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On December 3rd, 2000 I was privileged to attend the Concert for a Landmine Free World at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa. It was a benefit concert featuring a half-dozen like-minded artists and one of only two such performances, the other happening in Los Angeles. So yeah, I feel pretty fortunate that it came basically to my own backyard.
The show was set up as song circle with each of the six artists seated on the stage in a row. Emmylou Harris seemed to be the leader, and why not? Superbly talented and highly regarded, the woman has had a music career that is almost stupefying in both its longevity and its breadth. As she strummed through a trio of her sublime songs the amazing Bruce Cockburn noodled away behind her, as he did with pretty much everyone for the whole evening in addition to noodling himself through a few of his own numbers. Nanci Griffith, Mary Chapin Carpenter and the surprisingly hefty (and seemingly healthy) Steve Earle also took turns wowing the crowd with gem after gem of folk gold.
But there was this guy sitting on the far right of the stage who was really hitting it out of the park. After his second turn at the mic I leaned over to my friend Doug and asked who it was.
“Are you joking me?” he whispered back, amazed. “That’s John Prine!”
“Oh,” I replied, nodding.
I had never head of this John Prine fellow before, but he sure wrote good songs. After his third number he was the only thing I wanted to hear. It was all I could do to endure another song by Emmylou. Cockburn started getting tedious. Another Nanci Griffith tune? Give me a break! All I wanted was more of that dude on the right, clearly a musical genius who had hitherto been unknown to me.
I went out and bought John Prine’s debut album the very next day and wondered how a collection of some of the greatest songs ever written had eluded me for so long. I was actually mad at Doug for knowing about John Prine and not telling me. His argument that the entire world knew about John Prine (1946-2020) was a very weak defence. I thought we were friends.
Todd Man Out 