PRINE ON PRINE, Buddy Miller, Jim Lauderdale + the Rock Hall 12/7

November 22, 2023

PRINE ON PRINE: Interviews & Encounters
“Buddy & Jim Radio” Thanksgiving Weekend on SiriusXM Outlaw Country
Saturday, Nov. 25 at 10 pm EST/9 pm CST; Sunday, Nov. 26 at 10 a.m. EST/9 am CST

National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards 9x Nominee
follows Awards w/ Dec. 7 PRINE ON PRINE Panel
with Lyle Lovett & Fiona Whelan Prine at Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame

“Curated by a critic who knew him across five decades,
Prine on Prine distills the essence of an iconic American writer.”
-- Book Reporter

“...moving and insightful.” “a master class in music writing.”
--Los Angeles Times -- Garden & Gun

“Whimsical, romantic, literary, simple, retrospective, forward-looking,
all absolutely John Prine.” -- PASTE

L to R: Jim Lauderdale, Holly Gleason and Buddy Miller
Photo Courtesy of Prine on Prine

Following the Miami Book Fair, PRINE ON PRINE; Interviews & Encounters keeps rolling along. Having met an unprecedented critical reception from The Chicago Tribune to Variety, No Depression to CBS News and beyond, the collection tracks the storied American songwriter’s career from young working class kid in Chicago through his ascendance as one of the most iconic voices in Americana, folk, country and rock music of the last half century continues selling out print runs, anchoring conversations among its contributors and expanding the understanding Prine’s life and evolution.

Following the Thanksgiving feast, fans of the songwriter, Grammy and Austin City Limits Hall of Fame 2023 inductee can enjoy a special two-hour episode of “Buddy and Jim Radio” on SiriusXM’s Outlaw Country Channel 62. Debuting Saturday night, November 25 at 10 pm EST/9 pm CST, then again Sunday morning, Nov. 26 at 10 a.m. EST/9 a.m. CST, the program featuring rare performances from Prine and others will re-air Monday, Nov. 27 at 2 a.m. and 2 p.m., Tuesday, Nov. 28 at midnight, then Wednesday, Nov. 29-Friday, Dec. 1 at 10 pm (all times EST).

“Buddy and Jim were there when John, along with Dan Einstein and Al Bunetta, were building Oh Boy Records,” Gleason offers of the extended conversation. “They knew us as people who were creating a new way of doing business, back when they were part of the vibrant Palomino scene; they were around when Howie Epstein was making the Grammy-winning Missing Years and Lost Dogs + Mixed Blessings before Oh Boy moved to Nashville. Not only were they fans, they were people who were around – and it was wonderful and strangely emotional going back through time and space with them.

“When you get to remember with people who are part of the fabric of a journey, it’s special. And knowing how much Buddy and Jim loved John – and what they were creating – made for an incredible visit.”

Editor and contributor Gleason has been full-tilt at bringing this book to those who loved Prine. Having won the Southern California Journalism Award for Entertainer Journalist, Music Criticism and Entertainment Feature (News) this spring, she heads to Los Angeles for the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards on Dec. 3 where she is nominated for nine awards, including Print Journalist, Music Critic and Online Columnist, as well as Diversity in the Entertainment Industry, Celebrity Profile, Music & Other Arts Personality Profile, Celebrity Feature, Obituary/In Appreciation, Music/Other Arts Personalities and Book, Non-Fiction.

From there, she travels directly to Cleveland, Ohio for a conversation with Grammy-winning songwriter, artist and producer Lyle Lovett and Fiona Whelan Prine, Prine’s beloved wife, manager and founder of the Prine family’s Hello In There Foundation. Tickets for the Dec. 7 event at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame’s Foster Theater are available here: https://bit.ly/46syy3h.

“To have Lyle and Fiona taking time from their busy schedules to celebrate the legacy and impact of someone we all love so very much is a precious thing,” Gleason says. “John had such respect for Lyle and his writing from the moment that first self-titled album was released; John was pleased to introduce Lyle on ‘The Sessions,’ when it was taped in Dublin so many years ago. And it was on that trip where a tour of U2’s Windmill Lane Recording brought Fiona Whelan into John’s life. Talk about a magical intersection of people to discuss this book, the legacy and humanity? I can think of no finer place to do this, nor better people to share a discussion about one of the smartest, kindest hearted people to have ever lived.”

The collection of newspaper and magazine features, tv appearances, award presentations, film scripts, recipes, an award presentation from John Mellencamp and even Prine’s evening at the Library of Congress has struck a chord with the myriad fans Prine collected over the years. Whether fans who bought John Prine when it was first released in 1971, young Americana songwriters and artists raised on his music through friends, siblings or parents, folks who discovered him through covers by Bonnie Raitt, George Strait, Joan Baez, Natalie Merchant and Michael Stipe, Swamp Dogg, Bettye LaVette, Miranda Lambert, Roger Waters among many or his exquisite final album The Tree of Forgiveness, which earned three Grammy nominations for Americana Album and a pair of Americana Song nods.

