How John Prine's Widow and Son Are Preserving His Legacy and Oh Boy Records

One of the main goals in preserving Prine’s legacy is to just keep an eye on Oh Boy’s catalog, to ensure Prine’s music continues to reach a wider audience in the years to come. At the moment, Fiona and Whelan don’t control any of the masters before 1981; that includes Prine’s 1971 self-titled debut (released via Atlantic Records), which was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 2015 and features iconic songs like “Angel From Montgomery,” “Paradise,” “Sam Stone" and “Hello In There." Whelan says, they can’t address the legalities, but that there are ongoing conversations when it comes to accessing them.

For Whelan, part of the legacy is continuing Oh Boy’s initial mission: working with songwriters and singer-songwriters to get their music out. Coming down the pipeline are albums from Waldon, McKinley and Emily Scott Robinson. “Prine’s catalog and legacy will never not be the central piece, but I do think that the way forward that he showed [is] supporting performing songwriters -- and being genre-agnostic is something that we're really excited about,” says Whelan.