John Prine has come to be revered as Americana’s premiere songwriter/artist. With a strong empathy for the human condition, the Chicago-born-and-raised daydreamer went on to become a voice who spoke for the unseen and an artist who gave gravitas to those society didn’t bother with.
PRINE ON PRINE: Interviews & Encounters, which arrives Sept. 12 from Chicago Review Press, traces the man whose songs have been recorded by Raitt, George Strait, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Loretta Lynn, Bettye LaVette, Miranda Lambert, Carly Simon, Susan Tedeschi, Johnny Cash across his five-decade career. Part of the Musicians in Their Own Words series, for Gleason who’d known Prine her entire adult life, this is a labor of love.
To celebrate its release, Gleason will be in conversation with 3x GRAMMY winner Steve Earle at 7pm, Sept. 13 at Strand’s 3rd Floor Rare Books Room, Broadway at 12th Street.
“Like John, Steve understands songs about average people yield some very strong emotion – and insight into the human condition,” shares Gleason. “John respected Steve so much, and in many ways, he shares John’s sense of decency when it comes to working people. Having spent three years reading and culling these pieces, I wanted someone who understands that part of John, that’s so simple and unassuming, yet guts you with the truth. You don’t see Sam Stone or Donald & Lydia, the old couple or the Angel coming, but you don’t forget.”
Documenting various phases of Prine’s careers via appearances in the media and other places, PRINE ON PRINEcollects work from noted mediacrats Studs Terkel, Roger Ebert, Cameron Crowe, Robert Hilburn, then Poet Laureate Ted Kooser, Robert Christgau, Dave Hoekstra, Michael McCall and Grammy-winner Bob Mehr. It also reaches into the most unlikely places: Prine runs away with a writer from Hot Rod, graces No Depression’s cover, takes a bespoke role in Billy Bob Thornton’s “Daddy and Them,” receives the Pen Literary Award for Lyrical Achievement from John Mellencamp, a PEOPLE profile, taking Emmy-winning Mike Leonard on the road twice for NBC’s “Today” and a couple favorite recipes and stories in Shuck Bean, Stack Cake & Honest Fried Chicken. Record company bios, Chicago folk history, starting labels and cooking dinner, publications long gone and a throwdown with Bobby Bare are all part of the fun.
“Whether it’s Robert Hilburn seeing John in the limbo of life without a major label, Dave Hoekstra celebrating the Earl of Old Town’s anniversary, as well as Steve Goodman and the Chicago folk scene that birthed both men orChris Willman delving into women’s reproductive autonomy for a charity single of ‘Unwed Fathers’ with Margo Price, Prine’s aim was true,” Gleason explains. “He was fun and funny, but mostly he wanted to see people treat each other with kindness and respect. He was all for everybody, but he had a strong sense of values and decency... and that stayed consistent throughout his career.”
Gleason, the former fiancée of Oh Boy, Red Pajamas and Blue Plate Music co-founder and Prine co-manager Dan Einstein, met Prine as a young journalist working for The Miami Herald. Spending many of her formative years as a nationally recognized music critic in Prine’s world, the access provides empiric insight into many of these pieces. Gleason later provided media strategy and services for In Spite of Ourselves and Fair & Square, remaining friends with the GRAMMY-winning legend throughout his life.
“PRINE ON PRINE is as much about capturing an artist creating something that hadn’t really been done, tracing the arc from unthinkable to commonplace. It would not be nearly the book it is without the help of Dan Einstein, who passed away as the book was nearing completion. But he got on the phone, made calls and helped find some of the pieces here, which might have been lost forever based on what it took to track down some of them. Even the cover picture – from a photo session for PEOPLE – was basically forgotten.”
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 myriad mediums, moments and conversations, a sense of the man across his truly lived life emerges.
Pre-order PRINE ON PRINE: Interviews & Encounters: https://amzn.to/3qXd9QI
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
– 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
Holly Gleason is the 2023 Southern California Media Awards Entertainment Journalist of the Year along with being honored with awards in Music Criticism and Entertainment News Feature (Magazine). An author, journalist and academic whose work regularly appeared in Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, Musician, Variety, Oxford American, Playboy, Interview and Miami Herald, she serves as HITS Nashville Editor and a Pollstar Sr. Contributing Editor. 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 Prine on Prine: Interviews & Encounters, published by Chicago Review Press Sept. 2023.
She lives in Nashville, TN.
