An Album/Song A Week: John Prine - The Missing Years

The Americana genre that gathered steam in the 90's had been around for decades.  It just needed a label and airplay to reach an audience that never cared for modern era Country music.  The genres biggest names are the Band, Grateful Dead, John Prine, Emmylou Harris, Gram Parsons, Steve Earle, Townes Van Zandt, Doug Sahm, New Riders of the Purple Sage, Bob Dylan, Lucinda Williams, John Hiatt, Robert Earl Keen, John Hartford, Byrds.  But it also encompasses any type of music that is organic, soulful, bluesy.  So, it's not just Country Roots oriented music.  

The greatest Americana radio station in the world is located an hour away from me.  It was founded in 1987 as an offshoot of an equally legendary station from Gilroy, California, called KFAT.  One of the first Progressive Country-Rock stations in the U.S., it last until 1983.  Four years later, many of the same people who worked at KFAT founded KPIG.  I always knew KPIG existed.  It was at the top of the FM dial (107.5), but until 1991 my FM dial was mainly set to Top 40, Country, Oldies, Soul, AOR. 

That all changed when I got a job at the USPS in late 1985.  One of the perks of the job was being able to listen to your own music while getting the mail prepared in the morning.  That task usually took 2-3 hours.  So, for the first few years that's what I did.  

If there's an Americana Hall of Fame, John Prine would be one of the first inductees.  From his first album in 1971 until his death in 2020, his music influenced many in that genre.  In 1981 he left the major labels and founded his own called Oh Boy Records.  And he had success, but still not the big breakthrough at first.  That changed in 1991 with The Missing Years. It was his first album in 5 years and Prine was ready with his best songs since the early 70's. Divorce, relationships, nostalgia, humor both sublime and off-the-wall made for a strong album.

And it turned out to be the perfect introduction to not only John Prine, but the whole Americana genre for me.  A friend of mine told me he always listened to KPIG because it sounded unlike anything else on the radio.  So, I got out of my musical comfort zone and took a chance, and he was right.  The timing was perfect in 1991. 

The Missing Years turned out not only to become a big seller, but a massive critical favorite.  And a huge influence in my listening evolution.  John Prine died in 2020 from COVID-19 symptoms.  What a songwriter.