The Tree of Forgiveness

His last album, made against a studio deadline, and the highest-charting record of his career.
John Prine, 2018

Released
13 April 2018
Studio
RCA Studio A, Nashville
Label
Oh Boy
Producer
Dave Cobb
Length
32:51

It was his first album of original songs since Fair & Square. Fiona and Jody Whelan at Oh Boy booked time with Dave Cobb to give him a deadline, and Prine checked in with ten boxes of unfinished lyrics and four guitars, joking that he looked like Howard Hughes. It sold 53,000 copies in its first week and went to number five on the Billboard 200 and number one on the Americana and folk chart. Pitchfork's Kaleb Horton called him a virtuoso at understatement at 71. It won Album of the Year at the 2019 Americana Awards, where Summer's End was Song of the Year, and it closes with When I Get to Heaven.

Track listing

  1. Knockin' on Your Screen Door2:19
  2. I Have Met My Love Today1:50
  3. Egg & Daughter Nite, Lincoln Nebraska, 1967 (Crazy Bone)4:05
  4. Summer's End3:29
  5. Caravan of Fools2:28
  6. The Lonesome Friends of Science4:41
  7. No Ordinary Blue2:56
  8. Boundless Love3:35
  9. God Only Knows3:46
  10. When I Get to Heaven3:42

More from John Prine

John Prine (1971), John Prine Live (1988), Fair & Square (2005)

Sources

  1. The Tree of Forgiveness, Wikipedia
  2. John Prine: 'I took 10 boxes of unfinished lyrics', The Guardian (2018-04-04)
  3. John Prine: The Tree of Forgiveness, Pitchfork (2018)