On October 9, 1970, the fabled Chicago Sun-Times film critic Roger Ebert walked out of a screening of a film he was to review because the popcorn was too salty. Not ready to go home, he decided to grab a beer at a bar called The Fifth Peg. The establishment was hosting a live musician that night. His name was John Prine.
Despite not being the music critic for the Sun Times, Ebert wrote a full one-page review of Prine’s performance. It would be the first rave review (and first review, period) of Prine’s career, but certainly not the last. I mention Ebert’s write-up not just because his words jump-started Prine’s long, successful musical journey, but because of something else that binds the two men.
The notion of kindness.
Ebert once said, “Kindness covers all my political beliefs.”
While neither Ebert nor Prine was often explicitly political in their work, it is undeniable that both men had progressive leanings. One need only listen to one of the songs (Sam Stone) that Ebert was most taken by in that Chicago bar over fifty years ago to hear the sensitivity, thoughtfulness, and ruefulness of Prine’s music. Sam Stone is a song about a Vietnam vet who comes home addicted to morphine, and eventually loses his family and his life due to his affliction. “There’s a hole in daddy’s arm where all the money goes” is one of the most painful and true lyrics you will likely ever read or hear. It’s also one of the most humane.
As I cued up the concert film/documentary, You Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine, I was thinking about that article of Roger’s. For the next 90 minutes, I took in performances and remembrances from artists such as Jason Isbell, Brandi Carlisle, Bonnie Raitt, Valerie June, Nathaniel Rateliff, Dwight Yoakam, and many more. The width and breadth of John’s words and tunes were well represented by the artists on the bill. Over the course of that hour and a half, that word kept coming back to me. Kindness.
Prine’s songs are full of empathy. Whether as grim as Sam Stone (very well sung in the film by Swamp Dogg and Nathaniel Rateliff), as joyfully hilarious as In Spite of Ourselves performed here by Valerie June and Rateliff, or all the spaces in between, it is the respect and decency of, and for, Prine’s work that comes through.
You Got Gold is directed by Michael John Warren in a sturdy, unfussy manner that suits the occasion well. Likewise, none of the performers on stage tries to remake the wheel, and that’s wise. The best thing to do with John’s songs is to let your voice live inside of them. A simpler way to put it is “sing ‘em like you mean ‘em.” Every single artist at the Ryman in Nashville, the night of the filming, does precisely that. The show begins with Brandi Carlisle and Lucius taking on I Remember Everything in a fashion both elegant and rustic. It’s hard to believe that John wouldn’t have approved.
It’s a dangerous thing among a field of bounty to select highlights. When the set list is full of great songs and the performers are this gifted, the only differentiator is personal taste, but into the breach, I go. As a long-running fan of Steve Earle, the natural grit and twang of his voice fit That’s The Way The World Goes ‘Round wonderfully. The Milk Carton Kids share lovely harmonies on Storm Windows. Jason Isbell sings Souvenirs as if he’d written it himself. And my goodness, Bonnie Raitt and Brandi Carlisle pull every ounce of beauty possible from Angel From Montgomery. The backstage patter between Carlisle and Raitt, with the former practically giddy to have sung a John Prine song with one of her idols, is beyond delightful.
However, it would be dishonest to say that my bluegrass roots didn’t show at the end. Prine was born in Illinois, but his parents hailed from Paradise, Kentucky. When Dwight Yoakam, who hails from Pikeville, Kentucky (the same small coal-mining town where I was born), walked up to the microphone, I felt my spirit rise. Dwight’s nasally honkytonk voice brought a smile to my face and joy to my ears as he put that instrument to use on Spanish Pipedream. Yoakam then starts the final song of the evening, the aptly chosen Paradise. Trading vocals with Prine’s son Tommy, and having the stage behind them filled with the night’s previous performers, made me wonder if there was a dry eye left in the house. I know there wasn’t one in mine.
Still, as the film ended, it was the lyrics from Sam Stone as performed by Swamp Dogg that stuck with me most. It may be Prine’s darkest song, but again, it is full of kindness. One of Prine’s many gifts, beyond the honesty of his voice and his ability to turn a phrase, was his willingness to look at those that the world may forget.
What you will hear (and see) when you watch You Got Gold is the sound of a man whose songs will not be forgotten. Therefore, neither will he. The line that follows “There’s a hole in daddy’s arms where all the money goes” is “Jesus died for nothing, I suppose.” I won’t get into a theological debate with John’s words. I’m not qualified. I do know that John lived for something, and I am one of many who are profoundly grateful for his life and songs.
Thank you, John, and thank you, Roger, too.
You Got Gold – A Celebration of John Prine will be released in theaters on November 24, 2025 in limited release at the Quad Cinema in New York City and will be followed by engagements in other cities across the country
