Tommy Prine never expected to be sitting where he is. Well, let me clarify: In a physical sense, it’s pretty normal. We’re chatting in a quiet study at the stately suburban home where his mother Fiona lives, which now sits empty, ready to sell. But to be talking with a writer about his own music? That’s still kind of weird.
Growing up as one of the sons of the late, beloved John Prine — something close to a prince of American folk — Tommy Prine did not have his mind set on following in his father’s footsteps. That seemed like a fool’s errand, and as such, that is still not the younger Prine’s goal. But now he’s ready to make his own mark.
“The best way I can explain it is that I’ve never felt more like myself,” Prine says, flashing a genuine, welcoming smile, with a faded ball cap atop his still-boyish face.
At 27 years old, he’s getting set to release his debut album, and although he’s clear about not intending to copy John’s approach, he does seem to have his dad’s knack for simple, stark eloquence. Last year, Tommy released two singles, “Turning Stones” and “Ships in the Harbor.” They’re filled with probing introspection and vivid metaphor, sung in a gentle, understated tone and backed with quiet acoustic instruments. For the album he has up his sleeve, he’s upping the ante with some expansive roots-pop production and a light touch of his mom’s Celtic roots. But before all that, the old soul will spend some one-on-one time with hometown fans.
With a monthlong residency at The Basement — each Thursday in March except the 23rd — Prine will introduce his songs and himself, stepping to the mic along with some big, so-far-unnamed special guests. But as excited as he is, he kind of had to be pushed into it.
Prine notes that he learned to play guitar at an early age, would sometimes join his dad for encores and even wrote a few songs as a teen. But the closest he wanted to get to a music career was his job at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum gift shop, or once in a while manning the door at The Basement East.
His first performance of original songs came at a beach fest his dad was playing in the Dominican Republic; another artist dropped out, and Tommy was coaxed onstage. That lit the spark. But after John’s death in 2020 — lost to COVID in a heartbreaking situation that kept Tommy and most of the family from properly saying goodbye — songwriting finally hooked him.
“Through all that trauma and the stress of losing a parent, writing was a really good outlet for me — because I was trying to avoid bad habits at all costs,” he explains. “I knew that if I started dealing with big traumatic things with horrible habits at 24, I was only gonna fuck myself up going forward. So I was like, ‘OK, I’m gonna try and just write a bunch.’ ”
Hewing to advice his dad gave him over pancakes one morning — “paint a picture as simply as you can” — Prine set to work in earnest. He kept his writing confessional and allowed plenty of space for deep thinking, but never made his messages complicated.
Eventually, he played his songs for Ruston Kelly, a good pal who then decided to push Prine again. Along with their mutual friend, producer-engineer Gena Johnson, Kelly ambushed him on a conference call to say they had decided they were going to record his work.
“I was like, ‘… OK,’ ” Prine says with a laugh. “Like, what do you say to that? But in the moment, it felt extremely right. I think I just needed two people that I really loved and respected to spell it out for me.”
Those sessions would develop into Prine’s forthcoming album, on which his soul-searching words — about falling in with the wrong crowd, being reborn like Gandalf in The Lord of the Rings, losing his dad so suddenly and more — are conveyed with an eclectic, modern-folk sound. There are hints of everything from coffeehouse chill to Prine’s early faves like OutKast and Green Day. Prine also cites Jason Isbell’s Southeastern as pivotal, and he credits the record with helping him understand his father’s genius and the power of songwriting in general. But listeners will know, right off the bat, that the vision in Tommy Prine’s material is his own.
The Basement shows will give fans a taste. Aside from his special guests, he’ll be playing solo — which is very much on purpose. Now that he’s embarking on a musical career, Prine knows that one of his biggest challenges is setting himself apart, even as he remembers where he came from.
“I’m never gonna shy away from my family or my last name. But I might as well say upfront, ‘All songs written by ‘not John Prine Jr.,’ you know? I don’t see it as walking in his shadow — I feel like I’m walking next to it. I can acknowledge it and know that it’s near, and respect and honor him and his legacy. But I’m building my own thing.”
