Issue #14: We Listen to Tommy Prine with...Tommy Prine

A whole album start to finish, with the person who made it.

A quick note — our subscriber-only live Zoom Q&A with Amanda Shires has an updated date and time: this Thursday, July 13 at 3:30 p.m. CT! Zoom links will go out that morning, so there’s still time to subscribe to join!

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Today, we kick off a new series on Don’t Rock The Inbox that is pretty simple in conceit: we listen through an album start to finish, and talk about it in real time with the artist who made it in our world-famous Slack channel. I’ve always wanted to have the space to do something like this - to queue up a record and just shoot the shit about how it was made and what inspired it, from the granular musical choices to favorite lyrics or more existential questions that spring from a song. Did I envision doing this sitting in a studio in person while a joint smoldered in an ash tray, the clock approaching midnight, maybe in video or podcast form? Maybe. Ok, yes. But I also once listened to tapes on a yellow Walkman, so things change. Besides, those publishing fees would be expensive, and this way is pretty fun, too.

For our inaugural edition, we hopped into Slack with Tommy Prine, whose excellent debut album, This Far South, came out last month. It’s a gorgeous, complete work that aches as much as it loves - songs about living through pain (including the loss of his father, John Prine, and his friend to addiction), about mental health, about the uneasy road of growing up and stepping out of our parent’s shadows (and finding a way to walk alongside them) and, ultimately, about finding love. Produced by Ruston Kelly and Gena Johnson, it not only shows the strength of Tommy as a songwriter but as a unique sonic stylist all his own - songs like the opener, “Elohim” or “Cash Carter Hill” tell as much of emotional arc through rock guitars or string crescendos as the lyrical journeys do.

All art is confessional, but This Far South carries a special breed of intimacy, of secrets shared in the name of collective healing, that makes it instantly memorable. It’s who Tommy was, who he is, and where he’s going, with no promises to sew any of it together. It’s not a snapshot in time, but a man in motion. And aren’t we all?

I hope you enjoy our conversation below. We hope you’ll listen along to the album as you read, for the full immersive experience. And feel free to comment below if there are artists and albums you hope to see in this space someday.

- Marissa

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Marissa: Ok - here we go, with “Elohim.” I love how this opener isn’t all delicate, plucky guitar. It really tells people who you are and where you are going off the bat.

Tommy Prine: Thank you for saying that! That was the idea behind the sound of “Elohim.” A distinct way to start the album, so that people can get a good idea of where I’m going.

Natalie: When did you write this one/what was the initial inspiration?

Tommy: I wrote this one in early 2021, literally as I walked in the door from a writing retreat at the Carter Family home with Ruston. It just kind of fell out, and I started the album with this song because I wanted to create a story arc of an angry and lost boy who finds hope throughout the album. I can’t wait to play it live with a band!

Marissa: Which is happening soon! Also, as two Jews here, shout out to Elohim. What's your relationship to faith nowadays?

Tommy: I believe in a higher power, I just don't think that higher power is a "he" or "she" or has a head and shoulders, lol.

Moonshine will make you see / Where the shadow people feed / I don’t believe in God or Elohim / Cause they’re the ones that I’ve never seen. - “Elohim”

Marissa: In Nashville, even outside of the country music machine, it's bold to be able to say, "I don’t believe in God" in a song.

Tommy: I agree, but there was a time in my life where I didn’t believe in anything. I lost my best friend (and several other friends) to addiction, I lost my dad, and I just felt like things either happened or didn’t happen. There was no purpose or belief in something larger. I have dug pretty deep in recent years and I know there is a higher power, or a god, but I never loved how people would use their faith to indict others based on how they lived, loved or prayed.

Marissa: You definitely hear that journey of trying to figure it out without needing concrete answers.

Tommy: I think I found some answers while writing for the album, but I found twice as many questions. Which is a good thing in my opinion. If there is one true god, that god loves everyone no if's and's or but's.

Marissa: That's a message we REALLY need in Tennessee right now (and Texas, where Natalie is). Now we're on to “Crashing Again” - you seem to have a really special creative relationship with Ruston obviously.

Tommy: I do! We co-wrote this song together. He always saw where I was coming from when I couldn't finish a song, without much explanation.

