Meet Me in St. Louis We sure are looking forward to the holiday season and the upcoming Christmas show that returns the full company to The Fabulous Fox Theatre. We sure would love for you to join us for an evening of comedy, humor, and song. Imagine singing holiday classics such as “Silent Night” with a couple thousand people … what a choir, what a beautiful sound it will be. So grab a ticket and join us for some holiday tinsel. Get Tickets >>> Livestream Bundle Can’t make it to New York or St. Louis? We have you covered! There is still time to order the two-show bundle of our holiday-themed A Prairie Home Companion American Revival shows. So fire up that screen, gather with friends and family on November 26th and on December 15, and be entertained by the sounds of an old radio show. Each show can be viewed LIVE and for the next 48 hours. Mandolin is our presenting partner after impressing the home audience with their presentation of the Nashville show back in July. Order the two-ticket bundle >>> Each show is available individually also: November 26th >>> December 15th >>> |
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What Mozart did for me last week. Thanks, Amadeus! I went to a play on Broadway this week, a matinee, and was impressed by the usher in our aisle downstairs who was elaborately kind to everyone, managing a stream of elderly customers confused by row numbers, pointing them to seats while maintaining pleasant small talk, reminding them to turn off their phones, directing them to washrooms (downstairs) or to the counter that offers hearing devices, handing out programs — his competence was stunning and dramatic — and he did it against the clock and never was caustic though he had a right to be, dealing with the dither. Go to Garrison Keillor and Friends on Substack to read the rest of THE COLUMN >>> Become a member of THE BACK ROOM on our Substack page for exclusive access to News from Lake Wobegon stories, archived goodies. excerpts from unpublished works, previews of other works, a second weekly column and on occasion, a full-length video stream of a show from 2015-2016. Also if you shop in the store, THE BACK ROOM subscribers receive 20% discounts. ($6 per mos or $65 annual subscription). |
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This week on "A Prairie Home Companion" This week, we revisit a show originally performed from the Skoglund Center Auditorium at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota. With special guests, the entire St. Olaf Orchestra and St. Olaf Choir in the same space, at the same time. Also with us, Philip Brunelle, Heather Masse, Tim Russell and Sue Scott, Rich Dworsky, and Pat Donohue, plus the latest News from Lake Wobegon. Highlights include the humorous song “I’m a Lutheran,” old favorites “How Can I Keep from Singing” and “Turtle Dove,” “When Is Love Lost” and “Mambo,” plus a monologue about the St. Olaf Choir with Philip Brunelle and more. It’s a classic from 2011 you do not want to miss! So, gather around your computer or smartphone and spend the next two hours of fun and frivolity with us. Join us Saturday for a listen via our Facebook page at 5 p.m. CT (or click the link below). Listen to the Show >>> Like our Facebook page >>> More about this week’s featured guests The St. Olaf Choir, under the direction of Anton Armstrong, performs with the same choral excellence and artistry listeners have come to expect since the group’s founding in 1912 by F. Melius Christiansen, a pioneer of a cappella choral singing in America. Based at St. Olaf College in Northfield, Minnesota, the 75-voice choir has appeared in major concert halls from New York City to Los Angeles, Scandinavia to China. “When Memory Fades” >>> Growing up in rural Maine, Heather Masse sang hymns and folk songs around home with her family. Now based in New York, this New England Conservatory of Music alum is a one-third of the Juno Award-winning Canadian trio The Wailin’ Jennys. “Be My Sailor” >>> Richard Ostling of Time magazine once said that the St. Olaf Orchestra “has to be one of the best college orchestras in the nation.” The ensemble has had more than a hundred years to get that way, dating back to the beginning of the 20th century, when it was guided by F. Melius Christiansen, also founding conductor of the St. Olaf Choir. In addition to its annual tours of the United States, the St. Olaf Orchestra, under the direction of Steven Amundson, has performed in Europe and China. “Carnival Overture” >>> I’M A LUTHERAN Hello from Minnesota. You call it pasta, we call it macaroni, and thank you very much, yes, I believe I will have more. And I was raised in Iowa, went to Concordia, Swedish, I’m proud to say. Got a job at Lutheran Brotherhood, And I never was sick one day. Bought a house in south Minneapolis Over by Cedar Lake If you ask me this latest merger Was nothing but a big mistake. Now I have nothing against Episcopalians I believe in an open door I’m sure it’s good to get new ideas But we never did it that way before. Praise heaven, I believe Praise heaven, I believe I’m a Lutheran, a Lutheran, it is my belief, I am a Lutheran guy. We may have merged with another church But I’m a Lutheran till I die. We are a modest people And we never make a fuss And it sure would be a better world If they were all as modest as us. We do not go for whooping it up, Or a lot of yikkety-yak. When we say hello, we avert our eyes And we always sit in the back. We sit in the pew where we always sit, And we do not shout Amen. And if anyone yells or waves their hands, They’re not invited back again. I’m a Lutheran, a Lutheran, it is my belief, I am a Lutheran guy. We may have merged with another church But I’m a Lutheran till I die. We’ve got chow mein noodles on tuna hotdish And Jell-O with cottage cheese, And chocolate bars and banana cream pie, No wonder we’re on our knees. This is the church where we sing Amen At the end of every song. The coffee pot is always on ’Cause the meetings are three hours long. The blessed tie that binds our hearts Is cream of mushroom soup We do not walk through the door alone. We wait and go as a group. Praise heaven, I believe Praise heaven, I believe I’m a Lutheran, a Lutheran, it is my belief, I am a Lutheran guy. We may have merged with another church But I’m a