John Prine

Cobb or Ruth? How do you say that one of these baseball greats was better than the other? Statistically both so dominant in different ways. And so while I hasten to call John Prine our greatest living songwriter, since the guy from Hibbing certainly has an equally if not more impressive stat line, let us just say it is a very small group we are talking about here. Definite hall of famer. His audience may have been a bit more mature and sophisticated than Bob's, he was less inclined to grand posturing and preaching. Perhaps more stark and bitter than Bob too but also had an easy sense of humor. Humble. Intelligent songs about real and regular people, he could flesh out a sadsack, heartland character better than anyone. Could not have seen him rhyming "employed" and "Delacroix" for the sake of meter and intonation on his worst day. He was extremely honest. Lacked pretension. And his music spoke to me. This one hurts a lot.