Nine-piece band of John Prine fans plays his Christmas songs, from 'All the Best' to 'Silent Night All Day Long', as a loving homage.
All the Best bring a John Prine Christmas to the Crescent Arts Centre on Friday 18 December, just a week before the big day. It's a night of Prine's Christmas songs performed live, with the set drawing on his 1993 record A John Prine Christmas — you'll hear 'Everything is Cool', 'All the Best', 'Silent Night All Day Long' and 'Christmas in Prison' alongside other Prine classics and rarities.
All the Best is a nine-piece band of devoted John Prine fans, fronted by Paddy Nash, Junior Johnson, Sean Doone of No Oil Paintings and Donal Scullion of The Unholy Gospel Band, with special guest vocalists joining in. They first staged the show at Atlantic Sessions in Portrush Playhouse in November 2024, then took it to several theatres throughout 2025 and opened the main stage at Stendhal Festival. In January 2026 they played Prine's German Afternoons album in full, so this Christmas set is a return to the holiday material that started it all.
They're not going for a carbon copy of the records, either. The band describes the show as a loving homage rather than an exact reproduction, aiming to capture the beauty of the songs on their own terms. It's a fitting way to look back at Prine's work — he died in 2020 and is regarded as one of the most important songwriters of the last century, with a catalogue spanning five decades and 18 studio albums, including 'Sam Stone', 'Illegal Smile' and 'Angel From Montgomery'.
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The gig runs from 20:00 to 22:00, with doors opening at 19:30. Tickets are £25 plus booking fee.
