JOHN PRINE : LIVE FROM SESSIONS AT WEST 54TH

  1. Blow Up Your T.V.
  2. Six O'Clock News
  3. Souvenirs
  4. Far From Me
  5. All The Best
  6. Milwaukee Here I Come (with Iris DeMent)
  7. (We're Not) The Jet Set (with Iris DeMent)
  8. Let's invite Them Over Again (with Iris DeMent)
  9. When Two Worlds Collide (with Iris DeMent)
  10. In Spite Of Ourselves (with Iris DeMent)
  11. Sam Stone
  12. Lake Marie
  13. Hello In There

Label : Oh Boy Records

Venue : Sony Music Studios, New York City, New York, USA

Recording Date : January 2000

Release Date : 2001

Length : 66 minutes

NTSC : 4:3

Review (AllMusic) : John Prine won over critics in the early '70s with a string of successful singer/songwriter albums, and won over audiences with his charismatic stage presence. Although live albums have long been available for fans, Sessions at West 54th gave Prine a chance to work his charm on a television audience (and in 2002, a VHS and DVD audience). The appearance coincided with the successful release of In Spite of Ourselves, and a number of that album's songs appear on this set. Prine begins his performance by reaching back to the very beginning of his career for "Blow Up Your T.V." and "Six O'Clock News." He's accompanied by guitarist Jason Wilber and bassist David Jacques, players who provide a simple and warm setting for these songs. Iris Dement joins Prine in the middle of the session for a number of duets, including fine versions of "In Spite of Ourselves" and "Let's Invite Them Over Again." Other classics, including "Sam Stone" and "Hello in There," fill out the disc. Watching Live from Sessions at West 54th is a lot like getting a good seat to a Prine show in a small venue. Even without the visuals, however, this DVD sounds great and will make a fine addition to a fan's album collection.

Review (Wikipedia) : John Prine - Live from Sessions at West 54th is a live concert DVD released by Oh Boy Records in 2001. It was recorded for the Sessions at West 54th television show, and features a guest performance by Iris Dement. The DVD release offers songs not shown during the half-hour television segment, as well as interviews with show host John Hiatt. DVD special features include a biography and discography. This DVD is one of the first releases from an independent label to be mixed in 5.1 Dolby Surround Sound.

Review (Aquarium Drunkard) : My first real exposure to John Prine was random and chance, one of those moments that floats into the periphery and either you see it or you don’t. It was also lacking in the context that would make me appreciate it all the more later on. I was home from college my freshman year and was up late as usual, alone in a quiet house watching random things on television. I was partial to the music shows on PBS, especially Sessions at West 54th, a show I’d caught a few times before. It was on again and the entire hour was devoted to this older gentleman playing as part of a trio. I only caught the very end of it, but those three closing songs – “Sam Stone,” “Lake Marie” and “Hello in There” – are about as powerful a punch as one can take. But I’ll come back to that in a bit, because first we need that aforementioned context. Prine’s career starts like a sprint – seven albums in nine years between 1971’s self-titled and 1980’s Storm Windows – before it slows down through the 80s and 90s up until the point in 1998 when he was diagnosed with squamous cell cancer on his neck. It affected his ability to sing mainly, and it took a year of recovery before he could perform again. When he returned, it wasn’t with a new set of songs he’d written, but with an album conceived some time prior almost as a joke. “I had this idea for about fifteen years now, whenever I could corner people at a dinner party, I’d say ‘I want to sing a bunch of cheating songs with about 10 different women,'” he tells the audience at Sessions. When Prine told producer Jim Rooney about his idea, Rooney encouraged him to write out a list of songs he wanted to do and his ideal list of duet partners. The song list changed a bit – stretching out to become more cover songs chosen to tell the story of an entire relationship, not just cheating songs – but the end result was 1999’s In Spite of Ourselves, one of Prine’s most popular albums. When he stepped onto the stage to perform on Sessions at West 54th, he was still riding high on that album and the setlist reflects it. Out of the thirteen songs performed, ten come from just two albums: five from In Spite of Ourselves and five from his 1971 debut. Opening the set with a rambunctious run through of “Spanish Pipedream” (“Blow up your t.v. / throw away your paper / go to the country / build you a home..”), he downshifts quickly into a set of ballads – “Six O’Clock News,” “Souvenirs,” “Far From Me,” and “All the Best” keep the show rolling with a real emphasis on Prine’s new more gravelly and worn voice after his bout with cancer. An album full of duets with everyone from Lucinda Williams, Trisha Yearwood, Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless and more would make for a difficult thing to play on your own. But getting all of the original duet singers to come to this performance was also improbable. Instead, Prine pulls arguably the album’s biggest ace to do the deed, Iris DeMent. DeMent sings on more songs on In Spite of Ourselves than any other singer short of Prine, and that includes the title track, the lone Prine original that graces the album. So when Prine calls her up in the middle of the show, it kicks off a rousing set of covers that anchors the performance. DeMent’s voice is as unique as Prine’s, and the two of them tear through five highlights of the album, finishing with the aforementioned title track which became a Prine standard over the last 20 years. Which brings us back to where I tuned in that night. “Sam Stone,” a legendary song for any number of reasons, was something new to me. But “Lake Marie” was the song I would really take away with me that night. Here, along with guitarist Jason Wilbur and bassist David Jacques, Prine turns in a profound performance of a song that was only 4 years old at the time. “Lake Marie” is Carver-esque in its demure storytelling. But there are numerous facets that reveal more – the “Indian” legend of how the twin lakes got their names; two babies abandoned in the woods in a way that is echoed by the two murdered bodies discovered in the woods at the end of the song; the rise and near demise of a marriage; sizzling sausages and shadowy blood. The musicians stretch the song out to almost 9 minutes in length, Prine’s invocation of the lyrics to “Louie Louie” hanging over the end. That maybe should’ve been the end. But instead Prine comes back one more time to close with “Hello In There,” a song about the loneliness of old age, written and sung so expertly in his early 20s, but here in his 50s and having had a brush with mortality, a voice full of earned gravitas, it lands with a new weight. The isolation at the core of the song seems so prophetic given Prine’s death from the virus that taunts our hopes for a good death by separating us from the ones we love. The outpouring of love as he fought to live in those last days was massive, all of us cheering him on from within our quarantined homes, keeping up the applause and hoping for one more encore. But all we get is John, wry smile across his face, intoning The Kingsmen one more time: “Awwww, baby. We gotta go now.”