PRINE, JOHN - For Better, Or Worse (LP) (LP)

With nearly seven decades in the rearview mirror and some of the finest songs in the English language under his belt, John Prine can do whatever tickles his fancy. As septuagenarian status looms, the celebrated singer-songwriter's muse has moved him to release an album of country duets. For Better, Or Worse, which finds Prine teaming with an all-star array of female singers to tackle carefully chosen vintage country tunes, isn't Prine's first such recording. In 1999, after his first bout with cancer, he recorded the similarly styled In Spite Of Ourselves. Seeing as how For Better, Or Worse is Prine's first album since emerging victorious from his second struggle with the disease, it seems he finds spiritual sustenance in singing his favorite old country songs with some gifted distaff duet partners. While some older artists use duet albums to sidle up to a strategically selected batch of stars in an attempt to make themselves commercially relevant again, Prine operates outside of such concerns. He's been recording for his own label since the '80s (long before that level of independence became commonplace) and answers to no corporate paymaster. Just as he does with everything else, it's clear that Prine put together his wish list of collaborators for this project based on his own artistic inclinations. Prine hasn't offered up a new batch of original songs since 2005's Fair & Square, and since he made his name as one of America's most powerful post-Dylan songwriters, it would be hard to blame fans for wishing he'd pull out his pen again. But for whatever reason, songwriting doesn't seem to be where the Midwestern bard is at these days. All things considered, we should just be glad he's still among us — and still making honest, emotionally impactful music, just like he's always done.