"It Was John Being John:" Fiona Prine Reminisces on John Prine's Seminal 'Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings' Amid Re-Issue

"You'll be leaving on a new train / Far away from this world of pain / And when you look out your window, you'll see / Your home, your baby and your family..."

The words to 'New Train', set against an easy jangle and told with a breezy confidence, kick off John Prine's 1995 opus, the Howie Epstein-produced Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings, and offer an open-hearted glimpse into the legendary singer-songwriter's life at that moment in time.

A first-time father. A new husband. An inaugural Grammy-winner, following the success of his 1991 work, The Missing Years. Those achievements, both personal and professional, seemed to all happen at once and would ultimately lend to an album that revealed Prine at his warmest, deepest and most prolific.

"I do think of it as a time when he felt he had more permission to explore," the late artist's wife, Fiona Prine, recalls, referring to that exciting, ever-changing era as the "good old days".

There was no pressure to follow-up his previous award-winning successes or chase another Grammy for the mantle. His wife, instead, remembers a man thrilled with life and eager to showcase that in his new music.

"All I remember around that time was he had this big grin on his face," Fiona says. This is something that would be reflected back throughout Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings and can still be experienced across the album as it gets re-issued today.

Three decades after its debut, Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings has been re-issued digitally, as well as on vinyl for the very first time, by Prine's own Oh Boy Records. The deluxe edition features five previously unreleased demos, as well as a never-before-heard number, titled 'Hey Ah Nothin.'

Gifting fans a behind-the-scenes and even more personal look at the life and times of such a singular work, this re-release showcases an album and an artist in their truest forms: unguarded, honest and free.

"When I think about those songs, they reflect that whole period for me," Fiona says. "It was John being John."

Hopeful that listeners will revisit the collection and sit in quiet communion with the unparalleled songsmith, she shares, "I hope that people spend a little more time and linger a little longer with the lyrics ... I hope that now, 30 years later, there's an opportunity to really listen and hear all of that, and hear a man really at the top of his game."

His happiness certainly shines through, she adds. "But I think John Prine comes through above all."

John Prine's Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings (Deluxe Edition) is available now.

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