Hello In There

Last night, at Bonnaroo, I saw John Prine.  He's a national treasure at the age of 72 and one of my favorites.  Amazing lyricist and songwriter extraordinaire.  Very few can turn a phrase like John Prine.

To make sure I was up close, I laid my blanket down an hour before he was scheduled to play at 8:15 p.m. and settled in to wait.  I struck up a conversation with a young man from Maryland, who just finished his freshman year at Middle Tennessee State University.  Soon, a young lady and bluegrass aficionado - who plays and sings bluegrass when she's not working - joined in and we had a great time talking music.  T'hey seemed to enjoy educating me on why Post Malone and Childish Gambino are so popular.  It's one of the things I love the most about Bonnaroo - meeting happy, friendly people and talking with them about music for a bit.

As it approached showtime, the crowd thickened under at the That stage.  I rolled up my blanket and moved up closer to the stage, slight to the right of center about ten people deep.  Perfect vantage point.

John Prine walked out on stage much to the crowd's delight as everyone clapped and cheered for him.  As always, he was grinning, like he's in the joke.  In on every joke.  He seemed bemused, even surprised, at the intensity of the crowd's adulation.  Many people simply yelled "John Prine!  John Prine!" over and over again.

He played several songs off his latest album, "Tree of Forgiveness," which is a good one.  And, of course, Prine being Prine, he grinned the entire time he played.  Kelsey Waldon sang a duet with him, as did Brandy Carlisle.

There were tears in my eyes when he played "Hello in There," a song he wrote and released in 1971.  It's such a special song to me because of the subject matter and the lyrics.  Many, many times, on walks through the neighborhood after my mom was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, I listened to that song and cried silent to myself.  I don't know for sure if a song can change your life - I think it can - but I think of "Hello in There" when I see and older person and try to make sure I stop and speak to him or her.

Here's a link to John Prine performing the song several years ago.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVhA01J0Zsg

The last sone he played was one of my favorites, "Lake Marie."  Prine rollicked through an extended version of the song and ended by dropping his acoustic guitar in the middle of the stage, pointing at it and dancing around it.  He danced right of stage as the crowd roared.

Here's a link to a live version of "Lake Marie," coincidentally performed by Prine at Bonnaroo nine years ago in 2010.

He and the band even came back out and played on encore, which is rare at Bonnaroo.

The show was pure magic for me.  Probably my favorite show out of all of the shows I have seen at Bonnaroo over the past seven or eight years.