PRINE ON PRINE, event moderated by Alec Wightman with performance by Parker MacDonell

Please Note:

Holly Gleason, our guest of honor, has reached out from her Nashville sickbed (where she may have COVID) to let us know she is not going to be able to make it to Columbus. However, the show will go on and we still plan to celebrate her book and the work of John Prine. Alec Wightman, who was otherwise going to be “in conversation” with Holly, will share some interesting highlights from PRINE ON PRINE and Parker MacDonell (along with special guest Donna Mogavero) will perform some memorable John Prine songs as he originally planned. Gramercy Books will still be on hand to deliver previously ordered books and have some on hand for sale. Below see more details about this exciting event.

This literary and musical evening will celebrate Gleason’s book  Prine on Prine: Interviews and Encounters with John Prine! This carefully curated set of interviews is a near autobiography of one of our greatest songwriters. 

Please note that Prine on Prine can be purchased in advance along with tickets to the event, as well as purchased directly from Gramercy Books in Bexley via this link: https://www.gramercybooksbexley.com/book/9781641606301. Gramercy Books will also be on site at Natalie’s to sell copies of PRINE ON PRINE. 

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 RonniLundy’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.

Holly Gleason is a music critic, academic, and artist development consultant. Her work has appeared in Rolling Stone, Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Miami Herald, Musician, CREEM, Oxford American, and NPR Music. The 2019 Country Music Association Media Achievement Award recipient and a SOURCE Hall of Fame inductee, she created and contributed to Woman Walk The Line: How the Women of Country Music Changed Our Lives, the 2018 Belmont Book Award winner. She is also the coauthor of Miranda Lambert’s Y’all Eat Yet? She lives in Nashville, Tennessee.

Alec Wightman’s passion and knowledge of music, particularly rock and roll, runs long and deep, as revealed in his 2021 memoir, Music in My Life. By day, Alec is a partner in the national law firm, BakerHostetler. But during his free time, his Zeppelin Productions, Inc. promotes national act concerts at Natalie’s, and he’s been doing that since 1995. He’s also a longtime member of the Board of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, where he served three years as Chair. 

Parker MacDonell has been using his original songs, voice, and acoustic guitar to communicate with audiences for years.  A veteran of the Los Angeles club scene and college student unions across the United States, Parker has released four recordings: Miracle on Broad Street with Matt Munhall (2017), The Present Tense (2012), Looking For You (1985), and Home to the Heart (1983).  His two recent recordings are available on Spotify and Apple Music.

Food & Bar: Our full food and drink menu will be available before and during the event.