For Better, or Worse
Female singers duet with a grizzled songwriting great on this winning set from the 70-year-old Prine. His voice is scarred, but that only makes the bruised tenderness in each country and bluegrass tune more real. Nothing beats the sublime simplicity of “My Happiness,” sung with Fiona Whelan, Prine’s Irish-born wife of 20 years.
In 1999, John Prine released a thoroughly charming and engaging album called In Spite of Ourselves, in which he covered a handful of classic country tunes (tossing in one new original for good measure) as duets with nine talented female vocalists.
Long before he became a lauded alt-country singer-songwriter, John Prine had a much humbler vocation: a mailman, thinking up would-be hit so...
An almanack of historical pleasures from the country songbook. CD review by Jasper Rees