As the music world reacts this week to the death of John Prine from complications of a coronavirus infection, I have seen numerous friends posting his songs in memory of the American country-folk icon.
I have never been very familiar with John Prine (I only recently learned he was the writer of a song that Sweety and I love, which was sung beautifully by Nanci Griffith, “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness“). So I hesitated to add to the long line of tributes.
But today, I recalled that our son and his band, Kieran West and His Buffalo Band, covered a Prine song in their mostly-originals repertoire. I had to ask him the name of the song, because none of the titles I was seeing matched the lyric that I remembered him singing to the backup of twang and riffing by his band. “Spanish Pipedream” was the one, he told me today.
Kieran and the boys did a rip-roaring version of the song by an artist who was an influence on them. It was a popular song among the band’s considerable following, and often brought people up to the dance floor. I’m sure Prine would have loved hearing their rendition.
Now you know a little about why this is my song of the day for today. Thanks for joining me here, and please enjoy.
Here’s a video of a live performance of the song in 2001, from John Prine’s YouTube channel:
Song of the Day for Today 