When you start a book at the Rare Book Room of NYC’s iconic Strand Books with the Grammy-winning Steve Earle, you set a very high bar. PRINE ON PRINE: Interviews & Encounters editor/contributor Holly Gleason has ventured to Chicago’s Exile in Bookville for an all-star contributor panel, Nashville’s prestigious Southern Festival of Books and even a sold-out signing at Natalie’s Grandview in Columbus where being too sick to attend didn’t dampen the enthusiasm of the 140-ticketed attendees.
This weekend, PRINE ON PRINE arrives at South Florida’s beloved Miami Book Fair for a discussion with contributors Michael McCall (Nashville Scene) and Mike Leonard (Emmy-winning, long time “Today” correspondent). Both men – like Gleason – covered Prine across a sustained amount of time and knew him as a member of the Nashville and Chicago communities. The panel is scheduled for Saturday, Nov. 18 at 4 pm in the Magic Screening Room (Building 8, 1st floor) at Miami Dade College.
PRINE ON PRINE: Interviews & Encounters has struck a chord across America. Beyond the initial wave of media, including a three-page cover story in The Tennessean’s Sunday Arts section, this collection of newspaper and magazine features, tv appearances, award presentations, film scripts, recipes and an evening at the Library of Congress remains difficult to find in independent bookstores. With its first two printings sold out almost before delivery, fans of the Grammy, Songwriter and soon-to-be “Austin City Limits” Hall of Fame inductee can be assured a copy of the book following the panel.
“People don’t realize what passion John Prine inspires” Gleason marvels of the response. “People are being told they have no idea when stores may have books in stock. For those who know and love these songs, it’s no surprise. And part of why this book felt important to create is the way it allows John to exists as he was in every stage and moment of his career. Context in looking back, but it’s the real time perspective from some of the greatest writers who’ve covered music and culture that made this work.”
“Whimsical, romantic, literary, simple, retrospective, forward-looking, all absolutely John Prine” PASTE opined, while Garden & Gun assessed the book is “the most concise record of Prine’s life in his own words that we have” and No Depression offered “PRINE ON PRINE brings John Prine to life in ways no single biography could ever do.” Even the international Globe & Mail raved it’s “the closest thing we will ever get to an autobiography of a genius wordsmith” in a wrap up of 12 Music Books This Fall that included Barbra Streisand and Britney Spears.
Chicago Tribune’s Rick Kogan wrote, “In this book you get the man, in all his charming, introspective, self-deprecating and inspiring facets. It can serve as a biography, with the details of signposts and bumps on Prine’s road to fame.” Los Angeles Times deemed it, “moving and insightful,” HITSDailyDouble.com headlined, “Gleason’s Prine Tome Digs Deep” and entertainment bible VARIETY declared, “to love and know Prine is to spend a lot of hours in his presence via Gleason’s essential compendium, which finds his observational candor, fierce intelligence and genial warmth to be unwavering.”
John Prine has come to be revered as Americana’s premiere songwriter/artist. With strong empathy for the human condition, the Chicago-born and -raised daydreamer went on to be a voice who spoke for the unseen and an artist who proffered gravitas on those society overlooked. PRINE ON PRINE: Interviews & Encounters traces the man whose songs have been recorded by Bonnie Raitt, George Strait, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Loretta Lynn, Bettye LaVette, Miranda Lambert, Carly Simon, Susan Tedeschi, Johnny Cash and more across his five-decade career was a labor of love for Gleason.
“Bringing people who have such vibrant memories and experiences with John has been exhilarating. So many memories, so much life are on the book and in conversation... Panels have allowed us to share not just the research that PRINE ON PRINE required, but the fellowship John fostered among those reporters, critics and fellow artists who make up contributors. Every event has taken this book even deeper into capturing the man, his gift and humanity. I can’t wait for Saturday with Mike and Michael. To follow a book on the South Florida punk scene and before Evelyn McDonnell interviews Susanna Hoffs about her novel? John would’ve gotten a kick out of the company we’re keeping.”
With all the momentum around PRINE ON PRINE, Gleason was recently named a nine-time nominee at the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards, bestowed Dec. 3 in Los Angeles. Beyond being her work for HITS, Variety, POLLSTAR and more earning nominations for Print Journalist and Music Critic of the Year with writers from NY Times, Variety, LA Times, Washington Post and more, she finds herself nominated with Kareem Abdul-Jabbar for online columnist and recognized for several individual pieces. Gleason – and multiple Grammy-winner Miranda Lambert – are also nominated for Best Non-Fiction Book, alongside Jon Burlingame, Gerrick Kennedy, Mark Kernes and Alessandra Mattanza.
Having created, edited and contributed to Woman, Walk The Line, the 2018 Belmont Book Award-winning collection of essays about how female country artists profoundly impact individual lives with contributions from Taylor Swift, New York Times best-selling author Alice Randall, Rosanne Cash, Grammy-winning historian Holly George-Warren, poet Caroline Randall Williams, top James Beard Award winner Ronni Lundy, food activist Ali Berlow and more, Gleason understands curating a narrative can sometimes reach places a single reported narrative can’t. That was the goal for PRINE ON PRINE, and across a myriad of mediums, moments and conversations, a sense of the man across his truly lived life emerges.
