“Angel from Montgomery” is a song written by John Prine, originally appearing on his self-titled 1971 album John Prine. The song has been covered extensively by various artists. John Prine wrote “Angel from Montgomery” after a friend suggested writing “another song about old people,” referring to Prine’s song “Hello in There.” Although Prine had “said everything I wanted to [about seniors] in ‘Hello in There'” he was intrigued by the idea of “a song about a middle-aged woman who feels older than she is…[Eventually] I had this really vivid picture of this woman standing over the dishwater with soap in her hands…She wanted to get out of her house and her marriage and everything. She just wanted an angel to come to take her away from all this.” Prine believes he likely was drawn to Montgomery as the song’s setting by virtue of being a fan of Hank Williams, who had ties to that city. Angel from Montgomery was the original title of the Cherie Bennett/Jeff Gottesfeld screenplay that became the 2006 movie Broken Bridges. The screenplay’s setting of Montgomery was changed to the fictitious Armour Springs in the movie. The song is used in the film Who Bombed Judi Bari?. It is also sung by Marc Menchaca, in the last episode of the series Ozark. In 2021, it was ranked at No. 350 on Rolling Stone’s “Top 500 Greatest Songs of All Time”.
Songs with Banjo from Harold Hagler
