Table of Contents

Introduction

1. Special Delivery
2. Thursday's Child
3. Call of Duty
4. Open-Mike Night
5. In the King's Footsteps
6. Singers and Songwriters
Interlude: Talking New Bob Dylan
7. Scattered, Smothered, and Covered
8. Tangled Up in Blue
9. Seeking Asylum
10. Oh Boy
11. Tunnel of Love
12. Into the Great Wide Open
13. A Close Shave
14. Your Flag Decal Still Won't Get You into Heaven
15. Next to the Last True Romantic

Acknowledgments
Select Discography
Select Bibliography

Promotional Information

"Prine's stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mindtrips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs." -- Bob Dylan, Huffington Post "A richly imagistic Midwestern everyguy whose languid good nature defied singer-songwriter smugness." -- Rolling Stone "A songwriter's songwriter." -- Pitchfork

About the Author

Eddie Huffman, a regular contributor to the Greensboro (NC) News & Record and the Winston-Salem (NC) Journal, has written for Rolling Stone, the New York Times, Utne Reader, All Music Guide, Goldmine, the Virgin Islands Source, and many other publications.

Reviews

"This book provides behind-the-scenes history of the music industry and engaging anecdotes about musicians, writers and actors, some with whom Prine only rubbed shoulders, and others with whom he built life-long friendships."
*No Depression*

"The unlikely success of the reluctant performer makes for fascinating reading."
*Kirkus Reviews *

"Weaving well-known biographical details (Prine was a mail carrier in Chicago when he got his start) into meticulous sketches of the making of each album—and reviews of those albums—Huffman offers an admiring portrait of an often restless though always canny songwriter... Huffman’s book will make us want to pick up Prine’s albums and listen to them once again or for the first time."
*Publishers Weekly*

"An excellent new biography by Eddie Huffman."
*The Telegraph (UK)*

"North Carolina music journalist Eddie Huffman wrote the first-ever biography of Prine that traces the musician from his family roots in Kentucky through struggles with alcohol and cancer in his adult life, to where he stands in the music scene today."
*The State of Things - WUNC*

"...an entertaining and worthwhile read for anyone looking for an introduction to the music of the singing postman."
*Rebeat*

"I started, with high hopes, to read Huffman’s book. I wasn’t disappointed . . . This veteran music journalist knows how to write."
*Winston-Salem Journal*

"…provid(es) insight into the singer's most significant musical works…Huffman does a good job of conveying his subject’s personality, motivations, and ambitions, and he fills the narrative with humor, mostly by quoting Prine himself."
*Choice*

" ...a revealing 2015 biography of the acclaimed mailman-turned-singer-songwriter..."
*The Washington Post*