Last October, Austin City Limits honored John Prine with posthumous entry into its Hall of Fame. To celebrate the late singer-songwriter, the long-running PBS concert program invited several of his modern-day disciples including Tyler Childers, Nathaniel Rateliff, Kurt Vile, and more to sing some of their favorite John Prine songs. Ahead of the hour-long special’s premiere on Saturday, January 13th, PBS has shared a couple of previews.
One of Prine’s most successful pupils, Tyler Childers honored his teacher with John’s “I Guess They Oughta Name A Drink After You”. Ahead of the cover, Childers recalled hearing Prine’s music for the first time from a Little League dugout. While not much came of his baseball career, something else he experienced out on the diamond did make an impact.
Many years later, when Childers first played a show with Prine, John had heard that it was someone in the crew’s birthday, so he offered up a Dairy Queen coupon he had on him to go toward an ice cream cake for the mysterious individual. Unbeknownst to Prine, that person was Tyler Childers, and also unbeknownst to Prine, ice cream cake was always his favorite.
Childers took on the honky-tonk swing of the Diamonds in the Rough track with the beleaguered grace of someone picking themselves off the barroom floor. Tyler previously covered the song for the all-star Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine, Vol. 2 tribute in 2021. As he closes the cover, Childers lets off an ad-libbed “Handsome John,” which is the nickname John Prine gave himself and also the drink he invented, the Handsome Johnny (red Smirnoff vodka, diet ginger ale, and lemon in summer or lime in winter).
Tyler Childers – “I Guess They Oughta Name A Drink After You” (John Prine)
Then for the big finale, Childers, Rateliff, Vile, Alison Russell, Valerie June, and John’s son Tommy Prine returned to close the show with “Paradise”. The ode to Western Kentucky from Prine’s self-titled 1971 debut served as his show closer for many years (until he changed it up to “Lake Marie” at the very end. For more information, consult your local Todd Snider.) It’s not hard to see why it was his perennial closer, as this lyrical vocal-baton rendition got the whole Moody Theater singing along. The song and the show ended on a sentimental note, as Tommy Prine got the last line, singing “Sorry my son, Mr. Peabody’s coal train has hauled it away.”
In addition to serving as a major inspiration, Prine had personal connections to many artists onstage. He performed with Tyler Childers and recorded versions of his songs with both Rateliff and Vile. His contributions to Vile’s cover of “How Lucky” proved to be one of his last recordings before his death in April 2020 due to complications from COVID.
Prine’s Austin City Limits tribute has been a long time coming and honors his eight separate appearances on the show from 1978–2018.
“We had planned to induct John into the ACL Hall of Fame in 2020, before he tragically became an early victim of the Covid pandemic,” ACL executive producer Terry Lickona said in a statement. “There were many well-deserved tributes at the time, but this year finally felt like the right moment to recognize his long history with ACL. Working closely with John’s family, we created a special celebration of his impact on singers and songwriters across so many genres.”
Watch Tyler Childers, Nathaniel Rateliff, Kurt Vile, Alison Russell, Valerie June, and Tommy Prine honor John Prine on Austin City Limits. The full episode premieres Saturday, January 13th at 8 p.m. ET on PBS and lands on streaming the following day.
Tyler Childers, Nathaniel Rateliff, Kurt Vile, Alison Russell, Valerie June, Tommy Prine – “Paradise” (John Prine)
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