When some look toward the U.S. semiquincentennial and consider what examplar might best represent American achievement or the nation’s character, only one thing inevitably comes to mind: wrestling. Fortunately, there were others who put their heads together and came up with an alternative choice: John Prine. The leadership at Wolf Trap, the concert venue/national park in Virginia just outside of D.C., had the idea to have some of the late troubadour’s fellow songwriters salute him in a concert loosely tied in with the country’s 250th birthday. And as Prine’s songs of empathy, careful observation, pathos and droll humor rang out into the warm, Washington-adjacent night, it’s safe to say that not even Lee Greenwood could have ever made an audience feel prouder to be an American, current circumstances notwithstanding.
Produced as a benefit for the Fiona Prine-founded Hello in There Foundation, the show featured 10 singer-songwriters each doing one song of their own and at least one song of the honoree’s. The bill, put together jointly by the Prine family and the Wolf Trap Foundation, included Emmylou Harris, Margo Price, Allison Russell, I’m With Her, Patty Griffin, Lucius, Hayes Carll, Fancy Hagood, Jobi Ricco and Prine’s sons, Tommy and Jack Prine, plus a special spoken-word recitation by poetically inclined CBS newsman John Dickerson.
