eMusic Review 0
John Prine's never been a guy for grand gestures or fancy flourishes. When a woman enchants him, it's the little things that catch his attention. “She uses Eveready batteries to keep/ Her electrical appliances going steady,” he sings in “She Is My Everything,” setting a new standard for finding poetry in the mundane. Fair & Square, as its title implies, eschews emotional extremes in favor of a tone of acceptance and resignation; released in 2005, it was his first album of new material after his recovery from neck cancer.
In “Taking a Walk,” a protagonist brimming with anger avoids blowing his stack by casually exiting threatening situations. And in “Clay Pigeons” — written by the late Texan Blaze Foley — a character forces himself, slowly and tentatively, to re-engage with a world that's left him feeling bitter and isolated. The production, by Prine with engineer Gary Paczosa, is suitably low-key: the band finds a groove, establishes a melody, then steps back to let the pickers do their thing. Fair & Square isn't as revelatory as Prine's 1991 classic, The Missing Years, but it finds glory in subdued moments, and offers insight into the avoidance of risk.
