Never an artist known to push himself harder than necessary, 2005's
Fair and Square
was
John Prine
's first album in five years, and his first set dominated by new material since 1995's
Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings
(a live album, a set of covers and a collection of new recordings of older material helped fill the gap). Of course,
Prine
had a fair amount to occupy him during that decade between new albums, most notably a bout with cancer in 1999, and while by all accounts
beat the disease with proper treatment, the man on
seems a good bit less scrappy and more contemplative than the guy who cut
's most memorable material. The lyric sheet for
reads like classic
, with plenty of sly regular-guy wit and pithy observations on the state of life (
"Crazy as a Loon"
), love (
"She Is My Everything"
) and the world around us (
"Some Humans Ain't Human"
and
"My Darlin' Hometown"
), but the spare, simple production (by
and engineer
Gary Paczosa
) and the rueful tone of
's vocals suggest a man who is just a bit weary, though that seems to be not a matter of health as much as advancing maturity and the world around him (with
explicitly addressing the War in Iraq amidst other recent failures of compassion). It's significant that the disc's "bonus tracks" are easily the most upbeat -- the funny henpecked husband's tale of
"Other Side Of Town"
"Safety Joe,"
a witty warning about the dangers of too much caution. There's plenty of fine music on
(
Jerry Douglas
Alison Krauss
are among the stellar pickers on-board) and there still isn't anyone who writes quite like
, but for the most part this album is an unusually spare and subdued effort from an artist who usually can't help but crack a smile; with any luck he'll be feeling a bit more hopeful next time out, though this is still great music for a quiet afternoon. ~ Mark Deming