PRINE ON PRINE Has Been Released

09-12-2023

(EBM) After almost four years of searching, collecting, curating and seeking permissions, PRINE ON PRINE: Interviews and Encounters with John Prine is here. The 370 page work traces the beloved songwriter's career through various media and public appearances across his half century career. Starting with his first Studs Terkel interviews - before his Grammy Hall of Fame self-titled debut was released - and the infamous Roger Ebert live review that launched his career, many of America's greatest music critics, as well as Oscar winners Billy Bob Thornton and Cameron Crowe, John Mellencamp, top James Beard Award winner Ronni Lundy, US Poet Laureate Ted Kooser and HOT ROD's editor, bring you into Prine's life as it happens for a book that offers context of the moment as well as the man.

Kick-off at NYC's Strand Bookstore at 12th and Broadway in their 3rd Floor Rare Books Room with Grammy-winning outlaw Steve Earle on Wednesday, Sept. 13 at 7 pm, PRINE ON PRINE is attracting significant early praise. Nashville's Tennessean devoted three pages - including the cover - of its Sunday Features section to the book; headlined: From classic cars to pork loin: Getting to know John Prine in his own words, the subhead explained, "Author Holly Gleason's 'Prine on Prine' celebrates the Americana star's life and work" and raves the book "artfully unveils some of the magic behind the critically acclaimed singer-songwriter's ability to deliver uncommon poetry from the shared nature of the human experience."

InsideHook.com included PRINE ON PRINE in their list of Books You Must Read This September alongside Zadie Smith's The Fraud, Naomi Klein's Doppelganger, Anderson Cooper's Astor, Cory Doctrow's The Internet Con, Ben Goldfarb's Crossings and Rory Smith's Crossings, while Salvation South introduced an excerpt with "No music writer is better equipped to edit this volume; Holly Gleason began writing about - and building a long friendship with him - forty years ago" and Headbutler offered, "Prine on Prine is rich in improbable stories - stories that are like fables, but are, like the story of his discovery, verifiable. And uniquely joyful."

"John meant so much to so many," Gleason says of her subject. "He had this x-ray heart that saw the world in its hypocrisies and drive-by cruelties, which inspired him to write so many of those songs. But he also had a great sense of humor and of enjoying life. The job here was to show the man as he was - and how he evolved. I'm so grateful to the contributors for helping show Prine as someone who was even more interesting as a human being than he was as a songwriter."

HITS wrote PRINE ON PRINE "digs deep," while Americana Highways made it its "Book of the Month." Upcoming coverage includes PASTE, Garden & Gun, Book Reporter, Variety, No Depression, Texas Music and more to come. As to be expected, a book that includes Robert Christgau, double Grammy-winner Bob Mehr, multiple entries from Chicago Sun-Times' Dave Hoekstra, "Today"'s Emmy-winning Mike Leonard and the Los Angeles Times' Robert Hilburn and Randy Lewis, plus in-the-moment reporting from Aquarian Weekly, Country Song Round-Up and a romping episode of "The Bobby Bare Show" would appeal to writers and music lovers.

Having already hit #1 on Amazon's New Releases, Country and Folk Biography list, interest is strong. An event at Natalie's in Columbus, Ohio has already sold out - and an event at Exile in Bookville in Chicago with Gleason, Hoekstra, Leonard and No Depression cover author Lloyd Sachs, moderated by Country & Midwestern author Mark Guarino is slated for Oct. 25.

Having songs have been recorded by Raitt, George Strait, Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Loretta Lynn, Bettye LaVette, Miranda Lambert, Carly Simon, Susan Tedeschi, Johnny Cash across his five decade career, Prine straddled various American musical styles. Part of Chicago Review Press' Musicians in Their Own Words series, Gleason's PRINE also tracks the 2023 "Austin City Limits" Hall of Fame inductee's trailblazing work to create, build and sustain an artist-owned label in a time before DIY was something many artists embraced. In a world of physical record stores, Prine started something that gave artists true control and power over the business of their music.

Gleason, the former fiancée of Oh Boy, Red Pajamas and Blue Plate Music co-founder and Prine co-manager Dan Einstein, met Prine as a young journalist working for The Miami Herald. Spending many of her formative years as a nationally recognized music critic in Prine's world, the access provides empiric insight into many of these pieces. Gleason later provided media strategy and services for In Spite of Ourselves and Fair & Square, remaining friends with the Grammy-winning legend throughout his life.

"PRINE ON PRINE is as much about capturing an artist creating something that hadn't really been done, tracing the arc from unthinkable to commonplace. It would not be nearly the book it is without the help of Dan Einstein, who passed away as the book was nearing completion. But he got on the phone, made calls and helped find some of the pieces here, which might have been lost forever based on what it took to track down some of them. Even the cover picture - from a photo session for PEOPLE - was basically forgotten."

Having created, edited and contributed to Woman, Walk The Line, the 2018 Belmont Book Award winning collection of essays about how female country artists profoundly impact individual lives with contributions from Taylor Swift, New York Times best-selling author Alice Randall, Rosanne Cash, Grammy-winning historian Holly George-Warren, poet Caroline Randall Williams, top James Beard Award winner Ronni Lundy, food activist Ali Berlow and more, Gleason understands curating a narrative can sometimes reach places a single reported narrative can't. That was the goal for PRINE ON PRINE, and across myriad mediums, moments and conversations, a sense of the man across his truly lived life emerges. Purchase here.