How Lucky Can One Man Get, starring John Prine

John Prine is coming to Nashville on Friday, October 9, in How Lucky Can One Man Get, a concert documentary directed by Jim Shea. It's not a standard retrospective; the whole thing is built around previously unreleased footage from a benefit concert Prine played in May 2010 at his hometown high school gym. That footage is woven together with reminiscences and storytelling about his years growing up in Maywood, Illinois, so you get the performance and the stories that go with it in one go.

Prine was born in 1946 in that blue-collar suburb of Chicago and didn't start writing and performing songs until about 24 years later. The Old Town School of Folk Music proved central to his early development and to Chicago's folk community, and the film spends time there, too. Along with the main feature, there's a From the Vault series of outtakes—songs and scenes that didn't make the final cut—and a trailer created by John Anderson.

The Hello In There Foundation, established in 2021, is taking the film to a select group of cities across 2026 and 2027. Since its start, the foundation has awarded $1.4 million in community grants to more than 100 charitable organizations. The Nashville screening is part of that tour, which is why the film is traveling rather than just sitting on a streaming service. It's a concert documentary, a look back at Maywood, and a way to see Prine on a stage in his own hometown, all in one night.