A quartet of Ottawa Valley singer-songwriters have teamed up to put on two shows on one night in December devoted to the music of John Prine.
The John Prine Christmas Party takes place at the OVC coffeehouse in historic downtown Almonte on Saturday Dec. 9. Prine, who passed away from Covid in 2020, left a songwriting legacy that Bob Dylan praised as “pure Proustian existentialism,” and “Midwestern mind trips to the nth degree.”
John Prine is also one of Nathan Sloniowski’s heroes. So the co-founding member of The Ragged Flowers folk band and past member of Illegal Smile, a J.P. cover band invited three of his most “Prinetastic” musical friends to join him for a set of sing-along classics and deep cuts.
“I belong to a John Prine fan group, and there was a lot of activity tied to John’s birthday in October, including an amazing show called ““You Got Gold: Celebrating the Songs of John Prine” by the Prine family. It got me thinking that we need a celebration of John’s music here in the Ottawa Valley,” said Nathan. “I love how different artists interpret the Prine songbook. So I called up Jess Winskell and Tyler Craig, a couple of friends I play with in the Almonte Song Circle Collective, and reached out to Vicki Brittle, a rising star based out of Clayton. They all said YES, and I’m thrilled to experience their takes on John’s music.”
Presented in two separate shows on one night in the century-old wood-and-brick surroundings of OVC Almonte, Vicki, Jessica, Tyler and Nathan are going to swap tunes in an intimate song circle format. They’ll channel the goodwill of the Christmas season to unwrap musical gifts from a legend who earned the enduring admiration of not just Dylan but Bonnie Raitt, Gordon Lightfoot, Elvis Costello and loyal fans around the world.
General admission tickets are currently 50% sold and available for $19.46 (the number is the year of John Prine’s birth) at Ticketsplease.ca. The early show has doors open at 6PM and starts promptly at 6:30PM. The late show has doors open at 8PM and starts at 8:30PM sharp. OVC Almonte will have beers, ciders, charcuterie, warm brown drinks and other snacks on offer.
