Free Republic

John Prine, who for five decades wrote rich, plain-spoken songs that chronicled the struggles and stories of everyday working people and changed the face of modern American roots music, died Tuesday at Nashville’s Vanderbilt University Medical Center. He was 73. The cause was complications related to COVID-19, his family confirmed to Rolling Stone. Prine, who left behind an extraordinary body of folk-country classics, was hospitalized last month after the sudden onset of COVID-19 symptoms, and was placed in intensive care for 13 days.

Songwriter John Prine is hospitalized and in critical condition with COVID-19 symptoms, according to a statement posted to his Twitter account on Sunday afternoon. “After a sudden onset of Covid-19 symptoms, John was hospitalized on Thursday (3/26),” the statement reads. “He was intubated Saturday evening, and continues to receive care, but his situation is critical.” The news follows a video posted to Instagram 12 days ago from Prine’s wife, Fiona, in which she revealed she’d been diagnosed with the Coronavirus. At the time, she said, John also was tested but the results came back “indeterminate.” She noted that John had...

I don't want to completely stick my neck out on this, because when you hope something is true, it clouds your judgemenet (as Dan Rather has found out!)But it appears to me that tickets are available at all the gigs for the "swing states" pro-Kerry/anti-Bush tour. Curiously, New York and New York have not been added to this "swing states" tour. Odd. Now, this is not 1980, but it seems even the Springsteen shows still have tickets available. A bad sign for the left?