There are plenty of people who were supposed to be the "next Dylan," but among them the name John Prine still commands as much respect as any.

As well it should.

Prine releases a new album today: "Fair & Square," his first record of new studio material in nine years. His body of work speaks for itself — song portraits such as "Angel from Montgomery" (a staple in Bonnie Raitt's shows) and "Hello in There" (Bette Midler has covered it), along with the social commentary of "Sam Stone" (about a Vietnam War vet) and the more lighthearted poke of "Your Flag Decal Won't Get You Into Heaven Anymore."

Yet it has taken Prine all these years to finally feel grounded.

The 58-year-old Chicago native, who now divides his time between Nashville, Tenn., and Galway, Ireland, is a cancer survivor who delights in life and is happily married to an Irish woman with whom he has two sons, now 9 and 10 years old.

"I was 49 when I had my first kid. For me, I didn't know I had a center. I thought I was just born a certain way and had to make do with it," he says of his prior life. "The kids just grounded me, and everything feels normal now.

"The sky has been bluer and everything has been brighter since the cancer," he adds. "I have my own pot of gold. I have a great family life."

The long delay between studio albums, he says, is partly due to recovering from radical neck dissection surgery (which caused his voice to drop an octave) and partly because of his busy family life.

"I used to just write on a whim," he says. "I'd walk around all day goofing off and wouldn't write until lightning struck. Now I get up at 6:15 and I'm too tired to stay up later than 11 or 12 at night, so I had to make appointments with myself to write."

Those must have been fruitful appointments, because the new CD is stellar. He moves easily from the bluegrass-rock of "Glory of True Love" to the Hollywood satire of "Crazy as a Loon," the finger-picked gem "Long Monday" (with alt-country star Mindy Smith), and the Galway tribute "My Darlin' Hometown," with folk-country queen Alison Krauss joining on vocals.

Even though he's happily hitched, Prine still hasn't lost his irreverence. "Thankfully not," he says. He proves it in sendup songs such as "Taking a Walk" (about a woman who isn't glad to see him: "I felt about as welcome as a Wal-Mart superstore," he sings) and "Other Side of Town," about the futility of arguing with someone who has her mind made up: "My body's in this room with you just catching hell/But my soul is drinking beer down the road a spell."

Then there's the new protest song, "Some Humans Ain't Human," which pillories people who are self-righteous about religion and takes a swipe at President Bush: "You're feeling your freedom and the world's off your back/Then some cowboy in Texas starts his own war in Iraq," Prine sings in that devastating drawl of his.

Above all, Prine is rejuvenated by the concert stage. He's excited about revisiting some of his catalog on tour.

"I couldn't sing at all for a while after the surgery, but gradually my energy came back," he says. "And because my voice has dropped, I've had to sing a lot of the older songs in different keys. But it has made them seem brand new to me. I'm able to sing 'em and enjoy 'em again."

For Texas fans hoping to catch Prine live, Josh Swann of Oh Boy Records said a late summer visit to the state is planned.

"He's definitely coming to Texas this year, but we can't announce dates yet," Swann said.

Tour dates for the singer are available at ohboy.com. The nearest announced show is in Albuquerque on July 29.