JOHN PRINE

© Reeda Buresh 2003 jpshrine.org

It had been 6 long years since John graced a stage in Peoria. His last visit was at the Madison Theater with R.B. Morris and it was the first time I had shown him his Prine Shrine all  printed up when it was much smaller and still able to fit in a book.

We were 17 miles outside of Kickapoo, IL on our way to the East Peoria Hotel for the "Mike Winters - Prine family reunion". In front of us crossed a little white car with the vanity plate of 'BZZZZ' and I knew it was a sign that we were in for a good time. We arrived early in the day and found the Civic Center, a large shiny metal icon just down the street from where he had played before. We wandered around the Civic Center (quite a feat), and gained our bearings. We did a little sightseeing trying to remember the places we had been before. "Babe's Bar and Grill" looked inviting and as we were eating our sandwiches we saw Jason Wilber and Dave Jacques cross the street and head towards the entrance, they stood at the doorway, said a few words and walked away. I ran out the door and hollered as they reached the other side of the street, "Were you going to come until you saw me?" Mind you we were "talking" across 4 lanes of traffic. They pointed to their ears and said something about being loud, Jason had a notebook, so I assumed that they meant it was too loud in Babes for them to do their homework... All I could think of was "huh, too loud for musicians? What's up with that?"