The old man's lecture about manners (boring)
Believe it or not, I used to be rather cool. This was before you were born, probably, but I have pictures. I was aloof and enigmatic, unsmiling, and I liked the monosyllabic. Someone said, “It’s a beautiful day today.” I said, “Right.” Flat tone. Irony. My dad was a friendly guy who always made small talk with clerks and waitresses (“So how’s it going then?”), which I found embarrassing and stood apart from him so people wouldn’t know we were related.
That was long ago and a person learns by experience and now I’m so far from cool I wouldn’t know it if I saw it. I am an advocate of cheerfulness. I believe in good manners. I like making small talk, just as Dad did. Read the rest of the column >>>
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A Minnesota Life . . . The paperback edition of Garrison’s very personal memoir, That Time of Year: A Minnesota Life, arrives next week on March 7, wherever you get your books. The introduction and first chapter have been updated for the softcover release.
In That Time of Year, Garrison Keillor looks back on his life and recounts how a Brethren boy with writerly ambitions grew up in a small town on the Mississippi in the 1950s and, seeing three good friends die young, turned to comedy and radio. Through a series of unreasonable lucky breaks, he founded A Prairie Home Companion and put himself in line for a good life, including mistakes, regrets, and a few medical adventures. PHC lasted forty years, more than 1,500 shows, and enjoyed the freedom to do as it pleased for three or four million listeners every Saturday at 5 p.m. Central. He got to sing with Emmylou Harris and Renée Fleming and once sang two songs to the US Supreme Court. He played a private eye and a cowboy, gave the news from his hometown, Lake Wobegon, and met Somali cab drivers who’d learned English from listening to the show. He wrote bestselling novels, won a Grammy and a National Humanities Medal, and made a movie with Robert Altman with an alarming amount of improvisation.
He says, “I was unemployable and managed to invent work for myself that I loved all my life, and on top of that I married well. That’s the secret, work and love. And I chose the right ancestors, impoverished Scots and Yorkshire farmers, good workers. I’m heading for eighty, and I still get up to write before dawn every day.” Listen to a sample >>>
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This week on A Prairie Home Companion This week, we continue our journey back in time so we can revisit a show originally performed in 2006 from the University of North Dakota campus. Featuring Grammy Award-winning bluegrass heroes the Del McCoury Band, folk-singing farmer Chuck Suchy, and the Hopeful Gospel Quartet with Robin & Linda Williams. Also, the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band, the Royal Academy of Radio Acting (Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Fred Newman), and the News from Lake Wobegon. Join us Saturday on our Facebook. page at 5 p.m. CT (or if you simply cannot wait, listen via the link below). Listen to the show >>>
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More about this week’s GUEST PERFORMERS:
When Del McCoury was growing up in York County, Pennsylvania, he learned music from his mother, Hazel, a church organist who also played guitar, piano and harmonica. And he never missed a chance to tune in to the Grand Ole Opry. But when his older brother bought a 78-rpm record of Flatt and Scruggs, that was it. Del started playing bluegrass and he’s never looked back. In 1963, Bill Monroe asked McCoury to play in his band, The Blue Grass Boys. And after a brief stint in California with the Golden State Boys, McCoury ended up back in Pennsylvania, working at a sawmill and playing music on weekends. As his sons got older, they began playing with their dad in his band, the Dixie Pals. Ronnie joined the band in 1981 and Rob followed in 1988. The Del McCoury Band formed in the early 1990s. The group has won numerous honors from the International Bluegrass Music Association’s (IBMA), including being named Entertainer of the Year numerous times. Listen to “All Aboard” >>>
Chuck Suchy is a folksinger, songwriter, and storyteller. He’s also a working farmer on the land along the Missouri River south of Mandan, North Dakota, where he was born and raised. Back in 1982, an acquaintance gave him a tape of Canadian troubadour Stan Rogers singing his classic “Field Behind the Plow.” Suchy says, “It was at that moment that I realized that the life I was immersed in was worthy of song.” That was the start of his songwriting career, and he continues write and perform his compositions celebrating the Great Plains region and lifestyle. As Acoustic Guitar Magazine wrote, “This is country music with its fingers in the soil and its heart heading down the highway on an Indian motorcycle.” Listen to “Finger-Lickin’ Good” >>>
As the Hopeful Gospel Quartet (Garrison Keillor, Robin and Linda Williams, and Carol Elizabeth Jones) explains it, the group “began its career backstage at Prairie Home shows, when we stood waiting for the balloon to go up and sang to pass the time and found out that we all like gospel songs and that they sound wonderful in a stairwell.” Now, countless gigs (and a couple of personnel changes) later, they are still finding great four-part harmonies in stairwells and on stages across the country.
