Mark Lavengood, Seth Bernard, Dan Rickabus, Michael Beauchamp and Max Lockwood will bring the show to four cities, starting in Kalamazoo and ending in Fennville. Listen to a playlist of John Prine gems.
Honoring Prine: Resonator guitar whiz Mark Lavengood leads this weekend’s tribute shows. (Photo/Anna Sink)
Traverse City singer-songwriter Seth Bernard calls John Prine “a breath of fresh air, a voice of reason and sanity. He’s like Woody Guthrie and John Stewart mixed together.”
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John Prine
Suffice to say that in the songwriting world, John Prine is a hero, a true icon who’s influenced generations of musicians since making his debut in the early 1970s.
Still, some audiences remain unfamiliar with the work of this revered American singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist/bluegrass ace Mark Lavengood wants to change that.
“His repertoire is so expansive and cuts through to the core of human emotions,” said Lavengood, best known as the resonator guitar player for Lindsay Lou & The Flatbellys. “I fell in love with John Prine and his work late in college. I’ve always wanted to set up a stretch of John Prine tribute shows.”
Now, he has.
With an all-star lineup featuring familiar Michigan musicians from different quarters – Bernard of the Earthwork Music Collective, guitarist Michael Beauchamp of Kalamazoo’s Red Tail Ring, drummer Dan Rickabus of Grand Rapids’ The Crane Wives and bassist-guitarist Max Lockwood of Grand Rapids’ Big Dudee Roo – Lavengood has arranged a mini-tour of four John Prine tribute shows across West Michigan.
The “Prine Time” tour kicks off at 7 tonight (Thursday) at Kalamazoo First Congregational UCC, 345 W. Michigan Ave., in Kalamazoo ($10), and wraps up at 7 p.m. Sunday at Salt of the Earth, 114 E. Main St. in Fennville ($15). In between, the group plays shows at InsideOut Gallery in Traverse City and Short’s Brewery in Bellaire.
A ‘RICH, DIVERSE MUSICAL PERFORMANCE’ OF PRINE CLASSICS
“We’re planning on providing a rich, diverse musical performance with these tunes,” said Lavengood, a Michigan native who recently moved to Nashville with other members of Lindsay Lou & The Flatbellys. “We’ll take turns each doing a solo number and we’ll do some stripped-down duo numbers as well, but the majority of the tunes will be full band numbers.”
Prine Time Collaborators: Max Lockwood and Dan Rickabus. (Photo/Anna Sink)
Over his career, Prine, now 68, has balanced incisive social commentary and touching character sketches with humorous ditties about life and love. Initially discovered by Kris Kristofferson, Prine released his self-titled debut album in 1971 and has become a beloved folk revivalist and country-hued tunesmith, embraced for songs such as “Paradise,” “Angel from Montgomery,” “Illegal Smile,” “Sam Stone,” “Hello in There,” “Dear Abby” and “Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow).” (Listen to the Local Spins playlist of Prine songs on Spotify below.)
Lockwood, who started listening to these songs by Prine in high school, calls the raspy-voiced singer “a back-country bodhisattva,” aka, enlightened being.
“He combines folk wisdom, sentimentality, humor, melancholy and social commentary in poignant ways that are singular to him,” said Lockwood. “ ‘Paradise’ has been a staple porch jam for me for years.”
Rickabus only began exploring Prine’s work after Lavengood approached him about the project. What he discovered was “an incredible songwriter” who brings “a wonderful tone to singing about life. It’s equal parts hilarious, heartfelt and deep. The process of studying his music has turned me into a lifelong fan and I can’t wait to celebrate the man.”
Seth Bernard
Lavengood sees the tribute tour as an opportunity “to expose our community to one of the finest songwriters of our times.”
“I’ve sung tons of Prine tunes with Seth and Beauchamp over the years, and … I thought we could do some serious justice to his repertoire and expose the folks who love the Michigan folk scene to some John Prine,” said Lavengood, who also expects the sets to include a couple of original tunes influenced by Prine.
Rickabus, Lavengood and Beauchamp just wrapped up appearances with their respective bands at the Folk Alliance International conference/showcase in Kansas City, so the Prine tour also represents the chance to spend time “with this amazing group of luminaries,” said Rickabus.
“We really treasure these times to just hang with our brothers and jam tunes we don’t normally play. It’s great for the soul and wonderful for generating creative inspiration to bring back to our normal projects.”
LOCAL SPINS’ JOHN PRINE PLAYLIST ON SPOTIFY
Copyright 2015, Spins on Music LLC
