For Better, or Worse is the seventeenth studio album by John Prine. It consists of tracks in which Prine teams with an all-star array of female singers to tackle carefully chosen vintage country tunes in duets. The album was also released in vinyl format that also included a mp3 download pass for the album. It is his first studio album release in 9 years since 2007's Standard Songs for Average People.

For Better, or Worse
Studio album by John Prine
Released	September 30, 2016 (2016-09-30)
Recorded	January–February 2016
Genre	Country
Label	Oh Boy
John Prine chronology
Singing Mailman Delivers (2011) For Better, or Worse (2016) The Tree of Forgiveness (2018)

Professional ratings

Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[1]
Associated Press	(favourable)[2]
Robert Christgau	[3]
Exclaim!	9/10[4]
The Guardian	[5]
NPR	(favourable)[6]

Background

The album is the second compilation album featuring duets with Prine. The first Prine's compilation of duets was in 1999 when he recorded the similarly styled In Spite of Ourselves.[7][8][9]

The 15 tracks contain 14 duets with 11 female artists (with Iris DeMent, Lee Ann Womack and Kathy Mattea recording two duets and Alison Krauss, Susan Tedeschi, Holly Williams, Morgane Stapleton, Amanda Shires, Miranda Lambert, Kacey Musgraves and Prine's wife Fiona Prine recording one duet each). The last track is a solo recording, "Just Waitin'", by Prine.

Two of the artists, Iris DeMent and Fiona Prine had been featured in the 1999 album as well.

Commercial performance

The album debuted at number 2 on the US Billboard Country Albums chart and number 30 on the Billboard 200. It also reached number 7 on the US Independent Albums chart and number 5 on the US Folk Albums chart. The album has sold 43,700 copies in the US as of March 2017.[10]

Track listing

Personnel

• John Prine - lead vocals, acoustic guitar
• Kenneth Blevins – drums
• Shad Cobb – fiddle
• Iris DeMent – vocals on tracks 1 and 13
• Lloyd Green – pedal steel guitar
• Mark Howard – acoustic guitar, mandolin
• Dave Jacques – upright bass
• Kirk "Jelly Roll" Johnson – harmonica
• Alison Krauss – vocals on track 3
• Miranda Lambert – vocals on track 10
• Kathy Mattea – vocals on tracks 6 and 11
• Pat McLaughlin – mandolin
• Kacey Musgraves - vocals on track 12
• Tim O'Brien – fiddle, mandolin
• Al Perkins – pedal steel guitar, resonator guitar
• Fiona Prine – vocals on track 14
• Amanda Shires – vocals on track 8
• Morgane Stapleton – vocals on track 7
• Susan Tedeschi – electric guitar, vocals on track 4
• Pete Wasner – piano, Wurlitzer piano
• Jason Wilber – acoustic guitar, electric guitar
• Holly Williams – vocals on track 5
• Lee Ann Womack – vocals on tracks 2 and 9

Charts

References