More than anything, John Prine was a songwriter’s songwriter. The late folk musician’s wit, humanity, and ability to spin a yarn through song has made him a favorite among the songwriting sect for more than 50 years. 

It was fitting, then, for a group of Prine’s acolytes and collaborators to gather for Songwriters Celebrate John Prine, a tribute concert at Wolf Trap on June 9 that kicked off a series of events that will commemorate what would have been Prine’s 80th birthday in October. Organized by Wolf Trap—where Prine played 20 times, starting 1972—and the Prine Family’s Hello in There Foundation, the one-off tribute show featured 10 acts that occupy space in the greater Americana scene: Emmylou Harris, Margo Price, Patty Griffin, I’m With Her, Lucius, Allison Russell, Hayes Carll, Jobi Riccio, Fancy Hagood, and Tommy Prine. (In a nice touch, Harris, Price, and Griffin each separately shared the stage with John during his final three appearances at the Virginia amphitheater and national park.)

The nearly three-hour show began with an introduction from John’s widow, Fiona Prine: “Tonight is all about honoring one of the most beloved songwriters of our time, my beloved, John Prine,” she said. “His music could be funny, heartbreaking, wise, and deeply human—sometimes all in one song.” 

Performers would echo that sentiment throughout the night as they took turns fronting John’s longtime backing band, led by guitarist Jason Wilber, through some of John’s most indelible songs. Unlike many tribute shows, though, this wasn’t just a covers show. In a nod to John’s ability to cultivate emerging artists through his label, Oh Boy Records, each artist would cover a song, then play one of their own. 

The show began at the end of John’s career with Jobi Riccio, a winner of the John Prine Songwriter Fellowship Award, who covered “Summer’s End,” the mournful yet hopeful centerpiece of his final album The Tree of Forgiveness. John recorded it when he was in his 70s; Riccio is still in her 20s, which presented the song in a new light.

Riccio was one of seven female acts on the 10-artist bill. John recorded two albums of duets with female singers and his most well-known song, “Angel From Montgomery,” was made famous by Bonnie Raitt, so his songs have always been gender-fluid. Still, it was interesting to hear many of them with a female voice, even if the covers were mostly faithful thanks to the house band. 

Lucius in particular stole the show with a sublime reading of “Hello in There.” Singers Jess Wolfe and Holly Laessig traded verses before uniting as one voice on the ballad about the isolation of aging that John wrote when he was just 22. I’m With Her—Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O’Donovan—then joined to sing backup on a showstopping take on Lucius’ own “Dusty Trails.” 

Watkins, Jarosz, and O’Donovan, who earlier covered “Bruised Orange (Chain of Sorrow)” and performed their Prine-inspired “Wild and Clear and Blue,” would also lend backing vocals to Allison Russell’s yet-to-be-released Americana soul track “Really Real.” Russell and her partner, JT Nero, who introduced her to John’s music early in their courtship, took on “Everything Is Cool” from The Missing Years. “You’re experiencing five emotions at the same time that you shouldn’t be experiencing at the same time in a song,” Nero said of the first time he heard it. “That’s what John could do.”

Country outsider Margo Price recalled having to scale the gates of Wolf Trap in high heels at 2:30 a.m. to get back to her bus to cap a late-night of drinking with John and Fiona after she opened for him in 2018. In addition to her own “Screw You and the Horse You Rode in On”—a song she thinks John would have liked were he still around—Price did faithful readings of two songs from John’s self-titled 1971 debut that got some of the biggest applause of the night: the quirky protest song “Your Flag Decal Won’t Get You Into Heaven Anymore” and the eternal “Angel From Montgomery.” 

The near-capacity crowd erupted when Emmylous Harris and Hayes Carll came out to duet on “In Spite of Ourselves,” the playful love song John recorded with Iris DeMent. Carll, who later sang “Illegal Smile,” John’s ode to the quiet joys in a world that doesn’t make sense, sounded eerily like John in a way that stood out among the female-led interpretations. 

“I was 18 when I discovered John Prine,” Carll said. “He opened up my world in ways I’m still sorting out today. I knew he was cool. I knew he was funny. I knew he was deep. But as I get older, I see more and more of the humanity and grace that he put into the songs that allow me to see the world in a better way.” 

Had John not died in 2020, he would have played Wolf Trap again in 2021 with Harris, which added extra weight to her take on “Speed of the Sound of Loneliness.” 

The night ended with one of John’s sons, Tommy Prine, who didn’t start pursuing a career in music until after his father passed. Wearing a Nine Inch Nails t-shirt, Tommy performed “Far From Me,” which he noted was “the one song that I was like, damn, I wish I wrote that,” alongside a song he wrote about his dad, “Ships in the Harbor,” neither of which sounded like his father. 

John ended nearly every concert he played with “Paradise,” so the only way to end this tribute was for Tommy to lead all of the night’s performers—and the audience—in a sing-a-long of the folk anthem, capping a well-run and fitting tribute to one of America’s great songwriters. 

“We need John’s songs more than ever,” Harris said during her set. “He feeds our souls but he also reminds us of the better angels of our nature.”