When I heard that lyric -- sitting with the woman I love in a converted movie theater in the downtown area of the city we live in - I knew I had the title to this column.
Americana music legend, the late John Prine, an inductee into the Songwriters Hall of Fame, was honored in raucous fashion two Saturday nights ago at The Capitol Theatre in Laurens.
This was the “We’re the Big Door Prize” concert organized and presented by Harry Agnew, Michael Buhrmaster, Hunter Holmes & Danny Smith. Agnew’s daughter, Isabella, closed the show with a personal reflection from the Agnew family just before the combined performers launched into “Paradise.” Along the way, the performers showcased the irreverence and heart-break reflected in Prine’s music, which includes “Angel from Montgomery” (1971), “All the Best,” “Hello in There,” “Souvenirs,” “In a Town this Size,” and “Summer’s End” (2018).
Prine was born Oct. 10, 1946 in Maywood, Illinois, and died from COVID April 7, 2020, in Nashville. This show was a benefit for his family’s foundation, the Hello in There Foundation, titled from a Prine song that looks at the loneliness of growing old. Sponsors for this event - a continuation of the City of Laurens showcasing The Capitol as a movies and performance venue - were Ivy Auctions, Big “D” Butcher, Laurens Commission of Public Works, and Agnew Development, LLC.
Performers for nearly 3 hours of Prine music were: Minivan Mark, Curt Ackerman, Cecil Thompkins, Hunter and Brie Holmes, Marty Shirley, Chris Garlock, Mark Tebalt, Richard Hurteau, John Ledford & Steve Dorn, Hunter Holmes, Darby Wilcox, Taylor Corum, John Schaffer, Curt & Kipper Ackerman, Michael Burhmaster, Chuck Waldron & Friends, Michael Hunter Smith, and Michael Hunter Smith + All.
Wilcox, who presented stunning renditions of “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness” and “Angel From Montgomery”, said she could never forgive Covid for taking Prine from us.
I did not know Prine’s music as well as I should - the people who sing and sound like him, Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen, are much more familiar to me. The next morning, Sunday, gave me a chance to sit with coffee and our fur-baby, Jewel, in a cold spring morning on our back patio and dive even a little deeper into Prine’s catelog.
It was clear from the love and respect shown to the music by this incredible band of musicians that John Prine had a profound and lasting impact on many musicians. Harry Agnew told Judith Brown of The Laurens County Advertiser (March 18), “John Prine’s music has been so important to people, and ever since he died, these tribute concerts have been popping up all over the country. ... He’s the Woody Guthrie of our generation. He was discovered by Roger Ebert, who was supposed to be reviewing a movie in Chicago but left early and dropped by a little bar where Prine was performing. He wrote about John Prine instead and that’s how he was discovered.”
Three performances from this tribute stood out:
“In Spite of Ourselves” by Hunter and Brie Holmes, with a few lyrics too graphic for a family newspaper;
“I Just Wanna Dance with You” by Taylor Corum, which I know from George Strait and didn’t even know it was a Prine song (with Roger Cook), and
“Unwed Fathers” by Curt and Kipper Ackerman, lyrics that can cut deep into any dad’s heart.
Later, I found a song that wasn’t on the playlist, “Some Humans Ain’t Human” (2005) which shows Prine’s searing abilities as social critic, crying for justice and speaking against war. It’s probably more relevant today than it was 21 years ago.
So, Thank You, to Harry, Michael, Hunter & Danny, for sharing with us such a remarkable evening.
Vic MacDonald is Editor of The Clinton Chronicle. This past June, he marked his 50th year as a community journalist in South Carolina. Reach him at 864-833-1900 or news@clintonchronicle.net
