PG Music Home Forums General Discussion User Showcase Ridin With John Prine

Here is a few minutes of your life you will never get back. Please feel free to skip this song intro!

The year was 1971. My friend and I had landed a gig at the Earl of Old Town in Chicago. There

was an upstairs room which was the main stage. In order to play there you had to first play the

afternoons at the downstairs bar. We had just started to play when Prine and Steve Goodman

walked in carrying their guitar cases. They had both just landed record deals in NY and

were now considered royalty among the folk community. Prine walks by on his way upstairs he

stops and says to us “sounds good guys”. That was the extent of it.

Fast forward 10 yrs. I take a job driving a truck in Maywood, Ill Prine’s hometown. A guy that

worked there named Noel Huff was Prine’s best childhood friend. He kept telling me that he

would take me over to Prine’s house when he got back from touring. But as luck would have it

he never stopped touring and when he did come back I had moved on.

Fast forward 20 yrs. I was driving up to Chicago, stopped and looked at the map and realized

I was 20 miles from Paradise, Ky. I had to go. After looking around which took all of 5 minutes, I

hit the road armed with a shoebox full of CD’s. I listened to nothing but John Prine for the next

7 hours.

When I first joined the forum Charlie Fogle wrote a song using song titles from my catalogue.

He sent me the lyrics and a SGU and I sang and played guitar. When I was thinking about this

song I thought I’d steal Charlie’s idea. The highlighted lyrics are all Prine song titles. Thanks in

advance for giving it a listen, Tom


THE HANDSOME JOHNNY


JOHN'S SIGNATURE COCKTAIL
INGREDIENTS
1 TO 2 0ZS - VODKA. RED SMIRNOFF (NOT BLUE)
GINGER ALE - JOHN RECOMMENDS
DIET GINGER ALE, NOT REGULAR.
YOU DON'T WANT IT TOO SWEET.
LEMON - IN THE SUMMERTIME
LIME - IN THE WINTERTIME
INSTRUCTIONS
FILL A COCKTAIL GLASS WITH ICE
POUR IN VODKA
POUR IN DIET GINGER ALE
STIR AND DROP THE LEMON OR LIME IN FROM
APPROXIMATELY 6" ABOVE, DO NOT SQUEEZE IT.

RealTracks 2474:Bass, Acoustic, Held Ev 085
RealTracks 3390:Mandolin, Soloist BalladPopTremoloAndy Ev 065
RealTracks 3497:Bass, Acoustic, AmericanaMountain16thsA Ev16
RealTracks 2033:Mandolin, Soloist CountryAndy Ev 065
RealTracks1601:Mandolin, Rhythm Pop16Melodic Ev 065
Royalty Free Loops
Recorded in Logic Pro X
Plug Ins : Nectar 3, Neutron 4, Ozone 10, Tonal Balance, Waves LinMB, Waves, L3-LL Multi Limiter, Logic Pro Metering, Scuffam Amps S-Gear, Waves Vocal Rider, Waves BB Tubes

Acoustic Guitar, Dobro, Vocals, Tom Adams

https://tommyadamsmusic.com/track/3335131/ridin-with-john-prine

https://on.soundcloud.com/e2mks


Ridin With John Prine


Vodka and ginger ale yeah we had a few

Someone said They Ought To Name A Drink After You

Call it a Handsome Johnny for the leader of the band

Now the Souvenir cup is collectable from what I understand


Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore

But there’s an Angel from Montgomery waiting right outside your door

Spanish Pipedream on the radio it’s been quite the ride

From Paradise to Chicago with John Prine


We passed hot dog stands and taverns lit with Old Style signs

Wasted nights at the dairy queen with an Illegal Smile

There’s Donald and Lydia and the ghost of Sam Stone

Yeah I Remember Everything since the day I was born



Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore

But there’s an Angel from Montgomery waiting right outside your door

Spanish Pipedream on the radio it’s been quite the ride

From Paradise to Chicago with John Prine

That's quite a story spanning decades. Thanks for sharing.
Good job on your song, great work on the guitars and vocals.

Over the years I caught John Prine on ACL, one of my favorites is "Speed of the Sound of Loneliness"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFvenjll1Bk

Tommy, that was absolutely outstanding.
Your vocal was perfect for this song.
Super instrumentation and mix.
Loved it

PS - I also love John Prine's first album. You know the one I'm talking about!

Tom,

Love the backstory. Absolutely love the song. This is my new favorite from you.

So well done...

Bob

Neat idea... even cooler that you could pull it off.

Good backstory as well.

I enjoyed the song!

What's not to love about this?

Absolutely outstanding in all respects!

To be clear... I thought it was great!

Greg

Nice work.

I remember back in the 60s there was more than a few songs created using the titles of other songs. They were comedic.

This is well done and thought out. I like it. Good mix and your vocals fit in perfectly.

Well, anything with John Prine gets my vote. The song is well put together and the story is a treasured memory.
Good one, Tommy.

Vic

Thanks, I’m glad you liked it, Tom

Hi Tom ...

Excellent! Perfect backing track selection and your vocal is outstanding. Loved your narrative for the story behind the song.

This song is a real treat!

Take care ...

Alan

Oh I know the 1st album. Every song was a winner. Thanks for your great review, Tom

Hey Tom,

Loved the backstory! And a great idea using the song titles to create your song, very effective!

Excellent!

Another wonderful back story and what a cool idea for a tribute song. Love it, Tom!


(I know some JP songs, mostly the hits, but I never really followed his career or gave him his proper due. I suppose that's because his performances weren't as appealing to me as say, Bonnie Raitt's or John Denver's. Recently I heard 'How Lucky' at the end of that Dog movie and I thought, 'That sounds like a JP song.' Sure enough. I went home, learned it, and sang it for weeks. And the other day someone introduced me to JP's 'I Remember Everything.' Beautiful.)

Thanks Bob. Feel better,Tom

Tom, at the risk of showing my musical ignorance I must confess I've heard the name of John Prime, and would probably recognize some of his hits if I'd heard them, but as far as I know I've never been exposed to his music and am completely unfamiliar. I thought the idea you used for a tribute to his music was great, and you seemed to have pulled it off masterfully. I really like the instrumentation in this. I particularly liked how you introduced each of the instruments at the beginning - and the way that bass came in was really good. Loved the outro as well. Great music!

Brad

Good one, Tom. John Prine do get around, doesn't he? I especially like it when John teams up with Iris DeMent.

I have to admit to not being a Prine fan. Just one of those things.
Lovely band/arrangement and the bvox are a treat.

Great song Tom!

Really captures the John Prine vibe!

You keep knocking out the hits man!

Tom,

A clever write. (and a cool story!)
You have lead an interesting life. Keep it up!!
Thanks for the memories. I learned to write from that first record.

You get a better recorded acoustic guitar sound than anyone around. (jealous)

Production is "just right". Excellent mix.

fj

What a cool song. I've had similar ideas of using song titles, but just never pulled the trigger. Now I'm glad I didn't! lol Your execution was fantastic. Way to go Tom (and Charlie) for great ideas.

I agree that the back story really took it to another level with details and a drink recipe! Love it!

thanks for doing something so cool for us all to enjoy.

Of course the production is outstanding as well!

-C