Tomorrow is the big day! My first reading for John Prine: In Spite of Himself, starts at 7 p.m. Wednesday at The Regulator Bookshop on Ninth Street in Durham. Joining me to sing a few Prine songs will be Elliott Humphries, talented front man for the Americana band be the moon. (Keep an eye out for their excellent forthcoming album Golden Age.)

The Regulator actually helped me discover John Prine’s music. In the mid 1980s I used to make regular trips there to buy Dave Marsh’s independent music newsletter, then called Rock & Roll Confidential. (Eventually I discovered the magic of subscribing by mail, but I was always glad to have an excuse to go hang out at The Regulator.) I bought my first Prine album, 1984’s Aimless Love (which also happened to be the first album on Oh Boy Records), after reading a review in an issue of Rock & Roll Confidential I bought there.