Bonnie Raitt is closely identified with the great John Prine song “Angel from Montgomery.” There are quite a few versions of it on YouTube. The one above is quite old. The audio is not great, but the delivery is flawless. Indeed, Raitt always does an awesome job on the song. Here is another terrific version. The problem is that the very end is cut off, which is jarring after such an intense delivery.
The Wikipedia entry from the song is fascinating. Prine said that a friend suggested writing another song a middle aged woman who felt older than she was. The image in Prine’s mind was a middle aged woman standing at a sink doing dishes and just wishing to be taken away from her drab existence. He said that the reference to Montgomery probably emerged from the fact that he is a Hank Williams fan. Williams had a long association with the city.
The entry also says that John Denver was the first well known singer to cover the song and offers a quote from Rait:
“I think ‘Angel from Montgomery’ probably has meant more to my fans and my body of work than any other song, and it will historically be considered one of the most important ones I’ve ever recorded. It’s just such a tender way of expressing that sentiment of longing – like ‘Hello In There’ – without being maudlin or obvious. It has all the different shadings of love and regret and longing. It’s a perfect expression from [a] wonderful genius.”
“Tree of Forgiveness,” Prine’s most recent album, is available at Amazon and iTunes.
Raitt covered “Angel from Montgomery” on “Streetlights,” which was released in 1974. Here it is at Amazon and iTunes (remastered).
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