PRINE ON PRINE is available to purchase HERE.
Early Praise for PRINE ON PRINE: Interviews & Encounters:
As close to an autobiography as we’re going to get from John Prine, Prine On Prine captures the inimitable, whimsical voice of one of our greatest songwriters, from the beginning of his career to his final days, evolving from the shy, self-effacing, uncertain youngster film critic Roger Ebert discovered to the wise, cunning veteran who left a body of work probably second only to Dylan. Nashville legend Holly Gleason knew the man and assembled this brilliant collection with a knowing eye and loving heart.
-- Joel Selvin, Here Comes The Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm +
Blues; Fare The Well: The Final Chapter of the Grateful Dead’s Long Strange Trip
I’m so grateful that Holly has put together this fantastic collection of the best interviews and articles about our beloved John Prine, spanning the whole six decades of his extraordinary career. For all of us who loves and miss him so, this book is truly a treasured gift.
-- Bonnie Raitt
Holly has created a beautiful collage by using John’s words to bring us into the center of his world where family music imagination and love reside with his struggle to remain that kid from Maywood whose curiosity birthed the beautiful songs and music he gifted to the world.
-- Fiona Prine
So much insight and so many great personal stories behind this legendary, super talent. If you’re a John Prine fan, you’re going to love this book. If you’re not, please read it and listen to his music. You will then no doubt be one.
-- George Strait
Listening to John Prine instantly jolts me to a higher vibration and feels like I’m walking on holy ground, free, fearless and naked as the eyes of a clown. He shakes me, wakes me, conjuring up emotions I didn’t know I had, reminding me that tenderness is a virtue. His words make me want to be a better person, to recognize myself in everyone’s eyes, to hold all humanity in high esteem - because we’re all in it together.
Praise be to Holly Gleason for this oh so important, exquisitely curated collection. John Prine improved the world by being alive. Let’s do our best keep that big, beautiful ball rolling.
-- Pamela Des Barres, I’m With The Band and Lets Spend The Night Together
The brilliant genius of John Prine was not only the magic he had in writing about everyday life for everyday people; but just as important was that his lyrics provoked you into thinking about everyday things that you may never have given much thought to and after he woke up those feelings, you realized you couldn’t have said it any better. The respect, admiration and love for Prine and his songs that Holly Gleason has is obvious not only in her eloquent introduction, but in the interviews she selected to pay proper homage to him.
-- Linda Moran, President & CEO, Songwriters Hall Of Fame
Nobody wrote songs like John Prine, filled with humor, humanity, and perfectly cock-eyed detail. But what this elegantly curated collection—culled from interviews, TV and radio appearances, and even recipes—reveals is that...well, that’s just who the guy was. Whether he’s at the Library of Congress or in the pages of Hot Rod magazine, Prine’s wit and fierce independence constantly shine through.
-- Alan Light, The Holy or the Broken: Leonard Cohen, Jeff Buckley &the Unlikely Ascent of “Hallelujah”
I’ve loved John Prine since I was a little girl. PRINE ON PRINE makes me feel like he’s been talking to me since he was a young man, and seeing him go through the phases of his career is a real gift. Holly Gleason knew John, so she understood how to take these interviews, movie scripts, tv shows and recipes and create a sense of who he was when he got done writing or performing. Now even more than a legend, he feels like a favorite uncle.
-- Miranda Lambert
With a deep understanding and knowledge of John Prine – the man and his music – Holly Gleason has searched every nook and cranny to curate a thoughtful biography of one of our greatest singer-songwriters. Her insightful text sets the scene as we experience Prine, the unfiltered raconteur, via five decades of media coverage, from major magazines to niche publications, television scripts to a recipe book, talk show appearances, movie roles and his PEN Award presentation. Prine on Prine is both revelatory and entertaining.
-– Holly George-Warren, Janis: Her Life & Music
and A Man Called Destruction: The Life & Music of Alex Chilton
Reality can involve a lot of imagination, and no one was better at imagining and painting real pictures about people you felt you knew. I enjoyed getting to know John more through Holly’s curation and writing. A true master.
--- Eric Church
This book is a stunner! Only the glorious Holly Gleason could assemble such a magnificent collection to celebrate the life and world-changing artistry of her friend John Prine. Perhaps the most joyful history book you’ll ever read. His music explodes from the pages.
-- Tom DeSavia, Under the Big Black Sun: A Personal History of LA Punk
and More Fun In The New World: The Unmaking and Legacy of LA Punk
About Holly Gleason:
Holly Gleason is the 2023 Southern California Media Awards Entertainment Journalist of the Year, as well their winner for Music Criticism and Entertainment News Feature (Magazine). An author, journalist and academic whose work regularly appeared in Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, Musician, Oxford American, Playboy, Interview and Miami Herald. The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame/Case Western Reserve Fellow is the 2019 Country Music Association Media Achievement Award winner, creator/contributor of the 2018 Belmont Book Award-winning Woman Walk The Line: How The Women of Country Music Changed Our Life, co-author of Miranda Lambert’s New York Times best-seller Y’All Eat Yet: Welcome to the Pretty B*tchin Kitchen and this fall’s Prine on Prine: Interviews & Encounters.
She lives in Nashville, TN and Palm Beach, FL.
