The third episode of Season 4 of Yellowstone paid tribute to the legacy of John Prine, the iconic singer-songwriter who passed away in 2020 due to complications related to COVID-19. The folk icon’s “Caravan of Fool” — from his 2018 album The Tree of Forgiveness — played as the end credits also included a Prine-honoring title card.
Episode three — like the season’s first episode — continues a trend with this season’s episodes honoring those directly or indirectly related to the program. For example, episode 1 was a tribute to the show’s deceased sound editor Alan Robert Murray and award-winning rancher and Yellowstone technical assistant Milt Bradford.
John Prine – Caravan of Fools
“We didn’t discuss what the subject was while writing ’Caravan of Fools,’” noted Prine in a 2018 Radio Milwaukee interview. “I knew we all thought the song was about impending doom,” he adds. Continuing, regarding — The Tree of Forgiveness — the title of the album from which it comes, he says, “My wife and I used to eat at a restaurant outside of Dublin, Ireland called The Tree of Idleness. I liked that title so much that I stole an ashtray from there. I just kept thinking that’s a cool title: The Tree of Idleness. So, I just morphed it from there, to forgiveness.”
Colter Wall – Sleeping on the Blacktop
Canadian country performer Colter Wall’s 2016-released “Sleeping on the Blacktop” is a sync licensing favorite because as the artist’s lawyer, Kurt Dahl, noted in a 2017 interview, “I think he really is the real deal and people really see that. There’s a certain authenticity that people always want in their music. It’s nice when that authenticity really connects with people.” Wall’s song was also used in the films Hell or High Water and Three Billboards Outside Ebbings, Montana. The former was Oscar-nominated for Best Picture in 2017.
Shane Smith & the Saints – All I See Is You
The just-released video for the song, which also shares its name with the title of this week’s Yellowstone episode, was recorded live with two generators and a film crew in the desert near Terlingua, TX. In the Austin, TX-based folk-country band’s decade-long history, they’ve played shows in more than 40 different states and on three different continents, including visits to Ireland and Malaysia.
Ross Shifflett – Ain’t Got Much
“Playing my guitar while living in the middle of nowhere was kind of the only thing there was to do. So I was hooked on it. I learned the songs by my heroes, performers like Metallica and Willie Nelson. Early on, I knew I had a knack for songwriting, though,” said Graham, TX-native performer Ross Shifflett in a 2018 interview. Digging into lovestruck honky-tonk blues is the vibe he successfully creates on the 2018-released single “Ain’t Got Much,” which alongside “Deeper In The Woods” is the second song he’s had placed on Yellowstone this season.
The Steel Woods – Blind Lover
Among the singles for Kentucky-based rock act, The Steel Woods’ 2017 album Old News is “Blind Lover.” It’s described by the band’s guitarist Jason “Rowdy” Cope as being about “[wanting] a passionate, nonjudgmental, noncritical, non-narcissistic, sweet, downhome gal.” Like the album in its entirety, the band recorded the song at two noteworthy studios: Echo Mountain Recording in Asheville, N.C., and Nashville’s Blackbird Studio. Alongside nine originals, the album also includes covers of Tom Petty (“Southern Accents”), Gregg Allman (“Whipping Post”), and Merle Haggard (“Are The Good Times Really Over”).