Greatest or not, here’s what it comes down to for me and here’s why he rests on my heart’s mountain top: Because he cared enough to look - at me, you, all of us - until he saw what was noble, and then he wrapped us up in melodies and sung us back to ourselves. A heartfelt and authentic tribute to the legendary John Prine. Much More than a tribute, Illegal Smile a homage worthy of the great man. Illegal Smile deliver two and a half hours of perfect prineisms and pristine performance. Many people more qualified than me have written about why that is. A heartfelt and authentic tribute to the legendary John Prine. John Prine was, without a doubt, one of the greatest songwriters this world will ever know. Jesus lived his life loving and caring for ‘the least of these’ - that was the miracle. To which, Sam replied: “We do not believe in a magic Jesus. Mann and I told him I wanted to join his church, but that I did not take the Bible literally and I didn’t want to say I believed a bunch of things I didn’t so I could be part of a group. Some years ago, I placed a call to my now dear friend Reverend Samuel E. John was one of the all-time great ennoblers of others. I, for one, happen to know he did it at truck stops and Dairy Queens, too. Any of us lucky enough to have seen one of his shows knows he also did this for his audience. We all know that John ennobled the characters in his songs. And as John had a way of making even the most mundane seem special, any one of those memories would be justified in retelling, but for now, the quality about John that keeps coming to the forefront of my mind might best be summed up by something Nelson Mandela once said: “It never hurts to think too highly of a person often they become ennobled and act better because of it.” Having known John for some 30 years now, a flood of memories are swirling around in my head. It is my prayer that all the love he gave to this world will be returned ten-fold to his family - the ones he cherished the most - and that love will help sustain them through their grief. Like so many of you, I am deeply saddened by the passing of John Prine. Here, she pays tribute to her mentor, collaborator, and dear friend. But over the past three decades, Prine and DeMent were also close friends - she’d stay at the Prines’ Nashville home as a guest when she’d stop through town. ILLEGAL SMILE - John Prine (Key of D) Verse 1 G D C G When I woke up this morning, things were lookin bad C G D G Seems like total silence is the only friend I have D C G C G A bowl of. Of course, DeMent and Prine were best known for “In Spite of Ourselves,” their eternal duet about two offbeat lovebirds. “And being the sentimental fellow I am, I got a lump in my throat and a tear fell from my eyes into the hot oil.” “DeMent starts singing about ‘Mama’s Opry,’” Prine wrote. When she released her first album in 1992, he wrote liner notes about how her music made him cry into a skillet of pork chops. The Arkansas singer-songwriter was one of the very first that Prine took under his wing when DeMent was an emerging artist nearly 30 years ago. Few artists loved John Prine more than Iris DeMent.
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