“Yeah, I just had a birthday. I turned 55,” John Prine told the audience at the Taft Theatre Saturday. “When you're as old as the speed limit, it's time to slow down.”

        Truth is, the singer-songwriter has been riding in the slow lane for a few years now. Raising your first kids in your 50s will have that effect. So will a couple of surgeries. Mr. Prine battled neck cancer in 1998. Also, he told the crowd he recently underwent hip-replacement surgery.

        The newer battle-tested and domesticated Mr. Prine doesn't tour in the conventional sense anymore. Now he stays at home in Nashville during the week, only playing shows on the weekends. After years without Mr. Prine coming to town, Cincinnati has recently been the beneficiary of this new pattern. First came a rollicking show at the Taft in April, 2000, and now we have Saturday's equally satisfying performance.

        Mr. Prine and band — guitarist Jason Wilbur and bassist David Jacques — did a 2-hour set of 30 years of songs, stretching from a half-dozen off his 1971 landmark debut through a couple selections from 1980's low-key classic Storm Windows to a new one he wrote in January while recovering from the hip surgery.

        That song, called “The Other Side of Town” (about “a man with the ability to travel in his mind when his wife starts going on too long,” explained Mr. Prine), was full of devastating laugh lines, and was as good as anything else he played. Other than a rockabilly-style rendition of the Carter Family's “Bear Creek,” it was the only song a hard-core fan wouldn't have known.

        The rest was his trademark show. The up-tempo show-starter “Spanish Pipedream.” The autobiographical introduction to “The Bottomless Lake.” “Souvenirs,” dedicated to the late Steve Goodman, Mr. Prine's partner from his '70s Chicago days. Fans have seen the act before, but Mr. Prine's charm and style keeps it from ever getting old.

        Too bad factions of the audience aren't as cool as Mr. Prine himself. Cincinnati's are the most ill-mannered Prine audiences this reviewer has experienced. Yelling “Go John!” and “Prine is God!” during quiet, somber songs is a no-no, folks. If you're anticipating the future release of a John Prine: Live in Cincinnati album, don't hold your breath.

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