John Prine - Souvenirs (2000)

Tracklist

01. Souvenirs
02. Fish and Whistle
03. Far from Me
04. Angel from Montgomery
05. Donald and Lydia
06. Christmas in Prison
07. Storm Windows
08. Grandpa Was a Carpenter
09. The Late John Garfield Blues
10. Blue Umbrella
11. Six O'clock News
12. People Puttin' People Down
13. Sam Stone
14. Please Don't Bury Me
15. Hello in There


When John Prine wrote and recorded the likes of "Hello in There," "Angel from Montgomery," and "Souvenirs" in the early '70s, he came across like a Social Security recipient in a young man's body. As he revisits those tunes and more favorites from his salad days, the wisdom Prine possessed as a twentysomething troubadour seems all the more remarkable. The raison d'être for Souvenirs may be rather prosaic. Prine rerecorded 15 early classics so that he could own master recordings of a bunch of songs from his first three albums, as well as a few stragglers from the late '70s and early '80s. But the flatteringly spare arrangements and Prine's wizened delivery only add weight to these heavy-hearted folk tunes. "It took me years to get those souvenirs / And I don't know how they slipped away from me," Prine sings on the title track, a remnant from 1972's Diamonds in the Rough. Well, John, they didn't slip away at all; they're still shining like gems under a layer of dust. -Steven Stolder

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