One of the reasons I love FAWM is because I get to hear music like this song, John. So beautifully rendered and so heartfelt. The words, the instruments, and your vocals -- it's a sad song, of course, but wonderful. Thank you.

So poignant. I feel the tears starting. This is a beautiful tribute and a beautiful song so well written and sung. Thank you for sharing.

Tears at the heartstrings. So well crafted, played, produced. A very inviting setup leading to such a sad reality. You really know how to write a song!

This is so well done. Glad all the pieces finally came together for this one. FAWM is so good that way—nothing like a deadline. But this is a powerful one. Excellent storytelling and I loved the way you centered it around gooseberry pie. Really touching and memorable. So sad, yet not overwhelmingly so. Catchy too. Sounds like a classic tune that’s always been there. Incredible work!

I've had gooseberry pie a time or two--but more than 50 years ago, methinks. Lovely song! ❤️

Very touching story - well delivered. I love the outro. Beautifully sad song.

Absolutely gorgeous tune. So melancholy and familiar. This one is going to last..

Oh. So sad. Sweet with it, like the pie. I do love gooseberries.... It's really great how you always, always tell a story. I tip my hat to you!

oh my John this is so sad - you tell it so sensitively. beautifully done, I still do not know how people move on from this! I'm with Grayland the words the music its all perfect if this don't touch you i don't know what would! It certainly put a tear in this hardened old mans eyes.

This is truly incredible

Love the way you frame this -- simple, effective ways to paint the context. Love the details in the chorus and how our experience of it changes as the song goes on. And that's a great bridge.

A really sad story, but the chorus is so real and beautiful. You've got a keeper here.

This story is one of the best, saddest tales I've read this year. How can ya help but cry listening to this? Your ability to sing these lines with such incredible emotion and feeling is one of the things that make this song work so well and your vocal talent so astonishing!! Love the musical backing track with the sad mando and acoustic guitar its just perfect for the story This one of my favorites of yours. I can't stop listening every time I do it just keeps getting better!!

you just get better and better with each song, filling the space that john prine filled for so many years. everything in this song falls so perfectly into place. the excellent lyrics and how they fit into place so skillfully both in melody and inflection. i am glad the boy in the song survived, and the sadness in your voice at the reality that the boy who inspired the song did not survive adds a complexity to the song that helps it reach that prine level of authority, compassion, empathy, and sorrowful acceptance of the human condition.

Well, damn, you had me near tears by the halfway mark. The re-write is a success by any mark, but an special winner in my book. Very well done. One of your best.

Just devastating, beautifully told. It's not maudlin, it's not "over the top," it's just a sincere, sad slice-of-life, and so much powerful for your restraint (and lovely guitar, and warm voice). Those last lines from the child's perspective are really effective, and this is a real winner of a track.

Such a tragic, beautiful, melancholy story, I really feel the emotion you put into the lyrics and the melody. Never had gooseberry pie, but now I am craving something I've never tasted or smelled, funny how songs can do that to someone! All around a gorgeous tune!