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While playing Folk
clubs in Chicago
in the late 1960s, John Prine was discovered by Kris Kristofferson, who helped the singer-songwriter secure his first recording
contract. John’s debut album electrified the music world in 1971 with such startling songs as "Hello In There," "Sam
Stone" and "Illegal Smile." Throughout the 1970s, he became known as a "songwriter’s songwriter" with "Dear Abby," "Please
Don’t Bury Me" and "Christmas In Prison." He has the distinction of creating two genre "standards." In the repertoire
of most every Bluegrass band is his strip-mining ballad "Paradise." In the Folk/Blues field,
"Angel From Montgomery" is almost as widely known. After moving to Nashville in 1980, John
broke ground the following year as the first Music City artist to succeed with his own record label, Oh Boy Records.
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"I
wrote it for my father, mainly so he would know I was a songwriter. Paradise was a real place in Kentucky, and while I was away in
the Army in Germany, my father sent me
a newspaper article telling how the coal company had bought the place out. It was a real Disney-looking town. It sat on a
river, had two stores, and there was one black man in town, Bubba Short, who looked like Uncle Remus and hung out with my
Granddaddy Hamm, my mom's dad, all day, fishing for catfish.
Then the
bulldozers came in and wiped it all off the map.
When I recorded the song, I brought a tape of
the record to my dad; I had to borrow a reel-to-reel machine to play it for him. When the song came on, he went into the next
room and sat in the dark while it was on. I asked him why, and he said he wanted to pretend it was on the jukebox."
-John Prine on Paradise-
John Prine
John in Paradise
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