i have heard snippets of this for months now, mostly on sirius ‘outlaw country’, but i was waiting to get the hard copy in my hand, which finally arrived friday. as many of you know, i am still old fashioned and like to hear the whole thing in one setting with the liner notes and song details in front of me, and so i grow increasingly frustrated with the industry trend of releasing singles three to four months in advance of the hard release. from a marketing stance i do not understand that, but my curmudgeon side is coming out here, and i digress.

but this one is definitely worth the wait, and if you have heard any of these teasers like i have, it is time to belly up.

as you likely know, we lost the great john prine to covid in 2020. a singular voice in music was taken from us way too early. one of the great injustices was that his adoring fans – both regular fans like me and musicians – could not get together and grieve and show appreciation for his musical legacy. covid protocols seemed to dash all the concerts planned in his honor. i have heard that some are still in the works, but for now we have this.

volume one came out in 2010 while he was still alive and at that time a still revered figure but with a lower profile than what he came to know just a decade later. it seems that in his final few years he had become much more embraced by the americana community, especially around nashville, and the artists that have contributed to this second volume speak to that.

there are of course a few selections from some of john’s duet partners from his musical past – bonnie raitt, emmylou harris, and iris dement – but the rest are a who’s who of names most of you will recognize and appreciate.

brandi carlisle does ‘i remember everything’, nathaniel rateliff ‘pretty good’, amanda shires ‘saddle in the rain’, tyler childers ‘they oughta name a drink after you’, margo price ‘sweet revenge’, valerie june ‘summer’s end’, jason isbell, ‘souvenirs’, john paul white, ‘sam stone’, and sturgill simpson closes with ‘paradise’.

all tastefully done, with the arrangements giving proper respect to the originals but also adding their own creative licenses. are any of these better than the originals? well no, not really, but that doesn’t matter, does it? one that comes close is ‘one red rose’ by iris dement. she nails it. one of prine’s favorite duet partners over the years, there is a certain poignancy to hearing her sing this one on her own.

so make yourself a ‘handsome johnnie’ – his favorite cocktail – and enjoy.

‘handsome johnnie’:

1 oz red smirnoff vodka

diet ginger ale

wedge of lime

the compilation was put together by prine’s private record label, and the family said they had enough offers from other artists that they can easily follow up with a couple more volumes. amen to that.