Customer Reviews

Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings

5 star:		(21)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Although not intuitively obvious from the title, Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings is an album of love songs. Ranging from the cynical We are the Lonely, derived from the "personals" craze of the 90's ("SWF with breasts so large, takes Visa, AMEX and Mastercharge") to the soulful Leave the Lights On, from the whimsical Humidity Built the Snowman to the gut wrenching This Love is Real, Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings is classic Prine. These songs are characterized by highly melodic undertones, crisp, intelligent lyrics and highly professional musicianship and production values.

To be honest, I've never understood why Prine never mad it big. He produces songs that work, as exemplified by the huge number of covers of his work. He has an infectious personality and it a tremendous stage performer. He produces albums where you actually want to listen to every single song, as opposed to most albums where you spend as much time skipping through the junk as you do listening to the one or two halfway decent songs on the album.

John Prine is a songwriter and storyteller of the first order, and this is one of his all time best albums. Take a pass on all the garbage out there and make John Prine one of your regulars-you'll never regret that you did.

Indeed, when the critics brand an up-and-coming songwriter "the new Bob Dylan", it gives the artist a complex he may never live down, and a career that's anything but distinguished. However, John Prine is one of those unlucky "neo-Dylans" that not only took that label in stride, but slowly trampled over it. Like most songwriters, Prine's songs have been famous thanks to other artists, while he himself has been restricted to cult status. The title of LOST DOGS & MIXED BLESSINGS is an appropriate summing up of Prine's career, which has seen its fair share of hills and valleys, but resulted in him still alive & kicking. With his most recent recordings, Prine has adopted a more traditional country sound that has turned out to be a great background for his offbeat lyrics and even more sardonic delivery. Songs like the acronym-heavy "We Are The Lonely", the smartly-written "Leave The Lights On", and the easy-to-sing-along "Big Fat Love" are both catchy and original enough to have won some airplay on country radio stations not just by Prine himself, but maybe by Dwight Yoakam or George Strait.. The same goes for well-sung favorites like the infectious opener "New Train", the bluesy "Ain't Hurtin' Nobody" and the sarcastic "Same Thing Happened To Me". Like Dylan, Prine's music has its share of idiosyncrasies, with even the most heartfelt statements being delivered with a slight tongue-in-cheek. BLESSINGS contains "Humidity Built The Snowman", "Lake Marie", "Quit Hollerin' At Me" and "He Forgot That It Was Sunday", which all sound like ordinary ballads, but still contain the heavily-veiled wordplay of his uptempo songs. Then again, there are beautiful love songs that are more straightforward like "This Love Is Real" (featuring a guest appearance by Marianne Faithfull), "All The Way With You", "Day Is Done", and the closing "I Love You So Much It Hurts". I'll bet John Prine still has quite a few great songs up his sleeve, but at this point in his career, he can stand to take some years off before coming up with something new. After this, Prine returned with the mostly-covers album IN SPITE OF OURSELVES. So until another original album comes along, LOST DOGS & MIXED BLESSINGS will be ample proof that John Prine had loads of potential at the beginning of his career, and three decades later, he's still got a lot to accomplish.

Listening to this album and other greats by John Prine, I may be forever puzzeled as to why many consider JP's music as being in a Cult Status. Comparisons to Dylan & others, in my view are extremely unfair. John Prine sounds like one of the Few True Originals to me. Just about every tune on Lost Dogs + Mixed Blessing is worthy of attention, while, and you know I am right about this, just about every other artist puts out an album with 1 or 2 good tunes and a lot of fill. We Are The Lonely and Big Fat Love are Cranked-up Rockers while the other tunes are a good mix of music and lyrics that Can't be put into any one category. John's music is a good contemporary blend of a lot of styles, which indeed has the overall qualities which again, equal originality. Why I think someone like John Prine gets considered as Cult Status is because for years radio stations and record stores put him along with other great artists such as Buffy Sainte-Marie into obscure, out of the way, Folk Music Bins and while the mainstream record hunter was looking in the rock or country sections of stores they were not seeing great offerings such as John Prine. Now in the age of the PC we have a much better chance of discovering new interests/items or finding what we're searching for.
Lost Dogs And Mixed Blessings is just one of many Great John Prine albums and it's a great example of why John Prine does not need to be compared to anyone else. His music is Great on it's own.

Ok, so I stole the title from one of his albums. Sorry, John. Another long-time Prine fan here (have been hooked ever since "The Accident" back in 1976). Not surprisingly, this one became another of my favorite albums. I don't know how he does it, but the sentiments he expresses in his music seem to follow my life. Maybe that's because his music isn't cookie-cutter, "perfectly crafted popular hit songs" and is open to so much varying interpretation, there's always something there that I relate to at any particular time. And it always makes me think. Sometimes his meaning (or my best guess at his meaning) doesn't become clear for years. "Lake Marie" is one of my favorites on this one. First heard it during my divorce, when John sings about being up in Canada, "trying to save our marriage, or catch a few fish, whatever comes first." He has lifted my spirits and brought so many smiles to my face over so many years and through so much turmoil. I'll always be so grateful that he didn't make a lifelong career out of delivering "more junk mail than the junkyard could hold." If you're a Prine fan you will probably love this one. If you're not a Prine fan, or you're not sure, it's anyone's guess. John Prine isn't for everyone - if he was, I'd probably hate him.

