Modern Woman open Best Fit’s secret sessions at End of the Road with John Prine cover

It’s the band’s first time playing inside a birthday cake — the piano stage having been decorated as one in honour of the festival’s 20th anniversary — but it’s their second time on Best Fit’s piano stage. They were here back in 2021, soon after forming. Every act that plays a secret session includes one cover and a couple of their own songs. Their cover then was “In My Room” by the Beach Boys. This year, with an expanded lineup, it was a rendition of John Prine’s “Far From Me”, which appeared on his 1971 debut album. “I’ve always wanted to play a John Prine cover live. It felt like a good setting. And that song is one of the best ever written about a relationship deteriorating,” lead vocalist Sophie Harris said after the set. Her grandfather was a huge Prine fan and some of the first stuff she learnt on guitar — taught to her by her grandfather — was songs by Prine, the highly influential singer-songwriter from Illinois, who died in 2020. “The chord sequences and structures are really strange. It’s almost like the writes the chords around his vocal — I don’t know if that’s what he does — but they change quite frequently. And I think he’s probably the best lyricist of all time. It ...