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The Tree of Forgiveness was   John Prine's last studio album, recorded two years before his unfortunate passing in April of 2020. This brief, thirty-three minute, ten song set was released after a hiatus of thirteen years that proved the well-loved folk musician didn't lose any of his songwriting skills during the long layoff. The late singer-songwriter easily impressed listeners for five decades with his tales about lonely people who were down on their luck. "Hello In There" and "Sam Stone" -  both from his eponymous debut album  that was released when he was only twenty-five years old - made him sound much older and wiser than his age would lead you to believe.  Not all of Prine's music was dark.  Many of his songs thrived on a great sense of humor that gave listeners a chuckle, and it's this trait that helps make Forgiveness a truly fulfilling listening experience. "When I Get To Heaven" is a hysterical take on things Prine intended to ...

Unfortunately, COVID-19 has taken another life. This time it belonged to outstanding singer-songwriter John Prine . He was seventy-three. Not only is this another unnecessary loss of life it's a sad day for the music world because he was a rare and significant talent. Prine's wife and manager, Fiona, also contracted Coronavirus but she has since recovered. I started listening to Prine's music way too late in life. I wasn't deliberately ignoring him. It was just that his work never seemed to cross my path. I was quite familiar with "Angel From Montgomery," "Hello In There," "Paradise," and "Sam Stone," all from his brilliant 1971 debut LP, along with a handful of other tunes such as "That's The Way The World Goes Round," but not much else. I finally purchased Prine's eponymous debut a couple of years ago. After just one listen I couldn't get the album out of my car's CD player for weeks. It quickly...

About Bob Dylan, AllMusic wrote, "As a vocalist, he broke down the notion that a singer must have a conventionally good voice in order to perform, thereby redefining the vocalist's role in popular music." John Prine never possessed a great voice either but it doesn't matter. Based on the above statement the vocals on his outstanding, eponymous debut are just what you would expect them to be and it is how they should be for the kind of music he makes. While Dylan rightfully gets all the credit in the world for making artists like Prine possible it's easy to say the latter's debut LP eclipsed Dylan's because it's songs were all originals while the Minnesotan's first record mostly consisted of covers. It's also easy to say that Prine is among the very best composers of the second half of the Twentieth Century and early on he made an album that would go down in history as one of the top ten singer-songwriter albums ever recorded. Prine sh...