WITH a hangdog expression which lasted for most of last night's two hour show John Prine inevitably exhibited a maximum degree of peace of mind when singing songs about character dysfunction. While he off handedly terms, a large number of his poignant, perceptive songs as "love gone wrong ballads", Prine is equally adept at highlighting even darker moments of emotional frustration and despair. Standing At Peaceful Waters came near the end of the full programme, and it redressed the balance somewhat, a song about murder at a lake's edge, and how blood looks like shadows when viewed on a monochrome video screen.
Instinctively, Prine was able to correlate the fundamental similarities between the death of a life and the demise of a marriage. It's a wise, powerful song, and it shows exactly why he is one of the most highly regarded American songwriters of the past twenty years.
Prior to this, he gladly played into the collective hands of the audience, each song being greeted as if it were a long lost friend.
Prine began backed by a band of besuited multi instrumentalists, an incongruous, uncomfortable looking bunch who might have been more at home in jeans. After several dexterous tunes, it was just him and his guitar, both thankfully adept at keeping boredom at bay with a selection of material that only rarely dipped below the average, of which Quit Hollerin At Me was the main culprit. Generally, the standard was quite superb: the stark Sam Stone, the very funny Space Monkey and the resonant This Love Is Real were but three of many which captivated the capacity crowd.
Prine departed as he arrived: thunderous applause met with wily bemusement. Let there be no doubt - the man is an international treasure.