Commentary: John Prine understood the relationship between protest songs and true country music

I went on a sightseeing trip to Big Bend National Park with my grandfather not too long ago. A native Texan, he told me he knew the place like the back of his hand. As we drove from vista to vista, we exhausted our words pretty quickly, turning to music to keep us company. He plugged in his phone and threw on some country music. The artist he selected was a man named John Prine.

I may have been from Dallas, but I somewhat prided myself on being unable to resonate with country music. To me, the genre