Chicago will host a large fall celebration in honor of musician John Prine, who began building his iconic career as a singer-songwriter in the city’s folk scene.
Announced Monday, the Prine family and an extended family of musicians will honor the beloved musician on Oct. 8 with a tribute concert at the Chicago Theatre called “Souvenirs: 80 Years of John Prine.” timed to the late performer’s 80th birthday two days later.
If there was something John Prine loved as much as music, it was birthdays, said his wife, Fiona Prine, explaining why she couldn’t let his 80th come and go this fall without a proper fete. “Birthdays were huge for John, his own and everybody else’s. He celebrated everyone with abundance. It was just a part of his wonderful attitude towards life.”
The Chicago event will come six years after the Illinois native unexpectedly passed away from COVID complications in 2020, and organizers, including Old Town School of Folk Music, have curated a lineup reflective of his legacy. Expect more events to be announced around the date.
Hosted by actor/musician John C. Reilly, the October concert will bring together a who’s who of Americana music, including Steve Earle, Amos Lee, Josh Ritter, Margo Price and Joy Oladokun. Several acts with Chicago ties will perform including Ratboys, Shemekia Copeland, Hurray for the Riff Raff’s Alynda Segarra and Jon Langford.
The musicians will perform selections from Prine’s 18-album songbook while backed by his long-time band. Tickets go on sale this Friday, May 15 with presales beginning Wednesday, May 13.
The event takes its name from Prine’s 1972 song “Souvenirs,” which harkens back to his humble career origins. Born in 1946 in Maywood to a family with Kentucky roots, Prine was working as a mail carrier in the western suburb when he started crafting lyrics on his routes about the everyday people and commonplace life he’d come across.
By night, he had a presence at the Old Town School in Lincoln Park, and that gig spilled over to the nearby folk club Fifth Peg. After taking a friend’s dare to perform on that stage during an amateur night, Prine unexpectedly found himself with a regular set and needed more material.
“The club owner was like, ‘We’re going to give you a job.’ And John thought, I can’t get up there and sing the same songs again because it’s probably going to be the same people. So, he literally wrote ‘Souvenirs’ while driving from his home in Maywood down to the city,” Fiona recounted. “It’s a beautiful song, and there’s a lot of resonance to that word. Not to mention, he was somebody who literally bought souvenirs everywhere he went. My house is full of them, real and metaphorical, so it felt like the right name for this event.”
The right place also had to be Chicago, she says. While there have been tributes in other cities, like the star-studded 2022 event “You’ve Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine” in Nashville (also released as a concert film), it only felt right to go back to Prine’s roots for this 80th birthday bash, said Fiona, and to fill it with a good number of fellow homegrown talents.
“John was always drawn to Illinois, he had a very close affinity to it, and we definitely wanted to have Illinois represented,” Fiona says of intentionally settling on a largely local talent pool. One of those acts is indie rock group Ratboys. Singer/guitarist Julia Steiner wrote WBEZ/Sun-Times over email that John Prine “ was simply the best storyteller on the planet, and that legacy lives on and shines bright through his songs. We can’t wait to be a part of this celebration, to play one of our favorite Prine songs and enjoy so many others and pay tribute to a man who’ll inspire us forever.”
Proceeds from the Oct. 8 event will benefit the Hello In There Foundation, a nonprofit that the Prine family established in 2021 to continue giving back to the communities John long lifted up. To date, the foundation has given nearly $1.5 million in grants to veterans, immigrants, refugees and those needing support for food and housing insecurity, mental health challenges and addiction recovery.
“Our mission is based on how John operated in the world,” said Fiona. “I think part of why John still resonates today is that he was so uninterested in fame or in celebrity, but he did believe in his music. And every song he ever wrote showed you who he is and how he empathized with people, whether it’s a veteran in ‘Sam Stone’ or a frustrated housewife in ‘Angel From Montgomery.’
“While he didn’t expect a whole lot, I think he would be very pleased to know that he has left a legacy that has kept us all going.”
