Chicago Area Native John Prine Wins 2 Posthumous GRAMMY Awards, Is Honored With Performance By Brandi Carlile
LOS ANGELES (CBS/AP) -- Chicago area native John Prine won two posthumous GRAMMY Awards on Sunday for Best American Roots Performance and Best American Roots song for his last recording, "I Remember Everything."
The late singer-songwriter was also honored during the televised portion of the GRAMMYS on CBS, as Brandi Carlile performed the song.
Prine died last April of complications from COVID-19.
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He was a native of west suburban Maywood, and launched his career in Chicago during the folk revival movement of the 1960s. He took classes as a young man at the Old Town School of Folk Music, and was a regular performer in nearby folk clubs.
Prine's own website notes that in 1970, he was playing at a long-defunct Chicago folk club called The Fifth Peg, located on Armitage Avenue near the Old Town School's Lincoln Park site that remains in operation to this day. It so happened that Roger Ebert dropped in.
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"At the time, Prine was a 23-year-old mailman who had been singing his original songs every Thursday night for about two months," Prine's website says. "Ebert wrote a glowing review for the Chicago Sun-Times, essentially launching Prine's music career."
Prine's best-known songs include "Angel from Montgomery," "Paradise," "Hello in There," and "Sam Stone" – the last about a Vietnam soldier who dies of a drug overdose.
Prine also won countless awards in his lifetime, including two Grammys.
(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)