Think of the upcoming concert by John Prine and Richard Thompson as a graduate class in folk music, wrapped in an atmosphere of pure enjoyment. How else to describe the event that pairs two legendary folk musicians? Not that the two have any pretense or likely even think that their work as revolutionary.
“The dressing rooms are bigger and cleaner, and the money gets better,” Prine is famously quoted as saying to an unknown writer when asked about his international success.
| Onstage |
| John Prine with Richard Thompson |
| When: 8 p.m. Friday |
| Where: Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, Filene Center, 1645 Trap Road, Vienna |
| Info: $25 to $42; 877-WOLFTRAP; wolftrap.org |
Yet even if that quote isn’t truly from him, it does sum up Prine’s understated approach to music, which Thompson apparently shares. The two generally prefer to let their music to speak for them.
And now is arguably the time to listen.
Prine triumphed over his bout with throat cancer and kept singing, but still only occasionally agrees to interviews. When he does talk about music, though, he seems to enjoy sharing tales of how songwriting can magically develop from almost anywhere.
“I really started writing when I got out of the army in 1968,” Prine told Paul Zollo of BlueRailroad, “and went back to the post office — I had done a couple of years in there before I got drafted. So I went back there to work. Especially when you’ve got your own mail route, day after day, it was an easy place to write. It was like going to a library with no books. … That’s where I wrote a lot of the early songs, walking on the mail route.”
That ended when Kris Kristofferson heard him play with Steve Goodman and pulled strings to land the musicians their own record deals.
It’s trite to report the rest is history, especially when Prine’s history includes storied collaboration with major fans including Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt and Tom Petty. Of course that’s just one side note to his career that includes having his songs recorded by Cash, Raitt, the Everly Brothers, Joan Baez and Ben Harper, and Bob Dylan, to name a few.
Yet even with that ample evidence of his musical Midas touch, Prine still sounds a bit surprised that his mix of serious and lighthearted songs was embraced, right from the start.
“The first crowd just sat there. They didn’t even applaud, they just looked at me. I thought, ‘This is pretty bad,’ ” Prine told BlueRailroad. “And then they started applauding and it was a really great feeling. It was like I found out all of a sudden that I could communicate … really deep feelings and emotions. And to find that out all at once was amazing. … Nobody knew me from Adam.”
