Fair & Square
His first album of new songs after the cancer, made slowly over two years, and his second Grammy.
John Prine, 2005
- Released
- 26 April 2005
- Recorded
- 2002-2005
- Studio
- The Butcher Shoppe, Seventeen Grand Recording and Minutia, Nashville
- Label
- Oh Boy
- Producer
- John Prine and Gary Paczosa
Prine produced it with Gary Paczosa, who also recorded and mixed it. Songs were cut and cut again at several Nashville studios over about two years, and Prine admitted some never sounded as good as the demos. Most are co-writes with Pat McLaughlin, Roger Cook, Keith Sykes and Donnie Fritts, alongside Blaze Foley's Clay Pigeons and A. P. Carter's Bear Creek Blues. Alison Krauss, Mindy Smith and Dan Tyminski sing harmonies, and Jerry Douglas plays Weissenborn.
It reached number 55 on the Billboard 200 and won the Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Reviewing a 2021 reissue, Pitchfork's Elizabeth Nelson heard a voice that sounded weakened rather than weak, an octave lower after radiation and giving up cigarettes.
Track listing
- Glory of True Love4:12
- Crazy as a Loon5:03
- Long Monday3:22
- Taking a Walk6:09
- Some Humans Ain't Human7:03
- My Darlin' Hometown3:14
- Morning Train4:02
- The Moon Is Down3:47
- Clay Pigeons4:27
- She Is My Everything4:25
- I Hate It When That Happens to Me2:49
- Bear Creek Blues4:45
- Other Side of Town (live)4:53
- Safety Joe3:58
Personnel
- John Prine vocals, guitar
- Pat McLaughlin
- Jason Wilber guitar, harmonica
- Dave Jacques bass
- Phil Parlapiano piano, accordion
- Paul Griffith
- Shawn Camp
- Dan Dugmore
- Kenny Malone
- Roger Cook
- Jerry Douglas Weissenborn
- John Wilkes Booth mandolin
- Alison Krauss harmony vocals
- Mindy Smith harmony vocals
- Dan Tyminski harmony vocals
More from John Prine
John Prine (1971), John Prine Live (1988), The Tree of Forgiveness (2018)
Sources
- Fair & Square (John Prine album), Wikipedia
- Fair & Square, Discogs
- John Prine: Fair & Square, Pitchfork (2021-10-02)
- John Prine, American Songwriter (2005)