October 9, 2007 John Prine at the Cerritos Center for the Performing Arts Cerritos, CA with opening musician Dan Reeder and support from Dave Jacques and Jason Wilber
 
By: cleats
Full Review here

Triumphant Return of John Prine at Cerritos

   No need to mince words about the visit of John Prine to the Performing Arts Center; the key noun here is genius. That superlative may be tossed around endlessly but when it comes to the songs of this songwriter and his performance of same the grand meaning of the word is stretched to the limits. I could go on about how long I have been a fan or that I have the beat up vinyl eponymous album from 1971. However, the fact is that Prine has become an American icon with a repertoire of classic, insightful and precious song jewels that will stand until sound ceases to come out of speakers. At 61 years of age Mr. Prine has come through the valley of death in battling cancer and emerged strong, wise and with a legendary status at the top of the musical mount Olympus. To see him and to hear these treasures is a rare privilege indeed.
    At Cerritos Prine was in tip-top shape, singing with power and amazing stamina, indeed giving the rabid fans in the hall almost two dozen of his best. Opening with “Spanish Pipedream” and “Picture Show” he had the audience singing along in the first ten minutes. Then, the chestnuts just tumbled out of his rich satchel of songs including “Souvenirs,” “Grandpa Was a Carpenter,” “Far from Me,” “Fish and Whistle,” “Glory of True Love” and “Crazy as a Loon.” Each was unique and while simple in tone, remarkably deep in meaning. Not content to just showcase his words Prine put a ribbon on this package with lead guitarist Jason Wilber who made the sound textured and colorful beyond even the original recordings. Wilber, with his clean-cut appearance and unreal dexterity re-defined guitar solos on many an occasion during the show.
There was a sort of masterpiece middle of the concert when “Angel from Montgomery,” “Illegal Smile,” “Please Don’t Bury Me,” “Sam Stone,” and “That’s the Way That the World Goes Round” captivated the howling crowd but the real tour de force of the whole evening was his brilliant reading of the epochal “Jesus, the Missing Years.” Prine got out the electric guitar for some stronger stuff but “Great Rain” and “She is My Everything” gave way to a finishing kick of the lovely “Lake Marie” and the wonderfully optimistic and poignant “Blue Umbrella” that is quintessential Prine. In every possible way this evening was triumphant for John Prine and the fans that stayed in their seats roaring for their hero way past the last notes sung. Only a crazy man with an iron sense of self would want to open shows for a living legend in front of a hall of Prine fanatics but Dan Reeder is all of that. The clever, occasionally profane, musically skilled and sometimes hilarious gentleman won the Prine-iacs over almost immediately. Plucked from obscurity by O-Boy Records and John Prine, Reeder has developed a following with his offbeat humor and unique songs. Among the near dozen songs in the set, Reeder really shone on “Clean Elvis,” “I Drink Beer” “No One Will Laugh,” and the very sweet “Beautiful” that demonstrated his serious side. However, the real fun came with two songs whose titles can’t be discussed in a family newspaper but will be on my Ipod soon.

By: Malamutemike
The Cerritos concert was excellent! John Prine and his band was exceptional. The venue was beautiful and the sound produced was top notch! John has such creativity with his lyrics and music. His lead guitarist, Jason Wilber, can weave magic with his guitar playing! I think I best can sum up the experience this way...My 12 year old daughter went to the concert with me and my wife, and she was singing all the lyrics to John's music. How many parents have a teenager who enjoys the same music as they do, and , has it memorized? We met John and Jason after the show and they were kind enough to sign my wife's skirt and take pictures with us! They, John Prine and Jason Wilber, are consumate gentlemen and class acts! Happy Birthday John, and have an "Italian sausage" on me...!!!

