Hard to believe singer-songwriter John Prine is gone, a victim of coronavirus.

Maybe, like some of Joni Mitchell’s songs, Prine’s work will someday appear in the eighth grade anthology of literature, and teens at the Sandpoint Middle School will study his words and listen to his music in the section on “Use of Imagery.” They will read his lyrics of universal truths about being human — loneliness, losing the love of your life, or getting old and invisible, and the teacher will play some of his songs.

Maybe, there will be a course in the college curricula — John Prine 300 — where students will write essays on topics such as which song is the saddest — “Sam Stone” or “Hello in There?” or a feminist perspective on “Angel from Montgomery.”

It may happen.

And pretty soon he and his guitar will probably be on a postage stamp, sitting in the kitchen with the yellow wallpaper with the pineapples on it.

The truth is, for many local musicians and residents, his memory will reside via his lyrics, in the heart.

Sandpoint has been so fortunate. He played the Panida years ago, and attendees up front saw him smoke while he played and sang while holding a lit cigarette, at the Festival of Sandpoint. And he wanted meatloaf after the show.

Sandy Bessler met Prine in the early ‘70s when she worked for Electra/Asylum Records.

“While talking to him one time, I said I wished I had a singing voice and he told me anyone can sing! Those kind, encouraging words always stayed with me. What an exceptional human being and an acute observer of life--the storyteller of my life, she said.

“The words to many of his songs had a big influence on me, including my motivation to move to Idaho,” Bessler said, and then she took the time to learn how to play guitar.

Jim Healey, host of KRFY, 88.5’s folk show on Thursdays at 9 p.m., said he caught John Prine only once in the songwriter’s long career of touring — at the Emerson Center in Bozeman, Montana, in the mid-1990s. By then, he said, Prine had a huge catalog of memorable songs from which to choose.

“I first came in contact with Prine with the release of his first album — John Prine — back in 1971. That album overflowed with unforgettable songs: ‘Sam Stone,’ ‘Hello in There,’ ‘Angel from Montgomery,’ and ‘Paradise.’ Prine has the amazing ability to encapsulate a life in a song. (Paradise was the name of Prine’s parents’ hometown in Muhlenberg County, Kentucky, that was destroyed

in1967 due to its proximity to a nearby coal-burning electric plant.)

Recently on an interview show, Prine said he wrote a lot of his songs when he worked as a mailman for five years. He came up with “ditties” while on his route. “Hello in There” was one of his first songs, and even he cried as he wrote it. He knew he had something because “tears don’t lie,” he said.

Healey said, “’When I get to Heaven’ — the final song on Prine’s last album, ‘The Tree of Forgiveness’ (2018) — is a joy. I can easily imagine John up in heaven sipping on a ‘vodka and ginger ale,’ smoking a ‘cigarette that is nine miles long,’ and entertaining God and the angelic choirs because he has done one hell of a fine job entertaining us here on Earth,” Healey said.

Sandpoint musician Mike Jewell saw John Prine the first time playing with Bonnie Raitt at a little bar in Georgetown in Washington, D.C., called the Cellar Door.

“I think the year was about 1968. I don’t think I was old enough to go in there at the time. I just knew it was a cool place to be and I heard these guys were good! I was just learning to play guitar myself back then. To this day it remains one of the most memorable shows I’ve seen, Jewell said.

“Back then I loved John’s song called ‘The Great Compromise.’ His songs were so good for beginning guitarists as they were mostly ‘three-chord wonders.’ At the time I was pretty much out of it and just thought that song was a funny country song about a guy and his girl. It wasn’t until about 10 years ago that I heard it and suddenly it dawned on me that it was about conscientious objectors during the Vietnam War! Now I really love it! I’m still pretty much out of it when it comes to song meanings, but I know when I love a song and I loved nearly all of John’s,” he said.

Jewell and his wife, Suzanne, flew to Nashville two years ago to attend a concert of Prine’s. “We love his music, his wit, and wisdom,” she said.

Eric and Jen Plummer of Sandpoint, both musicians, saw Prine perform in the mid-‘90s in Spokane “and it was his typical amazing show, Eric Plummer said.

