I've been to at least 10 John Prine shows over the course of the last ten years. So I guess this story begins at Val's house on the Joyce farm and Dill Hill. Valerie Joyce's older sister, Katie was in love with a back woods homesteading hippy by the name of Ben Dill who, some how got transplanted along with his sister Thelma, her partner Eddie and their two children and Ben's younger brother Andy from Maine. Thelma and Eddie lived in a small electric-less house up a tractor path over timothy meadow rise on Dill Hill and Ben built himself a cabin down a wooded path further in the woods next to a sweet little brook in the hills between Sherburne and New Berlin and next door to Pat Joyce's farm. How Ben and Katie met I have no idea but any gal who met up with Ben Dill was smitten with his long, soft brown, wavy shoulder length hair, corn blue eyes, a body to die for and that unmistakeable Maine accent. Pat Joyce, Valerie and Katie's father, not wanting his daughter to run off with a back wood homesteader from the state of Maine struck up a deal with Ben employing him to build a house in which he and Katie could live while Ben ran a green house business Pat had always dreamed about. While Ben was hard at work building his and Katie's starter dream home. Pat a devious lawyer himself, cunningly bribed his daughter Katy into theater school as Katie's second love to Ben was singing and acting. So off Katie went on her father's wing and a prayer leaving poor Ben heartbroken and the multi layered, tarpapered hippy house got passed down to Valerie. Oh and I think Katie got a nose job as part of the stay away from Ben deal. We had many great parties at Val's house when Val lived there for a short time with her first husband she met in Florida by the name of Cozmo. I always wondered why Pat never lured Valerie away from this Floridian as Coz was...well a little cheating f--ker! Valerie and Cozmo ended their marriage after a short stint and after Val found out just who he was cheating with and a few years later Pat sold the property with the farm and Val's house and moved back to his beloved homeland of Ireland. Somehow my first husband, Stephen Roe and I got invited to a party at Val's house to meet the new people who had bought the farm. It was probably through Stephen Joyce, Katie and Val's older brother as he still owned his property up the road from the farm. The farm sat at the end of a dead end dirt road and holds a very special place in many people's heart. The Joyce family had a large victorian on East Main Street in Sherburne. I remember it was the night before my birthday, May 18th, I was baby sitting next door and saw an orange glow in the sky over Sherburne and learned quickly the house we used to play house tag in as the house was huge and had two stair cases was none other than the Joyce house. It had not burned to the ground but was well burned black and gutted. Pat then decided to move his family to the country and bought the farm. One lucky day I was hanging out with Valerie and her father took us out to the farm he had just bought and while carefully picking our way through the rotting boards of what was once the chicken coup, Pat said,"So how do you like your new home Val!" In a million years would anyone ever believe a man could take a run down and forgotten farm and turn it into the most magical place with a singing brook covered by a wooden bridge one would have to pass over to get to the front door of the house. The farm was beautiful! Many, many fine times we had as teenagers sneaking out Val's bedroom window to run away if only for a few hours, up the wooded dirt road to Stephen's house to meet the fella's and party. Many, capture the flag games, many dinners and picnics and many guitar jams. I would go back to that time in a heartbeat to catch the random crazy teenage magic that once surrounded us there. So we met the new owners Mitch and Jesses Drosin and their two children Christopher aka pie boy and his sister Corine. Both pie boy and Corine were the same ages as Aurora and Nick. So they pretty much grew up together. While at the party in making small talk, Stephen asked Mitchel what he did for a living and Mitchel stated that he was a tour manager for someone we probably never heard off and when Stephen asked who and John Prine was the answer...we were floored being huge John Prine fans. So lucky me has been to at least 10 shows over the years.I think the first show was when he was promoting his "Lost Dogs Mixed Blessings" CD and had a full band and tour bus. I got to party with the band on the bus and do everything roadies do! It was awesome! Having a full band proved to be very costly so John downsized to just two band members. On some of his smaller shows and in my second marriage to Bill, we taxied John and his band mates from the airport to hotel and hotel to venue. I remember being the food runner many times for John and hung out many times with him and the gang in hotels after his show. I met Chip Taylor one night as he was an opener for and John but probably my fondest memory was driving John in our large gray conversion van in a blizzard from Syracuse to Buffalo. Last Saturday night after John's show at the Palace Theatre in Albany NY and lucky again with back stage passes thanks to Mitchel Drosin, my daughter Aurora and her friend Sean, Bill and I got to meet again this most incredible song writer. I had but one question for John and that was if her remembered that long snowy ride...and he said...How could I ever forget a New York blizzard. Just like how could you forget a song by a man named John Prine.