from complications due to Covid-19. Showalter grew up in Indiana, just a couple hours away from the big city of Chicago, where Prine was from. His latest song, “Somewhere in Chicago,” pays tribute to his late hero — not just by name-checking him, but by emulating the calming, sing-song nursery rhyme cadence of Prine’s best tunes.
“It’s a song for John Prine, growing up Midwestern, the goodness I learned from my parents, me learning that gentle music can be powerful,” Showalter. “For someone from Northern Indiana, John Prine was my Willie Nelson. The patron saint of Midwestern ethos. I think about him every time I pick up a guitar.”
Showalter abandons the bombastic grandeur of his best rock anthems for the ballad, singing in a quiet, low register as a chorus of backup vocalists return each of his lyrics by singing, “The master calls back into the room” in a low hum. By the time he gets to the pre-chorus , Showalter has been reduced to a literal whisper, his voice trailing off during the word “oasis.”
In the refrain, Showalter plays off of several Prine songs — “When I Get to Heaven,” “Taking a Walk” — by imagining that the singer-songwriter is spending his time in the afterlife, embarking on leisurely strolls down the streets of the city he grew up in. It’s a moving image, transforming a song rooted in grief into an occasion for healing and hope.
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