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In Spite of Ourselves (John Prine/Iris DeMent cover)

In Spite of Ourselves (John Prine/Iris DeMent cover)

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TitleIn Spite of Ourselves (John Prine/Iris DeMent cover)
Authorkentuckydave in idaho
Duration2:51
File FormatMP3 / MP4
Original URL https://youtube.com/watch?v=4Ult1XCUG44

Description

JP tribute #49: No Prine tribute would be complete without “In Spite of Ourselves”. It stands as one of Prine’s funniest songs and it is many of his fans’ absolute favorite. It was starting to look like it might not make it into my tribute, but I ended up capturing this semi-spontaneous (different story) recording yesterday. It’s as good as it was going to get with audio from a phone camera, complete with background noise and oblivious dogs. And If it was going to happen, it was going to be a single take, be at peace with the mistakes, and just roll with it kind of deal. It ended up pretty funny, and we got through it “in spite of ourselves”. We practiced for about 15 minutes and this was actually the second legitimate take, I believe.

This is the title track from his 1999 album of country duets. It was the only original song on that collection, all the others being classic country duets and he was able to line up the likes of Emmylou Harris, Lucinda Williams, Patty Loveless, Trisha Yearwood, and Connie Smith, among others, to sing the “girl verses”. But it was Iris DeMent who stole the show on this track and several others. At this point, it had been several years since he had done any original material, and he had just recently survived squamous cell carcinoma of the neck, diagnosed in early 1998. The surgery, radiation, and subsequent year of rehabilitation had left him with a different appearance and a different voice. Recording this album of almost entirely covers was a way for him to get back into singing and performing. Critics and fans largely loved it, for good reason.

He wrote this song at the request of Billy Bob Thornton, to play over the closing credits of one of Billy Bob’s films called “Daddy and Them”. In the film, Prine actually had a role, playing the brother of Billy Bob’s character, and their father was played by Andy Griffith. I’m paraphrasing, but on one of his live albums he said something to the effect “That makes Opie my step-brother.” He said somewhere along the way that “In Spite of Ourselves” is loosely based on some characters in the film. Ironically, the film was not released for a couple of years, and again paraphrasing Prine telling the story prior to playing it live, he said “It went straight to Blockbuster”. The story also goes that Iris DeMent was not that keen on the song at first and had reservations about even recording it, but pretty quickly came around. They performed it together, along with 4 other duets from the album, in early 2000 in the 3rd season of the short-lived public television show called Sessions at West 54th. Another favorite of mine, John Hiatt, was the host of the program that season. They totally owned it and it was clear that John was rounding into a comfort level with his new voice. It was around this point that the trio of Prine, Jason Wilber on lead guitar, and Dave Jacques on bass was established as the new core for live performances. Both had toured with John prior and appeared on the 1997 “Live on Tour” album, but from that point forward that combination was solidified and they toured pretty much every year up to his last live performance in February, 2020, in Paris, France.

In spite of ourselves, we’ll end up sittin’ on a rainbow
Against all odds, honey we’re the big door prize
We’re gonna spite our noses right off of our faces
There won’t be nothin’ but big ‘ol stars dancin’ in our eyes

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