John Prine has mastered the art of being John Prine. When he performs covers as he does here, they sound like they could be his songs. Standard Songs for Average People collects the songs that shaped or reflect his songwriting and performing sensibility—songs with just enough detail, just enough insight and just enough down-home humility to sound like good fishing stories and him, the master storyteller. It helps that he works with people who have similar personas—Wiseman, Pat McLaughlin, Cowboy Jack Clement and pedal steel player Lloyd Green, to name a few. Mind you, a number of the players write songs with Prine—McLaughlin, Roger Cook to name two—and Prine once told OffBeat that a writing session was as much social as work for him, and he could just as easily play checkers as write a song. That comfort and ease define the album, and not surprisingly, the songs are really good, too.