There’s been a nine year interval between albums of new material from John Prine, but fortunately ‘Fair & Square’ more than lives up to expectations and the 14 songs here collectively rank as strong as anything that’s gone before.
This is Prine’s first attempt at producing his own material, and there’s an immediate warmth to the album; the backing in unforced, relaxed and mainly acoustic with his distinctively rough vocals fitting well into the instrumentation that consists mainly of acoustic guitar, accordion, mandolin and pedal steel.
Only two of the songs are covers, but these two fit in perfectly with his own material, Blaze Foley’s ‘Clay Pigeons’ sounds like it could have been written by Prine, and AP Carters ‘Bear Creek Blues’ provides a real change of tempo amongst the folk, bluegrass and country that makes up most of the album. Elsewhere his own songs cover a broad range of subjects that include love, social awareness and humour, with the common factor being that they’re all straightforward, transparent and honest.
Alison Krauss and Mindy Smith are amongst the contributors, and in particular these two provide wonderful contrast to Prine’s vocals. Over the course of the 14 songs he covers a variety of styles and the 62 minutes pass by effortlessly.
Nine years it may have been, but it’s certainly worth the wait.

£13.49