{"id":789086,"date":"2026-05-11T16:17:29","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:17:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/789086\/"},"modified":"2026-05-11T16:17:29","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T16:17:29","slug":"john-prine-one-of-the-most-influential-songwriters-of-the-era-to-be-feted-with-star-studded-chicago-tribute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/789086\/","title":{"rendered":"John Prine, one of the most influential songwriters of the era, to be feted with star-studded Chicago tribute"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u2019s folk scene.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cSouvenirs: 80 Years of John Prine.\u201d timed to the late performer\u2019s 80th birthday two days later.<\/p>\n

If there was something John Prine loved as much as music, it was birthdays, said his wife, Fiona Prine, explaining why she couldn\u2019t let his 80th come and go this fall without a proper fete. \u201cBirthdays were huge for John, his own and everybody else\u2019s. He celebrated everyone with abundance. It was just a part of his wonderful attitude towards life.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"John<\/p>\n

The Maywood-born Prine influenced a generation of singer-songwriters.<\/p>\n

Hosted by actor\/musician John C. Reilly, the October concert will bring together a who\u2019s 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,<\/a> Shemekia Copeland,<\/a> Hurray for the Riff Raff\u2019s Alynda Segarra<\/a> and Jon Langford.<\/a><\/p>\n

The musicians will perform selections from Prine\u2019s 18-album songbook while backed by his long-time band. Tickets go on sale this Friday, May 15 with presales beginning Wednesday, May 13.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Souvenirs<\/p>\n

The event takes its name from Prine\u2019s 1972 song \u201cSouvenirs,\u201d 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\u2019d come across.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s dare to perform on that stage during an amateur night, Prine unexpectedly found himself with a regular set and needed more material.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe club owner was like, \u2018We\u2019re going to give you a job.\u2019 And John thought, I can\u2019t get up there and sing the same songs again because it\u2019s probably going to be the same people. So, he literally wrote \u2018Souvenirs\u2019 while driving from his home in Maywood down to the city,\u201d Fiona recounted. \u201cIt\u2019s a beautiful song, and there\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"Fiona<\/p>\n

Fiona Prine is helping organize the concert. <\/p>\n

The right place also had to be Chicago, she says. While there have been tributes in other cities, like the star-studded 2022 event \u201cYou\u2019ve Got Gold: A Celebration of John Prine\u201d in Nashville (also released as a concert film), it only felt right to go back to Prine\u2019s roots for this 80th birthday bash, said Fiona, and to fill it with a good number of fellow homegrown talents.<\/p>\n

\u201cJohn was always drawn to Illinois, he had a very close affinity to it, and we definitely wanted to have Illinois represented,\u201d Fiona says of intentionally settling on a largely local talent pool. One of those acts is indie rock group Ratboys.<\/a> Singer\/guitarist Julia Steiner wrote WBEZ\/Sun-Times over email that John Prine \u201c was simply the best storyteller on the planet, and that legacy lives on and shines bright through his songs. We can\u2019t 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\u2019ll inspire us forever.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur mission is based on how John operated in the world,\u201d said Fiona. \u201cI 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\u2019s a veteran in \u2018Sam Stone\u2019 or a frustrated housewife in \u2018Angel From Montgomery.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cWhile he didn\u2019t 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\"RATBOYS_260206-1.jpg\"<\/p>\n

Chicago rock band Ratboys are among the local bands on the lineup for \u201cSouvenirs,\u201d a John Prine tribute on Oct. 8 at the Chicago Theatre. <\/p>\n

Tyler Pasciak LaRiviere\/Sun-Times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chicago will host a large fall celebration in honor of musician John Prine, who began building his iconic…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":789087,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5124],"tags":[960,5386,1818],"class_list":{"0":"post-789086","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago","8":"tag-chicago","9":"tag-il","10":"tag-illinois"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116556847589929735","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=789086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/789086\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789087"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=789086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=789086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=789086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}