After my first couple play-throughs, I still wasn't sure what to think: this wasn't exactly the John Prine I'd been listening to for years. His voice is certainly a little rough around the edges. And this IS a cover album (but is worth the price for the title track alone), which isn't the normal John Prine speed.

Then I realized that I never really like Prine for his voice, rather for his heart and his wit. And both are here in spades on this album. This is a GREAT collection of songs, sung by a fabulous man and some truly awesome women. There is more quality lurking in this album than many other artists can muster in a lifetime. I can't think of another performer with the real American soul of John Prine, and here he shows us a side of it that many have never seen before. It is a revelation and a blessing.

Buy this CD. After hearing it, you'll never regret it.


Dazed and Amazed!   March 11, 2000
27 out of 28 found this review helpful

Listening to Dolores Keane, the great voice of Ireland, doing her solos and harmonies on "Its A Cheatin' Situation" and "In A Town This Size" is like discovering that there is finally someone who can sing in the slow-motion haunting style that once was soley the property of Pasty Cline. Then along comes Iris Dement's toe-to-toe duets with John, culminating in "In Spite Of Ourselves", in which she does the impossible - she steals the show! Fiona Prine's solo in "Till a Tear Becomes A Rose" makes me daydream of having a woman sing in such a way to me. You can tell she is singing to her husband!...And then there's Lucinda Williams' solo on "Lets Turn Back The Years"! She is worth the price of admission alone! Add to this the solos and harmonies of Trisha Yearwood, Emmylou Harris, Patty Loveless, Connie Smith and Melba Montongomery and you find yourself dazed and amazed at John Prine. This CD fits like a glove and each duet, so sublte and simple, is a homage to the lonliness we have all known, the love we have all longed for, the grand "honky-tonk days" when a few chords and a couple of great voices and uncomplicated lyrics accompanied a cold beer and a few tears. Then, just when we forget its our John Prine that is taking us on this journey, "In Spite Of Ourselves" comes along....and we realize the John we thought we knew is still amongst us!...Touche, ol' buddy....thanks for opening my ears to Iris Dement, Lucinda Williams, Dolores Keane and Fiona Price. Prine singing "country" with "country's best" and an Irish lady reminiscent of Patsy Cline - I'm gonna buy another copy of this CD in case anything happens to the one I have now!...5 stars?...No, how about 9 stars and and five ! for John Prine?....


Unexpectedly Charming   September 28, 2000
Don Thomason (Dunbar, KY United States)
14 out of 14 found this review helpful

I was all set to not like this record -- John Prine is hardly the type of singer you'd think anyone could harmonize with (much less for an album of duets), and when I heard "Til A Tear Becomes A Rose" (with wife Fiona Prine) on local public radio, I first thought "clunker." Surprise -- this collection of country standards about relationships is a charmer, and most of Prine's partners -- including Emmylou Harris, Connie Smith, Patty Loveless, Trisha Yearwood, Melba Montgomery, and Lucinda Williams -- find ways to fit their voices with Prine's. Some liasons don't work, most notably with Irish singer Dolores Keane who phrases too straight to fit. Far and away, the best performances are with Iris DeMent; they click on George Jones & Melba Montgomery's "Let's Invite Them Over," the George & Tammy classic "(We're Not) The Jet Set," and the offhandly bawdy title track (the only Prine original). The recording and arrangements are stripped down to show the core of these country gems, and the results are as magnetic as a couple in love that's been together 20 years or more.


More "Comfort Music" from our "National Treasure" John Prine   December 9, 1999
13 out of 13 found this review helpful

I discovered John Prine 25 years ago, while living in Hartsville, Tennessee. I heard Prine "wailin' away" from an open window and I knocked on the door of that house to ask who that singer/song writer might be.

Since then, I have spoken of Prine as my favorite singer/song writer ever and as one we should all consider a National Treasure.

Of course "In Spite of Ourselves" is great. It's John, is't it? Once again, he epitomizes the "Americana" we are so rapidly losing. There's only one Prine-written song on the album, and you'll know it when you get to it because you'll find yourself laughing out loud, but each song is selected to define who John is.

Buy this album. It'll cost you almost nothing and last forever and if you're a fan of the style of music Prine invented, there's no doubt that you should own it.

Keep 'em comin' John and thanks for the music buddy.

The Girls They did oblige   July 17, 2002
L. Dann (Philadelphia, Pennsylvania United States)
12 out of 12 found this review helpful

This is yet more proof of john Prine's gift for staggering, intoxicating impact of the sweet/rough, not quite serious country sound. He alone can enter into a Soho/w.Va low/high range that simmers as honky tonk high art. This voice that post-cancer surgery came out just right in its gruff contrast to those mighty fine females. You just know, just about any smart lady'll sing with John if he asks- dumb ones too. There's just that quality of modesty and those detours where sorrow and music don't otherwise cavort by the moonlight -and not get called names for being so sentimental- just John's magic for a story and a kick and the greatest wise cracks that he's just not held for suspicion. He's a true to your heart guy. This album is so much fun and in its complete lack of message-political intent and /or attempting to mark a newer and improved John, suits me just fine. Iris Dement is a meteor shower just phenomenal in a voice of light particles and Lucinda Williams sounded like a full-forced virtuoso. The music is hilarious, especially, We're not the Jet Set- and the one about Milwaukee. As they say, it's all good. When I listen it's as if he he never left places those southern places I've never been to, only that's where we are and it's home. -