Chicago Tribune legend Rick Kogan raved, “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.” HITSDailyDouble.com headlined, “Gleason’s Prine Tome Digs Deep,” 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,” 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, “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.

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 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

'PRINE ON PRINE' Arrives at Miami Book Fair this Saturday, Nov. 18

November 16, 2023

JOHN PRINE GOES TO MIAMI!
PRINE ON PRINE: Interviews & Encounters Nov. 18, 4 pm
Miami Book Fair w contributors Michael McCall &
Emmy-winning “Today” producer Mike Leonard

Chicago Tribune, Garden & Gun, Variety, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nashville Scene,
LA Times, Tennessean, CBS News + More

GLEASON ALSO EARNS NINE NAEJA NOMINATIONS,
Including Print Journalist, Music Critic and Online Columnist of the Year
from the National Arts & Entertainment Journalism Awards

“No music writer alive could be better equipped to edit this volume” -- Salvation South
“Book of the Month” -- Americana Highways

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.

PRINE ON PRINE at Southern Festival Of Books 10/21, VARIETY + More

October 20, 2023

PRINE ON PRINE: Interviews & Encounters
Variety, Chicago Tribune, Garden & Gun, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Nashville Scene, CBS News, SiriusXM + More

SOUTHERN FESTIVAL OF BOOKS 10/21 @ Nashville Public Library
w contributors Michael McCall + Chicago Sun-Times vet Dave Hoekstra

“No music writer alive could be better equipped to edit this volume” – Salvation South
“Book of the Month” – Americana Highways

Having kicked off PRINE ON PRINE: Interviews & Encounters with a discussion with Grammy winner Steve Earle in the Rare Book Room of NYC’s legendary Strand Books, editor/contributor Holly Gleason heads to the Southern Festival of Books this Saturday, Oct. 21 for a panel with longtime Chicago Sun-Times critic Dave Hoekstra and former Nashville Banner critic/Nashville Scene contributor Michael McCall. The panel takes place at 4 pm in the Obion Room at Nashville’s Public Library.

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 Features section the week of release, the collection of newspaper and magazine features, tv appearances, award presentations, film scripts, recipes and an evening at the Library of Congress has been difficult to find in independent bookstores. With its initial printing being sold out almost before it arrived, 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 a passion person John Prine is,” Gleason marvels of the initial response, “until all the books are gone, people are being told they have no idea when they may be able to have books in stock. But for those of us who know and love these songs, it’s no surprise. And part of why this book felt important to do 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 an important work...

“Dave Hoekstra, who’s coming in from Chicago, contributes three exceptional pieces. One from the incredible independent music monthly Illinois Entertainer deals with John’s friendship with Steve Goodman and the Chicago folk scene that spawned them, while his Sun-Times pieces tackle John’s move to Nashville and then returning to Chicago as the uber-successful Grammy-winner playing a benefit for Prine’s alma mater Proviso High School in Maywood, Illinois.

“Michael McCall, who’s now at the Country Music Hall of Fame, contributes a cover story from the Nashville Scene that checks in with John as his Oh Boy has proven important artists can create and flourish on their own label at a time when it just wasn’t done. But even more importantly, Michael measures what having his family life come together with Fiona and their beautiful boys meant to him.”

Praise has continued pouring in. Chicago Tribune legend Rick Kogan offered, “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.” The 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.”

“Whimsical, romantic, literary, simple, retrospective, forward-looking, all absolutely John Prine” PASTE opined, while Garden & Gun assessed, “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, “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.

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 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.

“One of the best pieces of this book has been bringing together people who have such vibrant memories and experiences with John. So many memories, so much life are contained in the book and the conversations... and these panels are a way to share not just the research that went PRINE ON PRINE, but the fellowship that John fostered among those reporters, critics, and fellow artists, who make up the list of contributors. Every event has been an opportunity to take this book and go even deeper. I can’t wait for Saturday with Dave and Michael at the Nashville Library. The Southern Festival of Books rocks; I think John would be glad we’re part of it.”

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.

Purchase the book 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

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 Prine on Prine: Interviews & Encounters, published by Chicago Review Press Sept. 2023.

Steve Earle Joins Holly Gleason for PRINE ON PRINE at NYC's Strand Books, 9/13

August 24, 2023

PRINE ON PRINE: INTERVIEWS & ENCOUNTERS ARRIVES SEPT. 12

Editor Holly Gleason Joins Grammy-Winner Steve Earle in
Conversation 9/13 at the Strand in New York City

“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 love and miss him so, this book is truly a treasured gift.”
– Bonnie Raitt

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.