Angel from Montgomery
Encyclopedia
"Angel from Montgomery" is a country song written by John Prine
, originally appearing on his self-titled 1971 album John Prine
.
as the song's setting by virtue of being a fan of Hank Williams who had ties with that city.http://bluerailroad.wordpress.com/john-prine-the-bluerailroad-interview/ ("Angel from Montgomery" is a concert staple of Holly Williams
, Hank Williams' grand-daughter.)
, "Angel from Montgomery" was recorded in 1972 by Carly Simon
in her first session for Elektra Records
which was produced by Paul Buckmaster
. Simon recalls: "Elektra rejected [the tracks from that session] and...asked me to work with Richard Perry
. [Elektra] didn't think Buckmaster would produce a hit record for me."http://www.carlysimon.com/askcarly/archives/archive-062002.htm Simon's version of "Angel from Montgomery" was first issued in 1995 on the box set release Clouds in My Coffee
.
Recorded by Bonnie Koloc
for her 1972 album Hold on to Me, "Angel from Montgomery" had its first high-profile artist cover in 1973 when John Denver
included the song on his Farewell Andromeda (as "Angels from Montgomery") but it was via the version by Bonnie Raitt
on her 1974 album Streetlights that the song first attained wide recognition. In a 2000 interview Raitt stated: "I think 'Angel from Montgomery' probably has meant more to my fans and my body of work than any other song, and it will historically be considered one of the most important ones I've ever recorded. It's just such a tender way of expressing that sentiment of longing - like 'Hello In There' - without being maudlin or obvious. It has all the different shadings of love and regret and longing. It's a perfect expression from [a] wonderful genius."http://www.bonnieraitt.com/press_detail.php?id=37
On her 1995 live disc Road Tested
on which "Angel from Montgomery" serves as concert finale, Raitt is joined on the song by Bryan Adams
, Jackson Browne
, Bruce Hornsby
and Kim Wilson
. Besides duetting on "Angel from Montgomery" with John Prine at a 1989 tribute concert to Steve Goodman
(Prine and Goodman, along with Bonnie Koloc, had been considered the "trinity of the Chicago folk scene" ), Raitt has performed the song with Rickie Lee Jones
at the original Farm Aid
benefit concert held 22 September 1985 in Champaign, Illinois
and at the We the Planet Festival on 20 April 2003 at the Golden Gate Park
in San Francisco Raitt duetted on "Angel From Montgomery" with Tracy Chapman
.
"Angel from Montgomery" is performed in the film Into the Wild
by the characters Tracy Tatro (Kristen Stewart
) and Christopher McCandless
(Emile Hirsch
). It does not appear on the soundtrack album. The chorus is also sung briefly in the film Courage Under Fire
by the character Captain Karen Emma Walden (portrayed by Meg Ryan
) during one of the flashback sequences.
The song was also heard on the live television benefit broadcast on CMT
May 12, 2011 performed by Gretchen Wilson
. The "Music Builds" concert and fundraiser was to benefit the American Red Cross
in the wakes of disaster relief pursuant to the floods and tornadoes throughout the Southeastern United States in April and May 2011.
John Prine
John Prine is an American country/folk singer-songwriter. He has been active as a recording artist and live performer since the early 1970s.-Biography:...
, originally appearing on his self-titled 1971 album John Prine
John Prine (album)
John Prine was the first album by American country/folk singer-songwriter John Prine, issued by Atlantic Records in 1971. In 2003, the album was ranked number 458 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.-Reception:...
.
Background
John Prine wrote "Angel from Montgomery" after a friend suggested writing "another song about old people" referring to Prine's composition "Hello In There." Although Prine had "said everything I wanted to [about seniors] in 'Hello In There'" he was intrigued by the idea of "a song about a middle-aged woman who feels older than she is...[Eventually] I had this really vivid picture of this woman standing over the dishwater with soap in her hands....She wanted to get out of her house and her marriage and everything. She just wanted an angel to come to take her away from all this." Prine believes he was likely drawn to MontgomeryMontgomery, Alabama
Montgomery is the capital of the U.S. state of Alabama, and is the county seat of Montgomery County. It is located on the Alabama River southeast of the center of the state, in the Gulf Coastal Plain. As of the 2010 census, Montgomery had a population of 205,764 making it the second-largest city...
as the song's setting by virtue of being a fan of Hank Williams who had ties with that city.http://bluerailroad.wordpress.com/john-prine-the-bluerailroad-interview/ ("Angel from Montgomery" is a concert staple of Holly Williams
Holly Williams
Holly Williams is an American country music artist. She is the daughter of Hank Williams, Jr. and half-sister of country singer Hank Williams III. Williams has released two studio albums: The Ones We Never Knew and Here with Me, in 2004 and 2009 respectively...