PREVIEW By: Chris Ziegler
HELLO, CALIFORNIA! HELLO, DAD AND MOM!
October 3rd, 2007
There stands John Prine - full preview here
ILLUSTRATION by LUKE MCGARRY
So good, Kris Kristofferson said, that he ought to have both his thumbs broken: this would have been about 1971-ish when John Prine was (with Loudon Wainwright and ah, maybe David Ackles or even Elliott Murphy) part of that set of young guitar guys who were supposed to graduate into being the next Dylan. But Prine had a flattened-out plainsman’s voice more like Lefty Frizzell or Webb Pierce, those two classic American truck-stop jukebox mainstays with songs like “My Baby’s Just Like Money” or “There Stands the Glass” that could have matched perfectly any of the songs on Prine’s early Diamonds in the Rough LP, and Prine also had an uncommon capacity for compassion somehow compounded (instead of erased) by long years in both the U.S. Army and the U.S. Postal Service. By the time Kristofferson heard him playing guitar in Chicago—probably working out early signatures like “Sam Stone,” with the famous line about “a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes” inspired from the futility of Army life, Prine told Crawdaddy’s Ann Purtill in 1972—Prine was a honky-tonk guitarist with a humble and hopeful soul, who told Purtill about songs he’d written while he thought about the meaningless lives that people lead, and the moment when they recognize that emptiness, and also about how his dad kept asking him how come he’d never written a song as good as Hank Williams. But I think on the next record John Prine got pretty close— “Yes, I Guess They Oughta Name a Drink After You,” which if it didn’t make Williams then it surely equaled Webb—and he kept his own voice, too, going on and writing about war (“Take the Star out of the Window”) and love (“Far From Me”) and loneliness (“Angel From Montgomery”) with truly wounded precision. Twenty-five and he writes like he’s two-hundred-and-twenty, Kristofferson had said—and that was back when John Prine was just barely starting out.
JOHN PRINE AT THE CERRITOS CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
12700 CENTER COURT DR | CERRITOS 90703 | CERRITOSCENTER.COM | MON 8PM | $30-57 | ALL AGES

October 6, 2007 John Prine plays the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival in San Francisco, CA. Back up band: Dave Jacques and Jason Wilber

By: Dan Ruby
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass photo gallery John Prine performed at the Star Stage ...........
Festival Preview Roots site here

By: Anonymous

Pretty good show, though the crowd was talking obnoxiously loud throughout. It would be nice to hear the music a little better... but what can you expect at a free festival? Setlist is below. John played with only his bass man and guitar guy - he has had another guy with him when i have seen him in the past. John is looking and sounding good though. bittorrent download is here, listen for yourself: http://www.thetradersden.org/forums/showthread.php?p=702655 John Prine October 6, 2007 Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival Speedway Meadow (Star Stage) Golden Gate Park | San Francisco, CA 01 Spanish Pipedream 02 Flag Decal 03 Speed of the Sound of Loneliness 04 Souvenirs 05 Grampa was a carpenter 06 Fish and Whistle 07 Glory of True Love 08 Angel From Montgomery 09 She is my everything 10 I Ain't hurtin' nobody, I Ain't no one 11 Lake Marie

By: MIKE MCGUIRK
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass: John Prine - Full Preview here:
   The great and the really great    Wednesday October 3, 2007
   Although he has never made it commercially, John Prine has been considered one of the premier songwriters in Americana and folk since his first album, John Prine (Atlantic), came out in 1971. "Sam Stone," the story of a Vietnam vet turned junkie, "Hello in There," made a hit by Joan Baez, and the monumental "Angel from Montgomery" were instantly and forever pasted on the American psyche, even if Prine has never reached household-name status.
   Prine released records steadily through the 1970s, '80s, and '90s, without a drop-off in quality. His talent lies in sketching the stories of everyday people and injecting the characters with the most human emotions in a way that adds a literary depth to the songs without stumbling into the heavy-handedness many folk writers fall prey to. Delivered in his characteristic scratchy tone, Prine's songs can almost literally kill you if you listen to them at the wrong time.
  "Far from Me" is one of those. Be very careful here.
   His latest album, Standard Songs for Average People (Oh Boy), is a laid-back collection of country covers performed with bluegrass vocalist Mac Wiseman. The pair perform some known numbers - "Saginaw, Michigan" and "Old Rugged Cross" - and cover tunes by Tom T. Hall and Prine pal Kris Kristofferson. An operation to remove cancer from his throat in 1999 has given Prine an even more distinctive voice, and now when he plays his older material, such as the numbers off 2000's Souvenirs (Oh Boy), it finally sounds as if the words being sung aren't coming from a precocious 21-year-old but from some world-weary everyman who lives behind the Greyhound station. Simply put, Prine is one of the most talented folksingers America has ever produced. He has two types of songs: great songs and really great songs.
JOHN PRINE
Sat/6, 1:30 p.m., free
Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, Star Stage
HARDLY STRICTLY BLUEGRASS FESTIVAL
The free festival happens Oct. 5, beginning at 3 p.m., and Oct. 6 to 7, starting at 11 a.m., at Speedway, Lindley, and Marx meadows in Golden Gate Park, SF. For more information on all of the performers and events, go to www.strictlybluegrass.com.

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