Day 20: January 20: Angel From Montgomery

"There're flies in the kitchen. I can hear 'em there buzzing."

Among all of the great songs on John Prine's debut album, you can find the beautiful Angel From Montgomery.  It tells the story of a restless middle-aged woman growing more and more dissatisfied and disillusioned with the cards (and the man) that life has dealt her. The song has been covered by many- John Denver, Old Crow Medicine Show, and most famously, Bonnie Raitt to name a few.  Carly recorded it in 1972 for her No Secrets album, but it didn't make it onto the record and was never released commercially until her box set "Clouds in My Coffee" was released in 1995.  James is hardly on the track, but you can hear his vocals toward the end.  This version doesn't really give you a sense of the beauty of the song, but Bonnie and John singing it together is something special.

Angel From Montgomery

John struck gold with his sad song "Hello in There" about the emptiness resulting from growing old.  Someone suggested that he should write another song about old people, but he felt like he had adequately covered the issue,  But when he thought about writing from the perspective of a woman, it appealed to him so he penned "Angel from Montgomery."  Here's the song that started it.  It's mournful and John seems pretty connected in this performance.

Hello in There