“After seeing a Simon and Garfunkel tribute band in Spokane recently, we noticed an upcoming Prine concert on the marquee. What a bummer we won’t get to see that show. When driving to Missoula, (where both of their children attend university), we always turn off the tunes in Paradise, Montana and sing an acapella version of said song…’Mr. Peabody’s coal train done hauled it away.’ Such deep meaning in very simple, often humorous lyrics,” Plummer said, adding that any live show of his should be viewed on YouTube — “You can’t go wrong,” he added.

Ed Katz, a musician who lives in Paradise Valley with his wife, Jill, said Prine “did for me what any great poetry and music does, which is to make sense out of the world. Prine did this powerfully through fabulously framed characters and stories, he said.

“He could make powerful observations and encapsulate a whole range of emotions in a few words. Re-listening to some of his catalog in the past few days, I rediscovered the depth and beauty of his work. In some ways, he is a friend of 50 years. He made me think and reconsider, made me laugh, and made me cry to lose him,” Katz said.

Katz believes the song, “Angel from Montgomery” made popular by Bonnie Raitt, is spectacular writing, “every verse,” he said.

There’s flies in the kitchen. I can hear ‘em there buzzing.

And I ain’t done nothing since I woke up today.

How the hell can a person go to work in the morning

And come home in the evening, and have nothin’ to say?

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery

Make me a poster of an old rodeo.

Katz says he knows many men like the person described there, and he remembers searching and straining to recall one of those old pastel-colored rodeo posters when he first heard this song about a woman, so disappointed about the way her life has turned out — “Just give me one thing that I can hold on to, cause believing in this living is a hard way to go” are the next lines.

A recently retired Bonners Ferry High School science teacher whose robotics program has been recognized nationally many times, Katz was impacted by Prine’s song, “Spanish Pipedream” because it influenced he and Jill’s decision to leave New York City and move to Idaho in the ’70s.

“These were also the lyrics I sent to a friend when he asked about my reaction to the 2016 election: ‘Blow up your TV, throw away your paper, go to the country, build you a home. Plant a little garden, eat a lot of peaches, and try and find Jesus on your own,’” he said.

Woody Aunan, retired Sandpoint High School science teacher and musician, has hosted music at his house up Selle Road on Thursday nights for the past 35 years, playing his fiddle, guitar, and piano with many local musicians. He formerly played in public settings with Café Gas and recently the Powell brothers of Tonedevil Guitars “have graciously let me join them, but these days playing round my kitchen table is my preferred venue,” he said.

While attending the University of Wisconsin in Madison in the early ‘70s, Aunan heard Prine give a concert at the university’s Stock Pavilion. “It was just John and a guitar and a full house joining him on ‘You see me tonight with an illegal smile. It don’t cost very much, but it lasts a long while — the chorus comes back to me now.

“No one writes lyrics like Mr. Prine — a hole in Daddy’s arm where all the money goes — half an inch of water you think you’re going to drown — hello in there — lost Davey in the Korean War, still don’t know what for — the speed of the sound of loneliness — my old man is another child that’s grown old — you left my heart a vacant lot — I knew the topless lady had something up her sleeve, Aunan recounted. All prime Prine.

“I am sure he would appreciate all the attention on his death with that beautifully wry smile,” Aunan said.

Nancy Gerth is not a musician, but a book indexer, who lives on top of a mountain off-the-grid in Sagle.

“In 1977, as I was wriggling around trying to get comfortable in an uncomfortable marriage, I happened upon a song of John Prine’s with its image of being frozen in a bathtub ‘naked as the eyes of a clown.’ That was just how I felt. Then the sun comes out and ‘That’s the Way the World Goes Round.’ Since the first verse is about a man who beats his old lady, I started to feel lucky, and began to move out of the marriage. John Prine gave me hope and got me moving. I played it again today, and it had the same effect, not on my marriage, but it made me feel lucky and got me moving,” Gerth said.

John Prine is gone now, but not from our memories and hearts.

“Maybe Kasey Musgraves has it all correct when she sings, ‘My idea of heaven is to burn one with John Prine.’ Every time I hear a John Prine song, I am burning one with John,” said station manager Healey.

Susan Drinkard writes features for the Daily Bee. She can be reached at susanadiana@icloud.com.