Lost Dogs and Mixed Blessings

John Prine's follow-up to his comeback album, The Missing Years, is more of the same in terms of freeing up Prine's idiosyncratic muse and marrying the result to Howie Epstein's top-flight production sound. Fans of the early Prine may find that sound over-produced, but the songs never get lost, and with Prine's typically humorous, off-center view of the world (song titles include "Humidity Built the Snowman" and "He Forgot That It Was Sunday"), it's the songs that count. Actually, this is not quite as strong a collection of material as The Missing Years, but it has its moments, and Prine and Epstein show it off in its best possible light.