Marissa: It's so lush musically too.

Tommy: Thats all Gena [Johnson] and Ruston!! They truly brought all of these songs to life. It was amazing to witness in the studio.

Marissa: Gena is the best. Shout out to Gena. When I first heard this next song, "This Far South," I obviously was expecting geography. But it's so much more than then, such a smart twist lyrically: what it means to be down.

Tommy: Thank you! This was one of two songs that I had written years ago. “Boyhood” and “This Far South” I wrote when I was in my early 20's. The rest of the songs were written in late 2020 and the first half of 2021.

I’ve chosen the habit that I’m dropping / Coming down’s exhausting / I think I need some help. - “This Far South”

Marissa: that lyric - coming down's exhausting, I think I need some help. A lot of power in saying that, or in hearing other people say it.

Tommy: Absolutely. I spent several years pretty lost in partying, hanging with the wrong crowd, and leading a life of a man I didn’t want to be.

Natalie: Seems like it might have been kind of a challenging (or at least emotional) feeling to revisit in the studio - sort of relating to an earlier version of yourself.

Tommy: That part of my life catapulted me into making a huge life change, that ultimately landed me where I am now. “This Far South” is about the promise I made to myself to be the person I want to be

Marissa: That leads well into this song we're hearing now - “Reach The Sun.”

Tommy: This song is about my wife talking me down from a panic attack. I had one in the middle of the night when I was about to fly to my first ever headlining show in the US.

Marissa: Do you still feel nervous on stage? It must be hard, because people probably expect that everything is in your "blood."

Tommy: I do and I don’t. I just had to change my perspective. I see it now as excitement. Because our minds and bodies can confuse anxiety, excitement, joy, sadness and a lot of other emotions for the same one. Sometimes for the big shows I will get a little nervous, but only because its such an intense amazing experience and your body and mind is getting ready for the adrenaline dump.

Marissa: Very true. Music is a great forum to capture all of that, too.

Tommy: It’s the only way I personally can! I always found it easier to write/sing than to talk things out.

Marissa: This song coming on now - “By The Way” - are you Ok to talk through it? You let us know. (This song was written about losing his father).

Can I breathe all of me into a bottle / And throw it in the sea / By the way, people say I look just like you. - “By The Way”

Tommy: Yeah, absolutely.

Natalie: What has the response to this one been like? Have any people stopped themselves from making the comparison since? I can only imagine how difficult that must be.

Tommy: I have definitely felt a shift this year, which I am very grateful for. I think people are starting to see me as someone who has their own story to tell. It took me a lot of takes for sure.

Marissa: As hard as I am sure it was to write a sing, it leaves you remembering to pick up the phone and call whoever we are lucky enough to still have around.

Tommy: Thats something that every artist hopes their music can bring out of other people. Connection.

Marissa: I also love how that song rolls right into this - from one emotion to another. And this song, “Mirror and a Kitchen Sink” is the one where you really let that connection people think of, to your dad, come through. So in that way its the most perfect sequencing.

Tommy: Absolutely! It’s my way of nodding towards the notion that although he is gone, he is still living on through his loved ones and his fans. And sequencing is literally a different art form.

So what’s the difference between you and me / I’ll tell you right now it’s a couple teeth.

- “Mirror and a Kitchen Sink”

Natalie: This is maybe medium tangential, but having kind of ambient background noise/singalong sounds in recordings is one of my favorite things.

Tommy: Haha yes!!! So that’s actually just 20ish different takes of me and Ruston goofing around in a vocal booth. So it sounds like there is an audience in a dive bar or something.

Marissa: There's a similar feel on “When I Get to Heaven,” two parts of one story.

Tommy: I love that! So this is “Boyhood,” which is one of the two I wrote years before even thinking about being an artist.

Marissa: This makes me very verkelmpt because I think of my kids.

Tommy: I wanted to channel the feeling of being in the woods with my brother as a kid. Where the world is full of wonder and hope and all you can think of is "I can’t wait to grow up."

Marissa: But you weren't full ready to embrace what it meant to be an artist?

Tommy: Yeah, I just never thought about it until Gena and Ruston gave me the validation I needed.

