I was in Clearwater Beach, Florida, the morning of the 31^st, listening to coffee drip, looking out the picture window at a parking lot, and saw a squirrel sitting on top of a telephone pole at eye level fifteen feet away, looking at me. On the beach, men with metal detectors searched for lost diamond rings and gold ingots. The squirrel had no good reason to be on top of a pole and I had no reason to be in Florida and the men on the beach kept moving along and not finding anything, we were all just spending time, and eventually the squirrel went racing along a cable to a nearby roof and I flew back home and I assume the men found something else to do, maybe watch football and drink Harvey Wallbangers.

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This week on A Prairie Home Companion, we’re back home at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota, with our favorite Doris Day gumdrop, Nellie McKay, plus a tune for four (count ’em four!) fiddles for the new year with Deena and Sedra Bistodeau, Catie Jo Pidel, and Richard Kriehn. With the Royal Academy of Radio Acting (Tim Russell, Sue Scott, Tom Keith) and Rich Dworsky and the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band. Plus, the ice fishing has begun in Lake Wobegon and our favorite cranky gumshoe is back on the slippery streets of good ol’ St. Paul. Join us Saturday for a listen via our Facebook page at 5 p.m. CT (or click the link below).  
More about this week’s featured guests
She started out wanting to be a jazz musician. Now when singer, songwriter, actor, and activist Nellie McKay sits down at the piano or picks up the ukulele, you’re likely hear some blend of jazz, pop, hip-hop, cabaret, or vaudeville. The London-born, New York-based performer has amassed quite a following with her quirky musical approach. She’s nothing if not outspoken, and the causes she holds dear — animal rights, for instance — are apt to turn up in her unpredictable song lyrics.
Since they were little girls, sisters Deena and Sedra Bistodeau wowed audiences and contest judges with their fiddle chops — both classical and bluegrass styles — and they’ve got trophies aplenty to show for it, including Minnesota State Fiddle Champion honors for both. The two often teamed up with their parents as the Bistodeau Family Band.  
Catie Jo Pidel began violin lessons at school when she was in the third grade. But her mom thought it might be a good idea to add bluegrass and old-time fiddling to her skills. She was a Minnesota State Fair Teen Fiddle Champion and member of the Minnesota-based groups Whistlepigs String Band and Ruby Magpie. Catie Jo earned a master’s degree from Zürich (Switzerland) University of Applied Sciences, and her latest musical venture is with the Swiss trio caludo.
Texas-born Bob Douglas has lived in Minnesota for decades — since his college days. In the early years of A Prairie Home Companion, he did mandolin duties and played spoons in the show’s house bands, the Powdermilk Biscuit Band and the New Prairie Ramblers. More recently, he lent his musical talents to string bands such as Tune Jerks and Show’d Up Band, and contributed articles to Minnesota Bluegrass magazine.

Here are new lyrics to the song “Leaving Home,” featured in this week’s classic show:

Here it is January and we are stuck at home
Snowstorm knocked out the power, we got no heat or phone
I’m leaving you
When the plow comes through.

Never cared for winter, hate to shovel snow
And I get depressed when the sun is low
Soon as I can get out
I’m heading south

“Oh I’m going away, I’m going to stay, never coming home
Gonna miss me, honey, in the days to come
When the winter wind begins to blow, the ground is covered up
You’re gonna think of me, and miss me your sweetheart
I’m leaving you, darling, if the car will start.”

Now Frankie done said to her Johnny,
“Don’t go near that door.”
Underneath her silk kimono
She drew a forty-four
“You sit right there
On that kitchen chair.”

Now Johnny fled down the stairway
He’s cryin’, “Frankie, don’t shoot.”
Wearing his great big parka
And a size thirteen boot
Out in the snow
Twenty-six below

“Oh I’m going away, I’m going to stay, never coming home
Gonna miss me, honey, in the days to come
When the winter wind begins to blow, the ground is covered up
You’re gonna think of me, and miss me your sweetheart
I’m leaving you, darling, if the car will start.”

Johnny jumped in his car
Johnny turned the key
Nothing happened ’cause Frankie
Had taken the battery
Out of the car
Into her boudoir

Now send for your rubber-tired tow truck
Call for Triple A
Call up the auto graveyard
Tow that car away
That engine’s dead
Since Johnny said

“Oh I’m going away, I’m going to stay, never coming home
Gonna miss me, honey, in the days to come
When the winter wind begins to blow, the ground is covered up
You’re gonna think of me, and miss me your sweetheart
I’m leaving you, darling, if the car will start.”