New mural pays tribute to John Prine on Old Town School of Folk Music building

A new mural on the Old Town School of Folk Music building in Lincoln Square pays tribute to the late Chicago music icon John Prine.

The mural was painted by Jon Langford, a musician and artist.

"Painting is the day job. Rocking and rolling is the night job," he said. "John Prine was an alumni of this school. So he's like a living testament to what this school tried to do. Tries to do."

Prine, a folk singer, grew up in Maywood. He was a postal worker when he was discovered in 1970 while performing in Chicago.

"His songs are stories. The best songwriters are storytellers. He's an amazing storyteller," Langford said.

Earlier this year, the Old Town School of Folk Music approached Langford to create the mural. He first painted it canvas-sized.

"When I sent the finished painting, you know, it's like the hammer hanging over your head," he said. "Because the way I paint, it's, like, really difficult to change anything at the last minute. And they said it exceeded all expectations."

The next step was getting it up on the wall.

"I did not risk my life up a ladder; that was someone else's job," Langford said.

That someone was Darius Dennis from Big Wall Sign and Mural.

"We basically took the painting, which is about five feet by three-and-a-half feet," he said. "That painting we scanned. There was a pre-production process that was maybe about four or five days. There was some wall prep, which was probably about another five days, six days ,and then eight true days of painting."

The mural shows Prine in his later years, but has several nods to his past, like a Maywood sign and a pendant from Proviso East High School where he attended, all under one of his iconic lyrics: "How lucky can one man get."

"But people connect with it, you know, and people. I think people see their own stories in it. And the stories are veiled enough and vague enough that people can really connect with things that happen in their own lives. That's the sort of music I like," Langford said.

Langford, who is originally from South Wales, said he never knew Prine personally but was a fan of his music.