After just about every song John Prine sang Saturday night, at least one audience member yelled, "I love you, John Prine!"

He took it in stride. It's not like he hasn't heard it before.

And there's a reason for that. Prine -- an archetype of the American singer-songwriter -- seems to genuinely enjoy his time onstage, smiling when he gets to the best-known parts of his deep catalog, enjoying the response.

At the Roanoke Performing Arts Theatre, he told the audience one reason he was happy to be on stage. He had been off the road about three weeks too long, and his wife kept thinking up chores for him to do, he said.

"I'm glad to be out here in the safety of the spotlight," he told the estimated 1,250 people in the 2,151-capacity hall.

They were glad to see him up there, too, with his two backing musicians and nearly cliche-free songs.

Not that Prine doesn't have a formula. Introducing "Souvenirs," he told the crowd how he wrote it in Chicago, when he was delivering mail by day and occasionally playing out. Driving to a gig one night, he realized "the same 12 people would probably be there," so he decided to write something new -- while still at the wheel. But without his guitar, he was afraid that he'd written a melody he couldn't play. He got there and took his guitar into the restroom to work out the tune.

"It was just the same three chords I use all the time," he said.

He has come up with a few more chords since then, but the music is just a framework for his image-rich lyrics. This audience had been listening closely over the years.

After playing "Glory of True Love," people shouted out a dizzying number of requests.

"I know 'em all," he said to laughter, then broke into "Long Monday." The crowd responded as if that were the one it had asked for.

Opening act Carrie Rodriguez, a multi-instrumentalist, had some decent songs and a sweet voice of her own. Her ridiculously talented sideman, Javier Vercher, played drums and keyboard, sometimes simultaneously, and took one wicked soprano saxophone solo.