, Hank Williams' grand-daughter.)
Other versions
Introduced on Prine's 1971 self-titled debut albumJohn Prine (album)
John Prine was the first album by American country/folk singer-songwriter John Prine, issued by Atlantic Records in 1971. In 2003, the album was ranked number 458 on Rolling Stone magazine's list of the 500 greatest albums of all time.-Reception:...
, "Angel from Montgomery" was recorded in 1972 by Carly Simon
Carly Simon
Carly Elisabeth Simon is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and children's author. She rose to fame in the 1970s with a string of hit records, and has since been the recipient of two Grammy Awards, an Academy Award, and a Golden Globe Award for her work...
in her first session for Elektra Records
Elektra Records
Elektra Records is an American record label owned by Warner Music Group. In 2004, it was consolidated into WMG's Atlantic Records Group. After five years of dormancy, the label was revived by Atlantic in 2009....
which was produced by Paul Buckmaster
Paul Buckmaster
Paul John Buckmaster is a Grammy Award-winning English artist, arranger and composer.He began learning the cello at the age of 4 and graduated from the Royal College of Music at age 16....
. Simon recalls: "Elektra rejected [the tracks from that session] and...asked me to work with Richard Perry
Richard Perry
Richard Perry is an American music producer. Perry began as a performer in his adolescence, but shifted gears after graduating college and rose through the late 1960s and early 1970s to become a highly successful and popular record producer with over a dozen gold records to his credit by 1982...
. [Elektra] didn't think Buckmaster would produce a hit record for me."http://www.carlysimon.com/askcarly/archives/archive-062002.htm Simon's version of "Angel from Montgomery" was first issued in 1995 on the box set release Clouds in My Coffee
Clouds in My Coffee
Clouds In My Coffee is singer-songwriter Carly Simon's 21st album released in 1995. It is a three-disc, 58 song career retrospective box set that spans Carly's career from 1965 to 1995...
.
Recorded by Bonnie Koloc
Bonnie Koloc
Bonnie Koloc is an American folk music singer-songwriter, actress, and artist who was considered one of the three main Illinois-based folk singers in the 1970s, along with Steve Goodman and John Prine forming the "trinity of the Chicago folk scene."...
for her 1972 album Hold on to Me, "Angel from Montgomery" had its first high-profile artist cover in 1973 when John Denver
John Denver
Henry John Deutschendorf, Jr. , known professionally as John Denver, was an American singer/songwriter, activist, and humanitarian. After growing up in numerous locations with his military family, Denver began his music career in folk music groups in the late 1960s. His greatest commercial success...
included the song on his Farewell Andromeda (as "Angels from Montgomery") but it was via the version by Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Raitt
Bonnie Lynn Raitt is an American blues singer-songwriter and a renowned slide guitar player. During the 1970s, Raitt released a series of acclaimed roots-influenced albums which incorporated elements of blues, rock, folk and country, but she is perhaps best known for her more commercially...
on her 1974 album Streetlights that the song first attained wide recognition. In a 2000 interview Raitt stated: "I think 'Angel from Montgomery' probably has meant more to my fans and my body of work than any other song, and it will historically be considered one of the most important ones I've ever recorded. It's just such a tender way of expressing that sentiment of longing - like 'Hello In There' - without being maudlin or obvious. It has all the different shadings of love and regret and longing. It's a perfect expression from [a] wonderful genius."http://www.bonnieraitt.com/press_detail.php?id=37
On her 1995 live disc Road Tested
Road Tested
Road Tested is a live album by Bonnie Raitt, released in 1995 .-Track listing:#"Thing Called Love" – 4:48#"Three Time Loser" – 3:39#"Love Letter" – 4:37...
on which "Angel from Montgomery" serves as concert finale, Raitt is joined on the song by Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams
Bryan Adams, is a Canadian rock singer-songwriter, guitarist, bassist, producer, actor and photographer. Adams has won dozens of awards and nominations, including 20 Juno Awards among 56 nominations. He has also received 15 Grammy Award nominations including a win for Best Song Written...
, Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne
Jackson Browne is an American singer-songwriter and musician who has sold over 17 million albums in the United States alone....
, Bruce Hornsby
Bruce Hornsby
Bruce Randall Hornsby is an American singer, pianist, accordion player, and songwriter. Known for the spontaneity and creativity of his live performances, Hornsby draws frequently from classical, jazz, bluegrass, folk, Motown, rock, blues, and jam band musical traditions with his songwriting and...
and Kim Wilson
Kim Wilson
Kim Wilson is an American blues singer and harmonica player. He is best known as the lead vocalist and frontman for The Fabulous Thunderbirds on two hit songs of the 1980s; "Tuff Enuff", and "Wrap It Up."-Career:...
. Besides duetting on "Angel from Montgomery" with John Prine at a 1989 tribute concert to Steve Goodman
Steve Goodman
Steve Goodman was an American folk music singer-songwriter from Chicago, Illinois. The writer of "City of New Orleans", made popular by Arlo Guthrie, Goodman won two Grammy Awards.-Personal life:...
(Prine and Goodman, along with Bonnie Koloc, had been considered the "trinity of the Chicago folk scene" ), Raitt has performed the song with Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones
Rickie Lee Jones is an American vocalist, musician, songwriter, and producer. Over the course of a three-decade career, Jones has recorded in various musical styles including rock, R&B, blues, pop, soul, and jazz standards.-Childhood:...
at the original Farm Aid
Farm Aid
Farm Aid started as a benefit concert on September 22, 1985, in Champaign, Illinois, held to raise money for family farmers in the United States...
benefit concert held 22 September 1985 in Champaign, Illinois
Champaign, Illinois
Champaign is a city in Champaign County, Illinois, in the United States. The city is located south of Chicago, west of Indianapolis, Indiana, and 178 miles northeast of St. Louis, Missouri. Though surrounded by farm communities, Champaign is notable for sharing the campus of the University of...
and at the We the Planet Festival on 20 April 2003 at the Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park
Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, is a large urban park consisting of of public grounds. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape but 20% larger than Central Park in New York, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles long east to west, and about half a...
in San Francisco Raitt duetted on "Angel From Montgomery" with Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman
Tracy Chapman is an American singer-songwriter, best known for her singles "Fast Car", "Talkin' 'bout a Revolution", "Baby Can I Hold You", "Give Me One Reason" and "Telling Stories". She is a multi-platinum and four-time Grammy Award-winning artist.-Biography:Tracy Chapman was born in Cleveland,...
.
"Angel from Montgomery" is performed in the film Into the Wild
Into the Wild (film)
Into the Wild is a 2007 American biographical drama film directed by Sean Penn. It is an adaptation of 1996 non-fiction book of the same name by Jon Krakauer based on the travels of Christopher McCandless across North America in the early 1990s. The film stars Emile Hirsch as McCandless with...
by the characters Tracy Tatro (Kristen Stewart
Kristen Stewart
Kristen Jaymes Stewart is an American actress. She is best known for playing Bella Swan in The Twilight Saga. She has also starred in films including Panic Room , Zathura , In the Land of Women , The Messengers , Adventureland and The Runaways .- Early life :Stewart was born and raised in Los...
) and Christopher McCandless
Christopher McCandless
Christopher Johnson McCandless was an American hitchhiker who adopted the name Alexander Supertramp and hiked into the Alaskan wilderness in April 1992 with little food and equipment, hoping to live for a time in solitude...
(Emile Hirsch
Emile Hirsch
Emile Davenport Hirsch is an American television and film actor. He began performing in the late 1990s, appearing in several television films and series, and became known as a film actor after roles in Lords of Dogtown, The Emperor's Club, The Girl Next Door, Alpha Dog, and Into the Wild. In...
). It does not appear on the soundtrack album. The chorus is also sung briefly in the film Courage Under Fire
Courage Under Fire
Courage Under Fire is a 1996 film directed by Edward Zwick, and starring Denzel Washington, Meg Ryan, Lou Diamond Phillips and Matt Damon. It is one of the first films to depict the 1991 Gulf War.-Plot:...
by the character Captain Karen Emma Walden (portrayed by Meg Ryan
Meg Ryan
Margaret Mary Emily Anne Hyra , professionally known as Meg Ryan, is an American actress and producer. Raised in Bethel, Connecticut, Ryan began her acting career in 1981 in minor roles, before joining the cast of the CBS soap opera As the World Turns in 1982...