Marissa: This one - “Some Things” - came out of a write at the Carter Family home, yes?

Tommy: Yeah, we hadn't even unpacked our bags and this song just fell out of us. This is the other co-write with Ruston.

Marissa: How does that happen? You just immediately feel compelled to write? As a non-songwriter, that process is so mystical to me.

Tommy: In my opinion, songs are like time and space. All things always were and always will be. 'Some Things' was waiting for us in that home. We just were the vessels it realized itself through.

Marissa: And in such a historically heavy space, obviously!

Tommy: Absolutely! The energy is palpable all throughout that property.

Marissa: This song, “Letter to My Brother,” is so beautiful and haunting. So many of us have lost people to addiction. And again, you nod to your dad here lyrically, by referencing “Sam Stone.” And on a song that sounds so very you.

So how was your night with Sam Stone? / You don’t have to be alone, come home / Please come home /

And I think we could save the world / I’m sorry for the fighting words /I get scared when you’re not you / I’m through, cause I’ve been there too

-“Letter to My Brother”

Tommy: Yeah, I know that there are millions of people out there who know that pain. It felt necessary to put this on the album. I did that as a nod to my dad, but also to say that I am proud of my name and my family. But that doesn’t mean I have to pretend to be someone else.

Marissa: It must have been something recording this with Ruston as well, knowing what he has overcome. Some make it, others don't.

Natalie: "I get scared when you're not you" is really deep.

Marissa: What a line that is - so simple and yet says it all. "I know that it's not your fault" is such an important line too.

Tommy: It’s one that is easily forgotten, I believe that addiction is not the person- it’s a disease.

Marissa: Absolutely. We're on “Cash Carter Hill” here and I love how the production on your voice is a little different than everything before.

Tommy: For sure! Its front and center and kind of echo-ey.

Marissa: There's a hit of that lonesome sound in it...

Tommy: Lonesome but independent! It’s a story of the journey, one that we all have to endure to find out who we truly are.

Natalie: I think it makes a lot of sense to kind of confront the legacy thing head-on — maybe this is kind of a reach, but I keep thinking of John and Ravi Coltrane, just because your dad is certainly as revered as John.

Tommy: Absolutely! I won’t shy away from it. It’s who I am.

Natalie: A huge challenge I'm sure, but bold and smart.

Tommy: This was SO fun to record

Marissa: It must have been, I love how it builds from quieter and fiddle to then this huge moment we're hearing now.

Tommy: This is another one I day dream about playing live with a band.

Marissa: You could get a five minute wild jam going on that one! And ending the record on such a beautiful, timeless love song. “I Love You, Always.”

Tommy: Shout to Mrs Savannah Prine!! I ended the album with this to show that no matter the darkness, the trauma, the hardship- hope and love are always around the corner. Just keep going.

Marissa: Did she hear the song as you worked through it, or did you just play her the finished version?

Tommy: I played it for her when it was finished, I had written a song for her when we started dating but I needed something better. so I whipped up “I Love You, Always.”

Marissa: sealed the deal I bet, ha.

Tommy: Sure did! She said yes!!

Natalie: Having reached the end of the album, is there anything big picture that you're hoping listeners will take away from it?

Tommy: I hope that people listen to this album, and feel something they may have shut out for a period of time. I hope that they pick up the phone and tell someone they love them, I hope that they find a path to the brighter things, I hope that the music finds someone lost and guides them back home. Thats what I hope for everyone in my life, and this album is my way of spreading that hope to anyone and everyone.

Natalie: for sure, that is a lovely sentiment.

Marissa: You definitely hear that and feel that. I found the record really has such a gift of using the dark moments to bring on lightness, but in a perfectly subtle way. Nothing is just about one emotion, they are all complex, and the light comes with the dark. Happy and sad at the same time! to quote Ms. Musgraves.

Tommy: Absolutely! The human experience is not an easy one, but because it's not easy means that it makes way for some beautiful moments. It’s all worth it for those beautiful moments.

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A quick note: our subscriber-only live Zoom Q&A with Amanda Shires has an updated date and time: this Thursday, July 13 at 3:30 p.m. CT! There’s still time to subscribe to join!