John Prine has released a new video in which he trades verses on his 1971 classic Paradise with Kentucky-raised country singer Kelsey Waldon.
The song will be released as a 7 vinyl single, with the B-side featuring a cover of the Merle Travis song Kentucky Means Paradise. The recording makes the first time Prine and Waldon, who has toured with Prine in recent years, recorded in a studio together.
Paradise has for years served as Prines encore, typically performed alongside whoever opened the show. Pure, classic country, downright bluegrass in both lyric and melody, read a 1971 Rolling Stone description of the song, with a tale of how the coal company ruined the beautiful land in Western Kentucky.
Although he grew up in the Chicago area, Prine, like Waldon, has family roots in the Bluegrass State. One time I went to school and they asked us all to find out where our roots were, Prine told Rolling Stone in 2017. Its goin around the class, and the kids were going, Im Swedish-German or Im English-Irish. They got to me and I said, Pure Kentuckian.
Waldon, who has released several records independently, will be releasing her new album White Noise/White Lines on Prines Oh Boy label on October 4th.