Hoekstra, Dave
PRINE ON PRINE: INTERVIEWS AND ENCOUNTERS WITH JOHN PRINE
ABOUT THE BOOK
As close to an autobiography as we’re going to get from John Prine, Prine on Prine captures the inimitable, whimsical voice of one of our greatest songwriters . . . Nashville legend Holly Gleason knew the man and assembled this brilliant collection with a knowing eye and loving heart." —Joel Selvin, author of Fare Thee Well: The Final Chapter of the Grateful Dead's Long, Strange Trip and other books
Curated by a critic who knew him across five decades, Prine on Prine distills the essence of an iconic American writer: unguarded, unfiltered and real. In his own words, in his own time—on the road, in the kitchen, the Library of Congress, radio shows, movie scripts, and beyond.
John Prine hated giving interviews, but he said much when he talked. Embarrassed by fame, delighted by the smallest things, the first songwriter to read at the Library of Congress, and winner of the Pen Award for Literary Excellence, Prine saw the world unlike anyone else.
The songs from 1971’s John Prine remain spot-on takes of the human condition today, and his writing only got richer, funnier, and more incisive. The interviews in Prine on Prine trace his career evolution, his singular mind, his enduring awareness of social issues, and his acute love of life, from Studs Terkel’s radio interviews from the early ’70s to Mike Leonard’s Today Show packages from the ’80s, Cameron Crowe's early encounter to Ronni Lundy's Shuck Beans, Stack Cake cookbook, and Hot Rod magazine to No Depression’s cover story, through today.
Editor Holly Gleason enjoyed a longstanding relationship with Prine and his longtime co-manager, and she often traveled with him on tours in the late 1980s and represented him in the 2000s.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ave Hoekstra is a Chicago author-journalist.
He was a columnist-critic at the Chicago Sun-Times from 1985 through 2014, where he won 2013 Studs Terkel Community Media Award. He has contributed pieces to Chicago Magazine, the Chicago Reader and Playboy magazine.
Dave’s books include “The Supper Club Book,” “The People’s Place (Soul Food Restaurants and Reminiscences from the Civl Rights Era to Today” and “The Camper Book (A Celebration of a Moveable American Dream),” all published by Chicago Review Press.
Dave wrote and co-produced the WTTW-Channel 11 PBS special “The Staple Singers and the Civil Rights Movement,” nominated for a 2001-02 Chicago Emmy for Outstanding achievement for a Documentary Program—Cultural Significance. He also wrote and produced the full-length documentary “The Center of Nowhere (The Spirit and Sounds of Springfield, Mo.)” that made its world premiere in 2018 at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville and is available on Amazon, Comcast, Vimeo and other services.
He is Content Developer for “The State of Sound: A World of Music from Illinois,” opening April, 2021 at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, Ill.
He was writer and podcast host for “The State of Sound: A World of Music from Illinois,” which opened April, 2021 at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum in Springfield, and moved to Navy Pier in Chicago in the summer of 2023.
His current book is “Beacons in the Darkness (Hope and Transformation Among America’s Community Newspapers)” [Agate, 2022].
Dave likes sunsets over cool waters.