Like a good book or film an album requires a beginning which immediately requires attention,interest and the wonder about whats next.This album certainly meets that criteria,with the raunchy,gritty, country rock "New Train"as a gripping opener, and from that first to last is a winner. I only recently came across John Prine when he guested on "Crown Of Jewels" and performed a most enjoyable rendition of" City Of New Orleans" with Randy Scruggs ; this was certainly instrumental in my buying"Lost Dogs". There must,I would think, be something for everyone in this selection; ballads like "Lake Marie"and"Humidity Built The Snowman"are superbly performed and like the entire album the musical arrangements are top drawer. Humour is much in evidence throughout, although it must be noted that it moves between surreal and weird at times;no complaints from me as it is invariably thought provoking ,clever and in some cases both, like"Same Thing Happened To Me" or"He Forgot That It Was Sunday". My favourite track,by a whisker from those noted,is "Day Is Done"clever lyrics,haunting vocals and a simple yet effective musical accompaniment,my highlight in a very satisfying and enjoyablle musical experience.Try John Prine, I"m sure like me you will not be disappointed.

Having been a fan and a follwer of JP since the 70's(a stark contrast to my love for Jethro Tull and the Who), this recording by Prine is the best I've heard this decade. There are no new artists that can combine both lyrics and music the way that Prine can, although I doubt that today's teens and twenty-somethings look at disc sleeves for lyrics. The album is mostly rockers and is well produced with a driving beat and great guitar leads. Like all Prine records, after the second listening you'll be singing along and nodding your head everytime he hits you with his simple worldly truisms. Bravo Prine!

When I was 5 years old my parents had split and an Aunt was in care. On several occaisions I was sent by my Aunt, "to the attic" in punishment for being a bad boy. The attic was a big wide-open space with lots of piles of stuff stored there. Whilst spending the hours of my punishment time in that desolate expanse of the attic on one particular day, I found a pile of my parents records collection next to a small record player. I looked at the unplugged end and quickly put two and two together and knew how to plug it into a nearby outlet. In those hours I listened to records by Frank Sinatra and Doris Day and Jim Reeves and Patsy Cline and many others, but what caught my ear and sent me along in life in pursuit of collecting and enjoying music was a 45rpm record by Johnny Cash. That record was the story of my own parents love-life: on one side: There you go, you're gone again, I should have known, I couldn't win, There you go, you're by his side, you're gonna break another heart, you're gonna tell another lie....On the other side was a song called Train Of Love, in the song, the Train Of Love is leavin'....Johnny Cash's guitar twang sound got me started in my pusuit of music throughout the rest of my life. Through years later, several times, I had heard the name of John Prine, but it always seemed to be negative reveiws and those negative reveiws influenced me to turn a deaf ear to John Prine. Many more years went by until sometime in the 1990's my wife and I turned on PBS TV one night and saw John Prine performing the songs from his "The Missing Years" CD. We were awestruck as we watched and listened. We became "instant" John Prine fans. Afterwards I was quite angry about the negative John Prine reviews that had caught my attention through so many previous years. My wife and I went out and got all of John's Recordings on CD and we listened in bliss and still do to this day. And it was during that time I learned to never ever take the word of a negative reveiw again. John Prine is one of the best singer songwriters my wife and I have ever discovered (Thank You PBS). We like a ton of music from Johnny Cash to the Beatles and now also John Prine. Then I go to the record shop and there is John Prine off in an obscure corner in a Folk Record Bin. And I say to my dear wife.....If I ever run a record shop that will be the end of catagories. Let's just put everything in alphabetical layout. You want Frank Sinatra go to F you want Beatles go to B, etc, etc,......but my biggest beef is still with negative record reveiwers, as in another example: in a record magazine review I read: Neil Young can't play guitar. And now I think: Neil Young can't play guitar, but, geez you freakin butthead-if-there-ever-was-one-reveiw-writer: Neil Young has only written and performed a few thousand songs on his accoustic guitars, so if Neil Young can't play a guitar then Mr. Negative-Reveiw-Writer, you just Do Not Exist. OK, that said, back to John Prine. There are a few good Rock Tunes on Lost Dogs And Mixed Blessings. Of all of John Prine's CD's Wife and I's favorites are Lost Dogs And Mixed Blessings and The Missing Years........but we also like just about everything else John Prine has recorded so far. And another big plus for us was when we first learned about John Prine's association and collaborations with the Late, Great, Steve Goodman. Steve Goodman wrote one of the greatest tunes of all time: "City Of New Orleans". John Prine and Steve Goodman are great together. They were meant for each other. Check out Steve Goodman's "Affordable Art" CD and others and Like Wifey and I, You'll be happy.

I remember my dad got this when I was about six (and it first came out) and played it a lot, since then I've always liked it, and would say this is a great album with some unforgettable lyrics.

A real winner of a CD. One of my favorites. Lake Marie is a superbly written song. The rest of the cuts are very good also, there is honestly not a bad cut on the CD or one that have to hit the Next Song button on. Others have given descriptions that I don't need to repeat. Get this and enjoy it!

I enjoy the talent of John Prine,our view points seem to run along paralell line's. The CD,Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings,is a good listener,if you like John Prine. The creative jucie's seem to be a bit restrained here,yet the Prine talent always comes through. That is why I find it problematic in chosing a favorite,
each song speaks something different to and at different levels of heart,mind and soul. "New Train," and "Lake Marie,"are nearly impossible to compare due to the subject matter,at least for me.In my opinion,He's done better,I just can't remember when. Should you disagree,I refer to the title.