CHICAGO — As understandably restrained and quiet was the 2020 funeral of John Prine, the upcoming celebrations surrounding what would have been this singer-songwriter’s 80th birthday will be lavish and music-filled.

After Prine died at 73 from complications of COVID-19 in the first months of the pandemic, his wife Fiona Whelan Prine was allowed to have only immediate family at the Nashville funeral home. As she said, “We had to beg for the opportunity for the immediate family to even gather. … We were literally sitting eight feet apart. There was no hugging. There was no commiserating.”

There was another, more satisfying, gathering two years later in October 2022, when Prine’s loved ones, fellow musicians and fans were able to safely congregate for two tribute concerts, part of a weeklong commemoration of his life and music.

“That was so beautiful,” his wife said. “It was something we all needed so badly.”

Though he lived for four decades in Nashville, Tennessee, this is where Prine was born and where he first picked up guitar and first wrote the songs that worked their way into local hearts and heads for keeps. His small family home in Maywood was filled with the sounds of folk and country music, brought from the family’s native Kentucky. He served as an Army mechanic in Germany, then came home to work as a mailman, composing songs on his route and tentatively walking onto stages at Chicago’s folk clubs.

It’s fitting that we’re now getting several days and nights of celebration of what would have been Prine’s 80th birthday. Many of the upcoming events will benefit his family’s Hello in There Foundation.

It begins with “The Literary Heart of John Prine” on Oct. 7, with Texas singer-songwriter Alejandro Escovedo, novelist Silas House and journalist Mark Guarino (author of “Country and Midwestern: Chicago in the History of Country Music and the Folk Revival”) discussing Prine’s songwriting, followed by Escovedo playing music. “How Lucky Can One Man Get,” a concert documentary directed by Jim Shea, will be screened at the Gene Siskel Film Center.

The tribute concert Souvenirs: 80 Years of John Prine is next, on Oct. 8 at the Chicago Theatre, hosted by John C. Reilly. Dozens of musicians are scheduled to perform, including Nathaniel Rateliff, Valerie June, Jordan Davis, Jonas Friddle, John’s brother Billy Prine, Shemekia Copeland, Steve Earle, Sullivan Sisters, Kathleen Edwards and The Cactus Blossoms.

On Oct. 9 at the Chicago History Museum, Guarino talks with me, Bonnie Koloc, former alderman Dick Simpson and musician Steve Dawson and about how Chicago in the 1960s shaped Prine’s writing.

A daylong John Prine Celebration on Oct. 10 at the Old Town School of Folk Music will be anchored by the formal unveiling of artist Jon Langford’s stunning mural that fills a north-facing portion of the school’s exterior and reminds us what an important nurturing place the school was to the youthful Prine, followed by all sorts of singers and songwriters (including Langford).

On Oct. 11, a Maywood Day of Celebration includes guided trolley and walking tours of the suburb’s Prine-related landmarks as well as some breakfast treats, benefiting Maywood’s Housing Forward. And an 80th Birthday Weekend Hang at Hattie B’s Wrigleyville includes a special beer from Hop Butcher for the World and, yikes, a John Prine Look-Alike Contest.

It is possible, I suppose, that some of you have never heard of John Prine, were never stunned, warmed, delighted, moved or brought to tears or smiles by his songs, among them “Angel from Montgomery,” “Sam Smith,” “Hello in There” or the hundreds of others on 18-some albums.

Perhaps you might be impressed that Bob Dylan, not a performer given to lavish praise of contemporaries, has said, “Prine’s stuff is pure Proustian existentialism. Midwestern mind trips to the nth degree. And he writes beautiful songs.”

I first encountered him in a newspaper. It was in 1970 in a story written by Sun-Times movie critic Roger Ebert, who had walked into the Fifth Peg folk club on Armitage Avenue one night and heard Prine and wrote, in part, that Prince “appears on stage with such modesty he almost seems to be backing into the spotlight. He sings rather quietly, and his guitar work is good, but he doesn’t show off. He starts slow. But after a song or two, even the drunks in the room begin to listen to his lyrics. And then he has you. … His lyrics work with poetic economy to sketch a character in just a few words.”

In short order, Prine was “discovered” by Kris Kristofferson, who helped him get a record deal. That story is told by John Ballantyne and Gus Noble in their band Crazyheart’s musical-theatrical show,“Chicago 1971.”

By 1975, he was called by Studs Terkel “about the most imaginative and moving of American songwriters and singers today.” His career was lengthy. He traveled the world to perform. His songs were covered by artists of all ages and musical genres. Awards were plentiful, praise universal. He fought and beat cancer twice.

He and some of the others who made the musical magic at the Earl of Old Town — Steve Goodman, Bonnie Koloc, Fred and Ed Holstein, Jim Post — provided the soundtrack of my youth, along with some Beatles and Doors, and have remained in rotation for half a century.

A lot of people have been similarly affected. One of them is Dave Hoekstra, a former Sun-Times writer whose latest book, out in May, is “The Gift of John Prine: His Humanity, Family Roots, and the Spirit of Kentucky Storytelling.”

Another is Mike Leonard, a North Shore native who was working as a construction worker when he discovered Prine. “I can remember first hearing him, playing his records late at night and thinking that he was writing about everyday life, people like us,” he told me.

Leonard would go on to become a distinctive “Today” show correspondent. He interviewed Prine twice for the program. In the fall of 2015, he filmed and interviewed him again for a 30-minute documentary. Prine was 69 years old, his neck and jaw disfigured by bouts with cancer and his voice similarly roughed up.

He talked about being fearful that the treatments would leave him no longer able to speak, let alone sing. But he could still do both and, as Leonard said in his splendid narration, “Nothing can diminish the power of his words.”

Nothing ever did. Two months after he died, his wife released “I Remember Everything,” one of a number of new, unreleased tunes that Prine was working on before his death. Co-written with longtime collaborator Pat McLaughlin, it contains lyrics such as:

I remember everything, things I can’t forget / Swimming pools of butterflies would slip right through the net / And I remember every night your ocean eyes of blue / I miss you in the morning light like roses miss the dew.

It’s on YouTube; you might want to do yourself a favor and have a listen.

If you go

“The Literary Heart of John Prine” is 7 p.m. Oct. 7 at Metro, 3750 N. Clark St.; tickets (all ages) $59.05 at metrochicago.com and www.johnprine.com

“How Lucky Can One Man Get” film screenings Oct. 7-9 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State St.; tickets and showtimes at www.siskelfilmcenter.org

Oh Boy Records will be open 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., followed by “The Making of How Lucky Can One Man Get” with filmmaker John Anderson and Fiona Prine at 1 p.m. Oct. 8 at Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln Ave.; more at www.oldtownschool.org and www.johnprine.com

Souvenirs: 80 Years of John Prine concert is 7:30 p.m. Oct. 8 at the Chicago Theatre, 175 N. State St.; sold out with resale tickets available at www.msg.com

“John Prine’s Chicago” at 1 p.m. Oct. 9 at the Chicago History Museum, 1601 N. Clark St.; limited $12.51 tickets at www.chicagohistory.org and www.johnprine.com

John Prine Celebration 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Oct. 10 at Old Town School of Folk Music, 4544 N. Lincoln Ave.; some events sold out, more at www.oldtownschool.org and www.johnprine.com

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(Rick Kogan is a columnist for the Chicago Tribune.)

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