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Living in the Present with John Prine

by Tom Piazza

John Prine in conversation and memory

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Regular price $37.74 USD Sale price $22.64 USD
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Hardcover New English

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AlbakiReads Editorial

John Prine in conversation and memory

Tom Piazza’s account grows from a 2018 Florida road trip with John Prine and the friendship that followed. The book draws on stories Prine shared while the two worked on a memoir, ranging from his childhood in Chicago and Kentucky to his arrival on the national stage and early years in Nashville’s country scene. After Prine’s death in 2020, the unfinished project became a personal narrative centered on their relationship and the singer-songwriter’s final years. Its material brings together music, recollection, friendship, and the making of a life in song.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • John Prine fans interested in personal recollections of the musician
  • Readers interested in singer-songwriters and the Nashville country scene
  • Readers drawn to memoirs shaped by friendship and shared conversations

Themes

John Prine’s life and musicFriendshipMemoir and recollectionNashville country music

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

In the spring of 2018, Tom Piazza climbed into a 1977 Coupe de Ville with the great singer-songwriter John Prine to write an article for the Oxford American. Their Florida road trip ignited a deep friendship, full of tall tales over epic meals, long nights playing guitar and trading songs, and visits back and forth between their homes in Nashville and New Orleans. Along the way, Prine invited Piazza to work with him on a memoir, with John telling sprawling, often hilarious stories of his youth and family in Chicago and Kentucky, his breakthrough into the national spotlight, his riotous early years in the Nashville country scene, and much more. When Prine died suddenly of COVID in April 2020, that unfinished memoir evolved into an intimate and very personal narrative of the artist's final years. In it, Piazza offers fans an unforgettable portrait of the beloved musician in his late glory--as a boyish cut-up, an epic raconteur, a great American poet, and, most important, a beloved friend.

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