PITTSBURGH — Clinton Clegg is a man who likes to honor his influences. So in recent years the soulful singer for The Commonheart has paid tribute to Joe Cocker and Ray Charles, two legends who most certainly impacted his sound.
For the third installment of Clinton Clegg Presents Thursday at Club Cafe, the singer is making a bit of a departure, exploring the catalog of the late John Prine, who was in no shape or form a soul belter.
“I'm kinda new to John Prine, if I’m being honest,” Clegg says. “I started listening to him in 2016 and I just fell in love with all his stuff. And I've been doing these Clinton Clegg Presents shows. I did one last year and we were talking about doing another one and I was like, ‘Why don't we do John?’ I think it would surprise people a little bit. It's just a very different genre and lane for me.”
Prine, who died in April 2020 at 73 after a bout with cancer and then COVID, was a country-folk legend who emerged from the Chicago scene in the early ’70s and became a songwriter’s songwriter, with a plain-spoken delivery and wry, penetrating lyrics. Soon, the likes of Bob Dylan and Kris Kristofferson were singing his praises. Although he made very little impact on the charts and his airplay was limited to Triple A stations, albums such as his self-titled 1971 debut “Sweet Revenge” and “Bruised Orange” are considered to be classics, and his songs have been covered by a long list of luminaries, including Bonnie Raitt, Johnny Cash, Miranda Lambert, David Allan Coe and Dwight Yoakam.
In 2010, the indie-rock community — Justin Vernon, Avett Brothers, My Morning Jacket, Old Crow Medicine Show among them — celebrated Prine with the tribute album “Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine.”
Here in Pittsburgh, Jon Bindley, Mark Dignam and Angela Autumn were among those who gathered in April 2019 at the former Howler’s in Bloomfield to present an evening of his songs. A few months later, in June, the man himself arrived for a final Pittsburgh appearance at Heinz Hall.
Clegg, on the road with The Commonheart when Prine played that Pittsburgh farewell, remembers having a close call at seeing him in October 2019.
“I was with The Commonheart in Oakland, California, and we were playing the club next to the theater that he was at. I remember seeing his face just huge on this screen at the theater. I thought it was really cool because we were literally right next door.”
After his death, there was an online-streaming tribute to Prine in June 2020 with Kacey Musgraves, Jason Isbell, Eric Church, Sturgill Simpson, Vince Gill and a cast of other stars, and then a live show in Nashville in October ’21 with Musgraves, Raitt, Isbell, Bob Weir, Lyle Lovett, Brandi Carlile and more.
Several years before that, it was former Commonheart guitarist Michael DeLuca who got Clegg into Prine. Like a lot of fans, he was drawn by the lyrics.
“His storytelling ability is unmatched, in my opinion,” he says. “There's something familiar to it, and you can't put your finger on it. My one friend said it to me best. She said, ‘He makes me miss a place I've never been to.’ And I thought that’s so on point. She really hit the nail on the head of what his music's all about.”
Clegg, joined by a five-piece band that will include DeLuca, will serve the songs while also unleashing his own more potent pipes at Thursday's sold-out shows.
“We're gonna keep it pretty traditional to what he does,” Clegg says. “Some key changes and things like that, but I'm gonna be me on it. I'm not gonna try to be him. So, it will be my take and I think that's OK. I think that's a good way to approach it.
“I'm just gonna do the songs justice, and I wanna do some of his stories justice. I've been studying all the live banter that he would always do because he's freaking hilarious. His stories were always comical and just full of life. So, I'm not gonna try to mimic him, per se, but I am gonna try to celebrate some of the things he brought to the table, like the comedy and the thoughtfulness.”
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