) during one of the flashback sequences.
The song was also heard on the live television benefit broadcast on CMT
CMT
- Medicine :* California mastitis test* Certified Massage Therapist* Cervical motion tenderness, a sign of pelvic inflammatory disease* Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease* Chemically modified tetracyclines* Circus Movement Tachycardia...
May 12, 2011 performed by Gretchen Wilson
Gretchen Wilson
Gretchen Frances Wilson is an American country music artist. She made her debut in 2004 with the Grammy Award-winning single "Redneck Woman," a number-one hit on the Billboard country charts. The song served as the lead-off single of her debut album, Here for the Party...
. The "Music Builds" concert and fundraiser was to benefit the American Red Cross
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross , also known as the American National Red Cross, is a volunteer-led, humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief and education inside the United States. It is the designated U.S...
in the wakes of disaster relief pursuant to the floods and tornadoes throughout the Southeastern United States in April and May 2011.
Other recorded versions
- Matt Andersen Live at Liberty House 2007
- Dave Matthews BandDave Matthews BandDave Matthews Band, sometimes shortened to DMB, is a U.S. rock band formed in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1991. The founding members were singer-songwriter and guitarist Dave Matthews, bassist Stefan Lessard, drummer/backing vocalist Carter Beauford and saxophonist LeRoi Moore. Boyd Tinsley was...
Salem College 1993 - Ben HarperBen HarperBenjamin Chase "Ben" Harper is an American singer-songwriter and musician. Harper plays an eclectic mix of blues, folk, soul, reggae and rock music and is known for his guitar-playing skills, vocals, live performances and activism. Harper's fan base spans several continents...
Pleasure and Pain 1992 - Jill JohnsonJill JohnsonJill Anna Maria Johnson, , is a Swedish country- and pop-singer and songwriter. She performed the Melodifestivalen 1998 winning song Kärleken är, and represented Sweden at the Eurovision Song Contest 1998 with that song, which finished 10th with 53 points. In 2003 she again entered Melodifestivalen...
Music RowMusic Row (Jill Johnson album)Music Row is a cover album by Jill Johnson, recorded in Nashville and released on 28 November 2007. The album sold platinum in Sweden.-Track listing:#Rhythm Guitar - 3.20#Jolene - 3.30...
2007 - Leslie Spit TreeoLeslie Spit TreeoLeslie Spit Treeo were a Canadian folk-rock band in the 1980s and 1990s. The band took its name from the Leslie Street Spit area of Toronto Harbour.-History:...
Don't Cry Too HardDon't Cry Too HardDon't Cry Too Hard was the debut album by Canadian folk rock band Leslie Spit Treeo, released in 1990. The album's primary single on radio was a cover of John Prine's "Angel from Montgomery", although the songs "Heat" and "The Sound" also garnered radio airplay.-Track listing:# Separate# Like...
1990 - Old Crow Medicine ShowOld Crow Medicine ShowOld Crow Medicine Show is an old-time string band based in Nashville, Tennessee. Their music has been called bluegrass, Americana, and alt-country, in addition to old-time. Along with original songs, the band performs many pre-World War II blues and folk songs...
Broken Hearts & Dirty Windows: Songs of John Prine 2010 - Susan TedeschiSusan TedeschiSusan Tedeschi is an American blues and soul musician, who has received multiple Grammy Award nominations, and is well-known for her singing voice, guitar playing, stage presence, and marriage to blues guitarist Derek Trucks...
Just Won't BurnJust Won't BurnJust Won't Burn is the national debut album by American blues artist Susan Tedeschi, released in 1998 .-Track listing:#"Rock Me Right" – 4:27#"You Need to Be With Me" – 3:04...
1998 - Tanya TuckerTanya TuckerTanya Denise Tucker is a female American country music artist who had her first hit, "Delta Dawn", in 1972 at the age of 13...
TNT (Tanya Tucker album)TNT (Tanya Tucker album)TNT is the ninth album by Tanya Tucker. Working with a new producer in Jerry Goldstein, Tucker drifts away from her earlier country style to do a much more rock-based effort. She covers well-known rock songs originally performed by such artists as Buddy Holly , Elvis Presley , and Chuck Berry...
1978 - Mystery Girls Mystery Girls 1991
- The Residues Last Man Alive 2006
- EG Kight Southern Comfort 2003
- Allison Scull and Victor Martin From the Back Burner 2002