Album Review: John Prine, ‘Found Dogs’
Anytime is a good time for a new John Prine album. ‘Found Dogs’ was released initially in April in a limited edition run of 2,000 LPs for Record Store Day. Now, it will be widely available digitally and physically on Oh Boy Records on October 9, one day before the day John Prine would have turned 80 on October 10. ‘Found Dogs’ celebrates the 30th anniversary of Prine’s ‘Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings’ and includes alternate takes, demos, and five unheard original songs gathered from recording sessions from that time.
This album opens with an alternate version of “Ain’t Hurtin’ Nobody,” a swaying, New Orleans shuffle riding atop striding boogie-woogie piano with Prine’s growling baritone testifying to a live-and-let-live philosophy inherent in the rock and roll life. Circling fingerpicking lie beneath Prine’s tender vocals on the spacious and atmospheric “All the Way with You (Acoustic Version).” Punchy organ strains steer the bright bouncy soul folk number “World Without Love,” while Prine delivers a moving country waltz on his rendition of Johnny Horton’s “All for the Love of a Girl.”
Prine’s “Lake Marie (Demo)” captures the poignant character of the fraught tale that unfurls on the shores of Lake Marie; this spare version allows us to enter into the story of the two lovers and stand with them “standing by peaceful waters.” Strolling piano chords direct another New Orleans blues folk jazzer, “Hey Ah Nothin’,” while a B.B. King-like lead line steers (and there is a sonic resemblance to “The Thrill is Gone”) the defiant blues “Quit Hollerin’ at Me.” The album closes with a country jazz stroller, “My God Thank You John.”
‘Found Dogs’ provides us a welcome chance to hear more John Prine and to listen in as he shapes his songwriting and his music. The album release is a part of a five-day celebration of Prine’s 80th birthday, including a tribute concert, ‘Souvenirs: 80 Years of John Prine’ at the Chicago Theater on October 8, featuring an all-star lineup of performers including Steve Earle, Valerie June, Margo Price, Shemekia Copeland, and Jon Langford, among many others.
