"John Prine caught us by surprise in the late-night morning let-down after our last show in Chicago. Steve Goodman (who’d shared the bill with us that week) asked us to go to Old Town to listen to a friend he said we had to hear, and since Steve had knocked us out all week with his own songs, we obliged. It was too damned late, and we had an early wake-up ahead of us, and by the time we got there Old town was nothing but empty streets and dark windows. And the club was closing. But the owner let us come in, pulled some chairs off a couple of tables, and John unpacked his guitar and got back up to sing. There are few things as depressing to look at as a bunch of chairs upside down on the table of an empty old tavern, and there was that awkward moment, us sitting there like, 'Okay, kid, show us what you got,' and him standing up there alone, looking down at his guitar like, 'What the hell are we doing here, buddy?' Then he started singing, and by the end of the first line we knew we were hearing something else. It must’ve been like stumbling onto Dylan when he first busted onto the Village scene. One of those rare, great times when it all seems worth it, like when the Vision would rise upon Blake’s 'weary eyes, Even in this Dungeon, & this Iron Mill.' He sang about a dozen songs, and had to do a dozen more before it was over. Unlike anything I’d heard before." - Kris Kristofferson
- debut album from influential American country & folk songwriter John Prine
- clear vinyl pressing
- includes printed insert
- limited edition, part of the Atlantic 75 series
- original release year: 1971
- music label: Atlantic 2023