Family bond continues to fuel the annual John Prine Tribute ‘Diamonds in the Rough’

Mery Steel can hardly remember a time when John Prine’s music wasn’t a part of her life, having been introduced to his deep catalogue by her father, Rick, who was a fan of the singer-songwriter long before he saw him perform in Canada decades ago.

“I saw him when I was not quite a kid, and I was at university in London, Ontario,” said Rick, who joined Mery for a late May interview ahead of the pair’s Prine Tribute, “Diamonds in the Rough,” now in its sixth year, which will take place at Natalie’s Grandview on Saturday, May 30. “He came through, apparently just after his first marriage breakup. And there were maybe 100 people in the audience, and he was up there on stage for a couple hours playing his songs. … And that was my live exposure to him, and that’s what he is to me, and that’s all I do, where I just sit and play guitar by myself most of the time. … And when I do John Prine songs, I’ve been doing it so long, it’s almost like breathing to me.”

These earliest solo guitar sessions eventually became duets when Steel began playing violin shortly after she turned 9-years-old, when Rick encouraged the youngster to accompany him as he played acoustic Prine covers. “And so, we started playing in the living room after dinner – that kind of thing – and that’s how I learned to improvise,” said Steel, who will be backed for her set at “Diamonds in the Rough” by a string band that includes her father. “And that’s where I learned these John Prine songs. You just kind of absorb them when they’re around you, so when Dad starts playing ‘Souvenirs’ or ‘Clocks and Spoons,’ I just know how they go, you know?”

While Rick said he was initially drawn to the simplicity inherent to Prine’s music – “I knew the same three chords he knew,” he said, and laughed – the lyrical depth present in Prine’s songs revealed itself more gradually, his plainspoken words often reflecting larger universal truths. “He has these insights about other people and the things going on around him that are self-revelatory,” Rick said. “So, when he sings his best songs, I often find I’m speaking to myself, changing myself in little ways. And there are not many people who can do that.”

These are the moments Steel said she is more often drawn toward in Prine’s music, sharing that while she enjoys his comic turns, it’s those sentimental moments that speak more directly to her. “I feel like those are the songs that put me in this humanitarian space, where I’m occupying somebody else’s reality,” she said. “And that’s what I’m trying to do all the time, and it’s my favorite thing to do, where I’m trying to understand why somebody did something. And his songs just give you such a beautiful angle on where people are coming from when they’re experiencing joy or pain or regret.”

Launched by the father-daughter duo at Rambling House in January 2020, “Diamonds in the Rough” moved to Natalie’s for this year’s iteration, taking over both stages with a lineup that includes RJ Cowdery, Joey Viola, Andicus, Donna Mogavero, The Hen & the Crow, Paul Monnin, Heartbreak Orchestra, The Bloomin’ Runyons, Maura Streppa, Drawknife, Sean Marshall, Haunted, West Taylor, Neal Havenar Band, Jenny Morgan, and the aforementioned Steel String Band, which performed at farmers’ markets a handful of times in recent months as a means to develop camaraderie and to help promote the concert.

Steel said that performing Prine songs alongside her father can serve as a means of time travel, with certain tunes spinning her backwards to the days when they first performed them together in the living room. 

“It’s just the best, and I don’t even know how to elaborate on that,” said Steel, who described the experience of playing alongside her father as a way to maintain a connection to the family lineage that she felt somewhat distanced from after moving to the United States from Canada as a youngster. “It’s not a guarantee that when your nuclear family of three moves away from [an extended] family of 80 that you’re going to have talent to share, and I feel like playing these songs together, it’s an ancestral experience. I feel like I’m tapping into the lineage of my family and the preciousness of the connection of family when I play this stuff with Dad. And also, we sound so damn good.”