I love John Prine like a dear friend. His first record, John Prine, from 1971 is Master-Class, Grade A songwriting. The Tree of Forgiveness continues that tradition after a 13-year respite where Prine mines the everyday for nuggets of wisdom and beauty.
That is Prine’s stock-in-trade and at 71 years of age his vision is as clear as ever. The Tree of Forgiveness is easy going, forlorn, love-lost, and lovely. His voice shows his age which is as it should be since with age comes wisdom, although Prine appeared to have it since at least 1971.
While my musical tastes tend to be free-range, listening to a brand spankin’ new John Prine record feels like a visit from my long gone and much missed grandfather. He was wise too.
The Tree of Forgiveness is available from John Prine’s website. The digital download is 24-bit/96kHz for $9.99 (as they all should be, imo) and it sounds wonderful.