Homeward bound: Singer/songwriter Tommy Prine

The first albums Tommy Prine remembers buying with his own money were by OutKast and Gorillaz. To this day, he remains a steadfast fan of hip hop.

The son of singer/songwriter John Prine taught himself to play guitar while watching Dad’s fingers move along the fretboard, but he was a grownup before he realized he, too, was writing good songs. His musical goals changed.

Prine will be in the bay area Friday for an appearance at Skipper’s Smokehouse in Tampa. Find tickets at this link.

His first album, 2023’s This Far South, showed a maturity and dept even Tommy Prine didn’t originally think he had in him.

In 2024, Prine opened for Jason Isbell and Tyler Childers, was named one of Amazon Music’s 2023 Breakthrough Artists to Watch and debuted on the Grand Ole Opry.

Next, he released a cover of John Moreland’s “You Don’t Care For Me Enough To Cry.” His EP The Vinyl Sessions included “Long Way Down,” “Gandalf” and “Caught in the Wake.”

Tommy and his older brother Jack grew up in Tennessee, in Ireland – and in Gulfport, where his parents, John and Fiona, bought a house in 2005.

John loved Gulfport, and made lots of lasting friends in and around local beach towns. “It was like he landed in the landscape of one of his songs,” Fiona Prine said. “It was just magical to him.”

John Prine died in 2020, of complications from Covid-19.

In a 2023 Catalyst interview, Tommy Prine reflected on his father’s legacy, and how John’s seemingly tireless work ethic was rubbing off on him now that he’d taken the professional plunge.

“I feel like I understand him a whole lot more after I’ve been doing what he did,” he said. “Even just the feeling of returning home from the road and the sort of shell shock that feels like – I get why he was living in his own head most of the time.”

St. Pete Catalyst: What’s the ultimate compliment for you, as a writer and a performer? Is it when they say you remind them of your dad, or when they don’t mention your dad at all?

Tommy Prine: I think the ultimate compliment that I have received was from a young woman who very bluntly said “I have no clue who your dad is or your family but you were awesome.” It’s not that I don’t find it to be a compliment to be compared to my father, because if anyone is compared to him they are probably doing something special. I think it just means something different to me.”

Although the September/October 2024 hurricanes flooded the family’s Gulfport home, Fiona Prine said at the time it wouldn’t deter her from keeping a Suncoast residence.

“This was our home from home,” she said. “This is where John was able to actually have down time away from the road.

“People knew us, and we had amazing, incredible neighbors and friends. And John just absolutely adored it. I mean, walk to the beach, have a hot dog, say hello to a few neighbors – and honestly, it’s been a refuge for me since John died.

“I don’t know that I’ll be able to come back to that house, but I’ll continue to be in this area, somewhere.”

In 2021, she established The Hello in There Foundation, a charitable organization that raises money for organizations in need.

Along with MusicCares, Ella’s House and other nonprofits in and around the Nashville area, Hello in There has provided grants for the Gulfport Multipurpose Senior Center, Alpha House of Pinellas County, Friends of the Gulfport Library and First Contact, which awarded more than $136,000 in direct cash relief payments to hospitality workers, seniors and entertainers in the Gulfport area who were severely affected by Hurricanes Helene and Milton.