Oh Boy Records has been nominated for the National Association of Recording Merchandisers' (NARM) Entertainment Software Supplier of The Year, Small Di vision.    The award ceremony will take place August 14 in San Diego.

John Prine Debuts at #2 Billboard Indie, #55 Top 200
Grammy-Winning Songwriter's Fair & Square Marks Biggest First Week Sales

    While John Prine moves at his own pace, it's obvious that his music moves far faster than the plain-spoken singer/songwriter. Having reached stores last week, Fair & Square -- 9 years in the making -- marked the Grammy-winning artist's biggest first week sales and arrived at #2 on Billboard' s highly competitive Independents chart behind r&b group Mint Condition and #55 on the all genre Top 200, sandwiched between country superstars Kenny Chesney and Tim McGraw.

    "When they called to tell me, I just kinda laughed," said the aw-shucks former mailman who became the first musician to read and perform at the Library of Congress -- at the invitation of Pulitzer Prize-winning U.S. Poet Laureate Ted Kooser. "I mean, it's kinda goofy, but it's really cool, too. You make your record and it's just you and the people in your life -- and you know you like it pretty well, but the idea that so m any people responded, well, that's great. I guess they all like it pretty well, too."

    The initial count of 17,543 pieces scanned first week do not include the 1,488 that were sold off Prine's website -- which brings his first week's tally to over 19,000! Given the slow build of most roots, Americana and songwriter-driven records, this is an impressive start for a record that's earning some equally impressive notice.

Critics Are Buzzing
"Nine years is way too long without a fresh batch of John Prine originals, but the so-dang-human Fair and Square is worth the wait." - Critic's Choice Billboard Magazine

John Prine, Fair & Square (* * * 1/2) You're never quite sure whether John Prine's songs mean more or less than what you take away from them, but that's part of their charm. Aside from the atypically political Some Humans Ain't Human, there's plenty of charm on the singer/songwriter's first set of new songs in 10 years. Prine's craggy, conversational voice dispenses wisdom with a wink and hides humor inside ruminations on fame, home and his lover's Cadillac-black hair. - Brian " Mansfield, USA Today

Fair and Square is Prine's eighteenth career recording an d his tenth for Oh Boy. At 58-years-old, he sees the record as career defining- and as much as anything, the weighty proposition has contributed to the new album's long gestation period. Prine has always had a firm hand in the sound of his records, but Fair and Square marks his first outing as a producer. Guided by co-producer Gary Paczosa (who's engineered records by Mindy Smith and The Dixie Chicks), the record has a warm, roomy sound, and Prine's craggy voice i s up front in the mix." - Paul Griffith, American Songwriter

"Prine's new album may be the most fitting production of his career. There's a warm, natural groove to each song, and the prominence of rhythm guitar and the gentle additions of accordion and steel guitar fit perfectly with his rolling style. Fair and Square also reflects the full sound Prine creates onstage with just his acoustic guitar and the bass of Dave Jacques and electric guitar of Jason Wilbur, who've served as his touring unit for several years. So, after all he's been through, here Prine is, traveling the world playing his songs ad getting ready to release another batch of new songs. 'It's like I have a whole new romance going on with life,' he say, shrugging as he smiles, as if he's as mystified as anyone with the way things turned out. 'It's like there's a new shine on things. I'm feeling like I'm dug in pretty good." - Michael McCall, Nashville Scene

"If the early songs that stopped people in their seats with their quick-cutting insight and genius turns of phrase had a certain airtight quality, his new efforts have a more relaxed, ruminative quality. On the sunset-streaked 'Taking A Walk', which boasts radiant harmony vocals by Mindy Smith and Pat McLaughiln, and the infectious, easy-rolling opener, 'Glory Of True Love', Prine brings a graceful, dyed-in-the-bone wisdom to themes of love, loss and dislocation." - Lloyd Sachs, No Depression

John Prine Joins Poet Laureate Ted Kooser 1st S inger/Songwriter To Read/Play at Library of Congress March 9 Washington, DC:

Grammy-winning songwriter John Prine has always fashioned his craft, based on telling universal truths about people not so very different from us all. With a gentle eye, he coaxes meaning from mundane moments and major truths from things that go unseen -- and his gift of uncommon insight delivered with common language has earned the former postman and American songwriting icon an invitation to read -- and perhaps play a song or two -- March 9th in the Library of Congress' Coolidge Auditorium. Prine was invited by Ted Kooser, the current Poet Laureate. Sharing Prine's Midwestern roots, Kooser has been described as "a major poetic voice for rural and small town America and the first Poet Laureate chosen from the Great Plains." The pair will come together for "A Literary Evening with John Prine and Ted Kooser," w hich promises to be a l ively discussion of how and why lyrics in popular songs often mirror people's emotions and ideas of the world better than some contemporary poetry. "I have been following John Prine's music since his first album came out and have always been struck by his marvelous writing: its originality, its playful inventiveness, its poignancy, its ability to capture our times," explains Kooser. "For example, he did a better job of holding up the mirror of art to the '60s and '70s than any of our official literary poets. And none of our poets wrote anything better about Viet Nam than Prine's 'Sam Stone.' "Lyric poetry is called that because it once was sung, and accompanied by the lyre. All that's left of the music in contemporary poetry are things like assonance and alliteration and rhyme, Prine's writing and music returns us to that earlier way of delivering poetry." For Prine, who has captured the desolation of marriage ("Angel From Montgomery"), the unthinking jingo-ism of fill-in-the-blank patriotism ("Your Flag Decal Won't Get Y ou Into Heaven Any More"), the isolation of the elderly ("Hello In There"), the innocence of romantic attraction ("I Just Want To Dance With You") and the weight of young male irresponsibility on their partners ("Unwed Fathers"), songwriting is as much about the people he sees as his own measured interpretation. Long a stalwart on the singer/songwriter circuit, The Missing Years, German Afternoons, Aimless Love, Lost Dogs & Mixed Blessings and his upcoming Fair & Square -- due April 26th -- reveal an artist whose worldview has only become richer, clearer and wis er over time. "I've been asked to do a lot of things," says Prine with a big smile, "but this is definitely a first. And I don't even know how to quite respond to it. For a guy who carried mail, was in the service, did so-so in school, this is kind of beyond the stuff I usually think about. It's the kind of honor that's beyond. So, you can bet I'm looking forward to it - taking all these people in my songs to the Library of Congress and let ting 'em look around a little bit.

Also picking up a Grammy last night was, Beautiful Dreamer -The Songs of Stephen Foster which includes our own John Prine! 

John Prine Tour Dates Announced ? The first leg of the 2005 John Prine tour will begin in April. Click here for a list of tour dates and a chance to purchase advance tickets.