Emily Barker has shared a beautiful tribute to John Prine who passed away last month. She sings “Hello in There’ which appeared on John’s eponymous 1971 release. A perfect example, if ever there was one, of an album whose songs went from being new to standards, a realisation that the singer came to cherish later in life as revealed in our 2018 interview with him on Folk Radio:
“Well, fortunately, I’m going through a really great period in my life right now,” John smiles. “I’m not sure if everybody can say that when they get to seventy-one, but things are going really great. And I think it’s why I’ve been in no hurry to make a record because in the last ten years my audience has grown something incredible. But you know when it’s ‘I’d like to go see him, but where’s the new record?’ Nobody was saying that and when we played, each time we’d go back to a city, which we try to leave three years between in the US, we would pick up another five, six hundred to a thousand people. And a lot of them were young, and their parents or even grandparents had played my music on car trips. It means that these songs are being passed down through a family, which is a really nice feeling and almost the true meaning of a folk song, being passed individually, instead of through a radio or TV.”
Here’s one of them that was passed on via a mixtape…
Emily Barker:
“John Prine’s recent passing was felt deeply by the music community – over the course of a long career he had been an inspiration to many songwriters including myself.
“I became a fan some years ago when one of my best friends gave me a mixtape featuring ‘Speed of the Sound of Loneliness’. I delved into his catalogue and was moved to tears, goosebumps, foot tapping and a chuckle or two here and there at his wry lyricism. He was on my mind when I recorded my ‘Sweet Kind of Blue’ album at Sam Phillips Recording Service with Jerry Phillips in the control room listening in, for it was there he made Pink Cadillac with Jerry and Knox Phillips sat in the production seats.
“It was just a week after John died on 7th April 2020 that BBC Radio 4 Loose Ends asked me to cover a song for their “lockdown” series. I chose ‘Hello in there’ from his debut album – the lyrics seem to resonate with the concerns many are feeling for our elderly community, isolated from family and friends due to their vulnerability at this time.
“Thank you John Prine for this beautiful song and message. Rest in peace.”
You can hear a number of other great covers including live tracks featuring Emily and The Red Clay Halo on her Shadow Box release which features a collection of hard-to-find and previously unavailable recordings. Visit her website below to find out more: