John Prine died on April 7 due to complications from the coronavirus, and the folk music legend will be honored two months after his death with an online tribute concert in June. The livestream tribute Picture Show: A Tribe Celebrating John Prine, organized by Prine’s family, will stream live on Facebook and YouTube on June 11 at 7:30 p.m. ET. The event will be produced by the Prine family and Oh Boy Records and will include Prine’s family and friends sharing memories and performing the late musician’s songs.
The event will raise money for organizations including the National Alliance on Mental Illness and Alive, a grief center in Middle Tennessee providing free counseling sessions to anyone in the area who has had a family member die of COVID-19. Participating guests, who will include “musicians, actors, and friends remembering our beloved JP,” have not yet been announced. In addition to the livestream, the second annual All the Best Fest, a music festival in the Dominican Republic that was scheduled for Nov. 2020 and had Prine as a headliner, will also honor the late artist. The event has been moved to May 2021 and will now serve as a tribute to Prine with artists including Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, Steve Earle, Margo Price, Iris DeMent, John Hiatt, I’m With Her, and members of Prine’s backing band.
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“We look forward to being with you all to remember and celebrate your friend and our beloved husband, dad, and grandpa,” Prine’s widow, Fiona Prine, said in a statement about the festival, via Rolling Stone. “Please keep yourselves safe and healthy until then. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for all your kind messages — they really help.”
Also this week, Prine was honored when a group of Recording Academy elected officials recorded his song “Angel From Montgomery” to benefit the organization’s MusiCares COVID-19 relief fund, which benefits those in need in the music industry during the coronavirus pandemic. The group of musicians/Grammy elected officials includes Christine Albert, Helen Bruner, Brandon Bush, John Driskell Hopkins, Tracy Hamlin, Tammy Hurt, Eric Jarvis, Terry Jones, Lee Levin, Susan Marshall, Jeff Powell, and Michael Romanowski, who recreated the song while in quarantine.
“John was a much-beloved country and folk singer/songwriter, with a very giving spirit. This project is a tribute to honor that spirit and, in turn, raise awareness for the work that MusiCares is doing to support music creators around the country affected by the COVID-19 pandemic,” Hurt, vice chair of the Recording Academy in a statement,” via Billboard. “The need is still so great and these times remain critical for music people.”