Lutheran till I die. Episcopalians are proud of their faith, You ought to hear ’em talk Who they got? They got Henry the 8th And we got J.S. Bach. Henry the 8th he had six wives Trying to make a son. J.S. Bach had 23 children And wives, he had just one. Henry the 8th’d marry a woman And then her head would drop J.S. Bach had all those kids ’Cause his organ had no stop. Praise heaven, I believe Praise heaven, I believe I’m a Lutheran, a Lutheran, it is my belief, I am a Lutheran guy. Episcopalians I don’t mind But I’m a Lutheran till I die. Once in a while we go to shows But a Lutheran is not a fan. We don’t whistle and we don’t laugh We smile as loud as we can. If you come to church, don’t expect to be hugged, Don’t expect your hand to be shook. If we need to know who you are, We can look in the visitors book. I was raised to keep a lid on it, Guard what you say or do. A Mighty Fortress is our God So he must be Lutheran too. Praise heaven, I believe Praise heaven, I believe I’m a Lutheran, a Lutheran, it is my belief, I am a Lutheran guy. Episcopalians I don’t mind But I’m a Lutheran till I die. |
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GET Wobegon Boy FREE with purchases over $25 (till November 21st) |
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A promising young man, John Tollefson, last seen leaving home in Lake Wobegon Days, lands in a lovely town in upstate New York, the manager of a public radio station at a college for the academically challenged children of financially gifted parents. He buys a fine house, finds a wonderful girlfriend named Alida, launches a restaurant, puts on good parties, is presented with radio’s coveted Wally Award, and then it dawns on him that his life is empty, without grandeur. And that grandeur is to be found in the life in which his Lutheran parents brought him up. Ultimately that leads the Wobegon Boy not back to Lake Wobegon, but to New York City. From Kirkus Review No, that’s not thunder you’re hearing. More likely it’s laughter from the Hereafter, for if there’s any justice here or there, Mark Twain, Will Rogers, and James Thurber have already received their advance copies of this latest installment in the ongoing saga of Minnesota’s endearingly phlegmatic Norwegian-Americans. Wobegon Boy isn’t exactly a novel, but what the hell, who really wants one from the genial creator and host of public radio’s A Prairie Home Companion? What we’re given here is a shred of a story — narrated by Keillor’s protagonist John Tollefson, who escapes the stultifying “cheerfulness” of his homeland (and the girlfriend he doesn’t want to marry) by securing a job as manager of a newly created radio station at upstate New York’s nondescript St. James College. Shades of Jon Hassler close about the Horatio Algerlike John, who picks his way in and out of relationships with assorted academic phonies, potential business partners, and — most importantly — the Amazonian Alida Freeman, a lively university historian who isn’t above any number of amorous tumbles with the smitten Wobegonian, but won’t commit herself to “the doldrums of marriage.” The plot is really only an excuse for comic riffs on such irresistible targets as political correctness, talk radio, feminist militancy, academic unfreedom, the polite impregnability of the Norwegian national character, sexual good manners, New Age music, and Lord knows what all else. There’s a laugh on virtually every page of this fresh reimagining of the young-man-up-from-the-provinces novel, even during the truly touching extended sequence that describes John’s return home for his father’s funeral and reconciliation with exasperating friends and relations he thought he’d seen the last of. And John Tollefson is no mere innocent afoot (consider, for example, his perfectly reasonable theory that the New England Transcendentalists all suffered from chronic constipation). Drollery raised to the level of genuine comic art. And that’s the news from Lake Wobegon. (October 1997) From now until November 21st, ALL ORDERS over $25 will include a free copy of Wobegon Boy to celebrate the 25th Anniversary of its publication. You need to do nothing except place your order. Through this time, we will be sharing excerpts, quotations, reviews, and other information to celebrate the release of the book. Offer is for a printed copy of the book. |
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American Revival Shirt 2022 has seen an American Revival of the old radio show with five complete A Prairie Home Companion shows planned and an exclusive design tied to each show. This collectible T-shirt features one of the earliest wordmarks of A Prairie Home Companion that feels as wistful today as it did some 40 years ago. Available in sizes S–XXL. | Get the T-shirt — Washington, D.C. >>> Ryman >>> Denver >>> |
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From the Archives We have raided the vault and assembled the fourth chronological look at the origin stories of Lake Wobegon! When A Prairie Home Companion went national in 1980, Garrison Keillor started turning his vignettes, updates, and letters from Lake Wobegon into a full-fledged story each week. In this vintage collection, you can hear America’s favorite storyteller hone his craft in front of a live audience regaling them with stories about what takes place in “the little town that time forgot and decades could not improve.” This collection includes monologues from A Prairie Home Companion that aired in the year 1983. These stories will enchant you today as much as they did four decades ago. Many haven’t been heard since about 1983, and thus this collection can be treated as a new Lake Wobegon story collection. It’s time to return to your favorite small town. Get From the Archives: 1983 >>> Still available: (Buy any two or more and save — simply add to your shopping cart.) Get From the Archives: 1980 >>> Get From the Archives: 1981 >>> Get From the Archives: 1982 >>> |
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The NEW Duct Tape Shirt Sponsored by the American Duct Tape Council, since duct tape is the only tool you need at your disposal. And this shirt humorously tells folks why. Gray cotton shirt is available in sizes S–XXL. Get the Shirt >>> |
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