Margo Price and Swamp Dogg have both been covering John Prine’s songs for many years now, and combining their shared passion the duo teamed up for a socially distanced recording of ‘Sam Stone’, Prine’s 1970 standard about a Vietnam veteran who gets addicted to heroin.
Swamp Dogg (real name Jerry Williams) first released an R&B cover of the song almost 50 years ago back in 1972, and in recent years had performed the song with Prine in concert. He and Price performed their cover during eTown Radio’s Quarantine Sessions which talked to the two artists covering Swamp Dogg’s career and Price’s most recent album, ‘That’s How Rumors Get Started.’
“Grateful to the cosmos…for bringing us together,” Price recently tweeted of her duet with the 78-year-old singer. Swamp Dogg’s most recent album, 2020’s ‘Sorry You Couldn’t Make It’ was the performer’s first album dedicated to country music after a career of occasionally working in the genre.
“Prine and I have been friends since the late Sixties,” Swamp Dogg said in the interview. “[‘Sam Stone’s] still my most requested song when I play…[Prine] had a dry sense of humor that was great.”