In Spite of Ourselves

Written for Billy Bob Thornton's film Daddy and Them, this affectionate duet with Iris DeMent offers country music's ultimate antidote to sentimental love ballads. Over a bouncy acoustic fingerpicking pattern, two eccentric partners inventory each other's peculiar habits, from ketchup on scrambled eggs to unwashed feet. The jokes land because they celebrate real domestic intimacy instead of an idealised fantasy. Prine's dry, raspy delivery complements DeMent's nasal Appalachian twang, proving that enduring affection thrives precisely on forgiving, and laughing at, ordinary human awkwardness.