I couldn't post more last night.
My first encounter with John Prine's music was after my dad died in '72, when I was 17. I wanted to hide in my room, but I turned on the local college radio station just to have some sound. I heard, and remembered long enough to write some lyrics down:

Memories they can't be boughten
They can't be won at carnivals for free
Well it took me years
To get those souvenirs
And I don't know how they slipped away from me

and I was both comforted and amazed that he understood. It wasn't the same feeling, but it was close.

I heard his songs here and there, after that, and remembered his name. I got a chance to see him on a cruise I went on in 2018. Went to every show he did on that boat. He'd become part of American music forever, and I wish he were still here to enjoy it.

Like I've said elsewhere, he went out at a hight point in his career, which was pretty much the whole damned thing.