Singing the music they love — be it bluegrass, folk, old-time, or acoustic country — Robin and Linda Williams have carved out a five-decade career that has taken them from Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl. They’ve have written dozens of terrific songs, ones that have been covered by the likes of Emmylou Harris, Tom T. Hall, Tim and Mollie O’Brien, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kathy Mattea, and The Seldom Scene.
Carol Elizabeth Jones hails from the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She has made her mark as a singer of traditional mountain music and as a writer of new songs in the old tradition. Listen to “Jordan” >>>
LEARN more about the group >>>
Here are the lyrics from Garrison’s version of “I’ve Been Working on the Railroad.”
I’ve been working on the radio
Since I was 23.
I’ve been working on the radio
’Cause I cannot do TV.
Anyone who’s seen my picture
Knows the reason why.
I’ll be working on the radio
Until the day I die.
Someone’s in the kitchen and she’s listening
I got a couple listeners I know
Someone in Fargo or Edina
Listening to the radio and making
Three slices griddle-fried dough
Three slices griddle-fried dough
Three slices griddle-fried dough
Strumming on the old banjo.
(BANJO BREAK)
Can’t you hear the captain shouting,
Rise up so early in the morn.
Can’t you hear your darling saying,
Your underwear is torn.
Your underwear is torn
Your underwear is torn
Your underwear is torn in two
Your underwear is torn, your underwear is torn
And I can see right through.
I’ve been working on the radio
And I always will
I am climbing up the mountain
And then over the hill.
I don’t do any web streams
Don’t do MP3
I don’t do any ringtones
Radio is good enough for me. |
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Tim Russell Interviewed FROM TIM RUSSELL - Radio personality Dave Lee was kind enough to invite me to join him on his podcast “My First Concert”, available wherever you get your podcasts. We talked about my adventure at the first Woodstock, my years working on “A Prairie Home Companion” with Garrison Keillor, and the various celebrities I was fortunate enough to meet along the way. Listen >>> |
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Young Lutheran’s Guide to the Orchestra Have you ever wondered what instrument in the orchestra the Lord would have played had he been Lutheran? Garrison’s classic sketch contains the answer. Listen to the sketch featuring the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra (link below).
This sketch is featured on a special release, with proceeds benefiting the orchestra. It was recorded LIVE as a benefit concert. The product page has a full content list and easy-to-use download links for Amazon and iTunes as part of our Download Project. Listen to the sketch >>>
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Gospel Birds & Other Stories Enjoy this classic tale and one cited by many fans to be their favorite Lake Wobegon story. Many fans have written in wondering if there are further exploits by “Bruno, the Fishing Dog.”
Three hours of Lake Wobegon stories, including “Bruno, the Fishing Dog,” “Pastor Ingqvist’s Trip to Orlando,” “A Day at the Circus with Mazumbo,” plus six other stories. Gospel Birds is Garrison Keillor at his very best — endearing insights, gentle humor, and warm affection for the human foibles we all share. Includes musical interludes by Chet Atkins. The product pages for the CDs in our store have been updated with detailed track listings and easy download links from Amazon and iTunes. Listen to “Bruno, the Fishing Dog” >>>
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