John Prine – The Singing Mailman Delivers – (Oh Boy)

Folks around the Philadelphia-area have a special relationship with John Prine – one that began way back at the Main Point in Bryn Mawr (where Prine appeared about ten times between 1972 – 1974) and continuing on through what has become an illustrious songwriting career. But Prine was already a legend when he performed at that venerable coffeehouse with songs like “Paradise,” “Illegal Smile,” “Spanish Pipedream,” “Angel from Montgomery,” and “Hello In There” that were written a few years earlier while he was working as a postal carrier and hiding from the winter winds in the suburbs of Chicago.

The genesis of this collection was actually the result of an accident – It seems that Prine’s wife, Fiona, was after him to clean out the garage after a recent move and he found a box of old reel-to-reel tapes that included these recordings. The result has become two CDs – One a studio recording made at WFMT in August of 1970; the other being a live performance at The Fifth Peg in Chicago that was recorded in November of that year. Those early studio and live recordings became the foundation of Prine’s first album that was released by Atlantic Records in 1971. 

2011 marks the 40^th year of performing for John Prine, and this release provides a great opportunity for us to look back to those early days and to witness an budding artistry that that has not diminished throughout the years. Here’s hoping he uncovers another treasure – as in some live recordings done at some little club in Bryn Mawr – the next time his wife nags him into doing his chores!