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, @ABieseAPP 5:24 p.m. ET March 29, 2017

What do Bruce Springsteen and Roger Ebert have in common?

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Both men, iconic American wordsmiths in their own right, were among the earliest supporters of storied singer/songwriter John Prine.

The Chicago native — performing Saturday at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark — first crossed paths with Freehold’s Springsteen during the 1970s.

Springsteen, seated at a piano at classic New York City club Max’s Kansas City, came across at the time as “kind of an introspective singer/songwriter,” Prine recounted this week.

The two met again a few years later in Washington, D.C., at a stop on Springsteen’s “Born to Run” (1975) tour.

“When he saw me, he got a folding chair and put it by the side of the stage, and then he went out to do the show,” Prine said. “And then four songs into it — back then, there was no stopping in between songs, Bruce would hit the stage, do four or five songs with no breath for the audience — he leaned over at one point because he was working his way back to the side of the stage where I was. I’m sitting in the folding chair, and he goes, ‘How am I doing?’ and the place was coming apart!”

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John Prine will release his first official songbook

John Prine will release his first official songbook in April. (Photo: Courtesy of Neilson Hubbard)

 

It was a moment that Prine never forgot. “All of a sudden, he was not this introspective singer/songwriter; he was Chuck Berry, Little Richard, Elvis, Bob Dylan, all of these rolled into one, and he reminded everybody of what rock ’n’ roll was like — just like when the Beatles came over and reminded people of what America had started with rock ’n’ roll.”

Springsteen has been equally admiring of Prine over the years, sharing the stage with him at a 1988 Tarrytown, New York, concert to perform Prine’s folk anthem “Paradise” and contributing backing vocals to “Take a Look at My Heart” on Prine’s 1991 album “The Missing Years.”

A two-time Grammy winner, Prine has been celebrated by the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, the Americana Music Association and the Library of Congress. But in October 1970, the year before he released his now-classic self-titled debut LP, he was praised in the pages of the Chicago Sun-Times by Ebert, the legendary film critic. At the time, Prine was still working as a mail carrier to make ends meet.

“Roger Ebert heard something in my songs in that little club in Chicago that seemed cinematic to him, that I was writing about characters that you could picture in your mind and see them up on the screen. He made the connection,” Prine said.

Ebert’s piece, reportedly the first published review of Prine’s work, described as “an extraordinary new composer and performer.” Ebert’s words changed Prine’s life.

“I never had an empty seat after that in Chicago,” Prine said. “I mean, I was playing small clubs, but that little club where nobody knew me, each week I would play to six people, and then the next week I would play to nine people — those same six would bring three friends, and that’s how it grew.

“But after Roger’s piece (things changed). And he wrote that in place of his weekly movie review, and everybody would turn to the last page to see what the movie was, and he just said, ‘The movie stunk so bad I went out to the bar to get me a beer and I heard this kid sing.’ … He was recognized by this time as a Chicago writer and I was a Chicago kid, and the combination there got the people of Chicago interested to come see this kid.”

Chicago native musician John Prine’s latest album was

Chicago native musician John Prine’s latest album was 2016’s “For Better, Or Worse.” (Photo: Courtesy of Kyle Dean Reinford)

 

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“This kid” has spent the following 45 years crafting songs that have become American classics, such as “Paradise,” the haunting veteran’s saga “Sam Stone” and the timeless “Angel From Montgomery,” all of which could be found on his debut album, followed by gems like “That’s the Way That the World Goes ’Round” from 1978’s “Bruised Orange” and the title track from 1999’s “In Spite of Ourselves.”

Prine released his latest album, the charming collection of country duets covers “For Better, Or Worse” in September, and he’s looking back with the career-spanning songbook “John Prine Beyond Words,” set for release April 18.

Prine described the overwhelming experience of seeing his life and career collected into his first official book.

“I had been through all of the individual pieces and parts of the book, and the first time the book came back from the binders and it was an actual book that had the cover on it, I couldn’t get more than a fourth of the way through the book. It was too emotional,” Prine said. “When I finally saw it laid out, page after page, it just hit me like a ton of bricks.”

JOHN PRINE

WITH: Special guests Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams

WHEN: 8 p.m. Saturday

WHERE: Prudential Hall at New Jersey Performing Arts Center, 1 Center St., Newark

TICKETS: $63.50 to $103.50

INFO: 1-888-466-5722 or www.njpac.org

http://www.app.com/story/enter...t-new-book/99795412/

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The SPL Rocks!

Prego che tu stia danzando con San Pietro alle porte perlacee del cielo





Pulled up to my house today
Came and took my little girl away!
Giants Stadium 8/28/03



Oats

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