For better, or worse

"The veteran songwriter celebrated surviving cancer with 1999's In Spite of Ourselves, a set of country classics sung as male-female duets that proved righteously popular. Here, he repeats the trick with an impressive parade of young female singers to complement his own leathery tones, the exception being Iris DeMent. Most songs, made famous by the likes of George Jones and Jessi Colter, evoke the "countrypolitan" Nashville of the 50s and 60s, with Prine cast as laconic observer while the women take the lead".

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"... the best tracks are the ones where Prine teams up with Iris DeMent; the two singers have long shown they're simpatico, and hearing them together on "Who's Gonna Take the Garbage Out" and "Mr. & Mrs. Used to Be" is a delight. Add in a studio band that delivers the classic Nashville honky tonk sound these songs demand, and a closing solo performance of "Just Waitin'," where Prine makes Luke the Drifter's lyrics sound like something he could have written himself, and you get a fine latter-day album from a seminal artist. It's still troubling that one of America's best songwriters seems to have lost the desire to pen new material, but For Better, or Worse shows John Prine hasn't lost his spirit as a performer".

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