"Have you ever noticed," John Prine asks us on his first CD of new material in nine years, "When you're feeling really good/ There's always a pigeon/ That'll sh*t on your hood?"

It's vintage wry Prine, presented with sparse backing and in that trademark rasp. Prine has always had a way with words, alternating (sometimes midsong) between the poignant and the comical.

Prine fans will find plenty of both on Fair & Square. Yet, if the artist has never been at a loss for words, there's evidence on this folksy album that he may be running short on melodies. The majority of these 14 songs have been co-written, and whatever he's paying collaborators like Keith Sykes, Pat McLaughlin and Roger Cook, it seems the veteran singer-songwriter is not getting his money's worth.

Borrowed tunes abound throughout the album, though Prine wisely steps in occasionally to stem the tide with a fine melody of his own. The tunes, it should be said, are consistently pleasant -- just a little too familiar.

Small wonder, then, that the album's high point comes with a spirited cover of the Carter Family's Bear Creek Blues, a song that apparently slipped through the co-writers' grasp.