about stories. The stories about songs. The stripped down production. Great, great CD. Highly recommended as either a Prine kickstart or an addition to a collection.

...then this is the one. I have been a fan of John Prine's songs for many years, and I believe this album serves them the best. He is without a doubt one of the great songwriters of our time, but he has had two things working against him: the cloying production that plagued many singer-songwriter albums from the 70s and his rather limited vocal talents. This album rectifies the first fault by placing him in a warm intimate concert setting which complement his songs very well. As for his voice, I have never heard it sound better. By this time (mid-1980s), it has become just weathered enough but not too raspy as it would later become. The live setting of course also affords this rather personable singer to spin tales between songs about how each of them was written, and I can tell you that after hundreds of listens I still find those stories charming, particularly the one about the girl who wanted to hear a song about a "happy enchilada".

The music of course is the best that Prine had written to date. It serves as a de facto greatest hits package with better production. My favorites include "Donald and Lydia" and his duet with Bonnie Raitt, "Angel from Montgomery". This is definitely the album to start with, and if you're a John Prine fan without this album then you definitely need to buy it. You won't be sorry.

This CD has some of John Prine's most famous songs -- it's fun and a good one to buy if you're new to Prine's music. John Prine is one of the greatest song writers around -- he translates ordinary experiences into extraordinary songs of the human condition; songs that resonate with his listeners -- songs that lift the human spirit or sometimes, like a well-focused lense, expose the underbelly . . .

Great version of John Prine's live work! Would recommended this to anyone who likes John Prine. Hearing him live is the way to go.