A Tangled Web from 2011

Garrison, Heather & Rich on November 29th in Wabash, Indiana

PRAIRIE HOME HOLIDAY will be an evening full of laughter and cheer as Garrison Keillor takes the stage with vocalist Heather Masse and pianist Richard Dworsky. Together, they will share stories and timeless songs that celebrate the essence of love and family, including a Christmas sing-along. This show will be in Wabash, Indiana, on November 29th. Tickets on sale now. Get tickets here.

This show is part of our upcoming series of EVENTS — Garrison performing solo or in concert with others in addition to a few shows gathering our PHC troupe back together to celebrate the upcoming 50th Anniversary of the first Prairie Home Companion show. VIEW ALL EVENTS here.

A Tanglewood classic from July 2, 2011

This show from July 2, 2011, served as the season finale that was performed in front of a great crowd at Tanglewood in Lenox, Massachusetts.

Special guests: Broadway actress Christine DiGiallonardo, Nickel Creek alum Sara Watkins, Gospel-singing sisters Jearlyn and Jevetta Steele, and Chris Thile rocking the mandolin. Also with us, The Royal Academy of Radio: actors Sue Scott, Tim Russell and Fred Newman. Plus, Richard Kriehn sits in with Rich Dworsky and The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band, and it’s another spectacular Fourth of July weekend in Lake Wobegon.

Highlights include Jearlyn and Jevetta tackling a few classic tunes, a fiddle medley with Sara Watkins and Richard Kriehn, “You’re the One I Want” from Chris Thile and Sara, Pat’s take on “The Berkshire Blues,” plus the Cowboys, Rhubarb, and a visit from Mom. Click here to listen now or join us on Facebook this Saturday where the link to listen and comment goes live at 5 p.m. CT.

Christine DiGiallonardo

New York-based vocalist Christine DiGiallonardo is at home singing in early-music chamber ensembles as well as jazz and rock bands. She performs solo and with her sisters, Daniela and Nadia, as The DiGiallonardo Sisters, and her voice can be heard on commercial jingles for Aquafresh, Mr. Clean, Playtex, and Febreze. Her theater credits include Carousel (Live from Lincoln Center), Lady, Be Good! (City Center Encores!), The Sound of Music(Carnegie Hall), and My Fair Lady (Avery Fisher Hall).

Sara Watkins

Singer, songwriter, fiddle player Sara Watkins was only eight when she, her brother Sean, and Chris Thile started the genre-bending, Grammy-winning trio Nickel Creek. Two decades later — with Nickel Creek on indefinite hiatus — she struck out on her own. Her latest solo album is titled Under the Pepper Tree.

Jearlyn and Jevetta Steele

Growing up in Indiana, Jearlyn Steele sang with her siblings as The Steele Children. One by one, they moved to Minnesota and started singing together again. Now music is the family business. Jearlyn also hosts Steele Talkin’, a Sunday-night radio show that originates on WCCO in Minneapolis. In the 1980s, Jevetta Steele — along with her family group, The Steeles — toured the world in the musical The Gospel at Colonus. The show had another successful run at Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in 2010. And many remember Jevetta’s Academy Award-nominated performance of “Calling You,” from the film Baghdad Café.

Chris Thile

Chris Thile made his first appearance on A Prairie Home Companion in 1996. He was 15 and had already been playing mandolin for a decade. He’d also started Nickel Creek with Sara and Sean Watkins. This Grammy winner and MacArthur “genius” grant recipient now leads acoustic quintet Punch Brothers, among other projects. Thile’s recent solo album is titled Laysongs.

Sometimes you long for how things used to be. Here are the lyrics Garrison wrote for the song “Back in the Day.”

Back then, my little daughter, We didn’t pay for a bottle of water Back when Sinatra was alive And coffee didn’t cost three ninety-five We didn’t worry ’bout organic purity, The polar bear, or airline security. No metal detectors, we just walked on through And that was long before you. In school, we said a prayer To God above the ozone layer He was management and we were labor And we got the news on a sheet of paper We didn’t read it off a screen We didn’t worry about caffeine Or secondary smoke or other risks And music came on black vinyl discs. (SFX NEEDLE STATIC, THEN TRUMPET BREAK) Sometimes I might prefer To go back to where we were But I think of life as a circus parade We ride along as the music is played There you are, young and elegant, Up on the back of an elephant In your spangly suit, my dear, And I am walking to the rear Brown coveralls is my costume, I’m the guy with a shovel and broom. The young and beautiful ride high, Faces turned up toward the sky. I look at the ground so I can scoop Up the piles of elephant poop In the midst of youth and beauty A father must attend to duty. A slight demotion, yes, I know But I’m still with the show. 

In Cheerfulness, veteran radio host and author Garrison Keillor reflects on a simple virtue that can help us in this stressful and sometimes gloomy era. Drawing on personal anecdotes from his young adulthood into his eighties, Keillor sheds light on the immense good that can come from a deliberate work ethic and a buoyant demeanor. “Adopting cheerfulness as a strategy does not mean closing your eyes to evil,” he tells us; “it means resisting our drift toward compulsive dread and despond.” Funny, poignant, thought-provoking, and whimsical, this is a book that will inspire you to choose cheerfulness in your daily life. Get the book here.

Serenity at 70, Gaiety at 80: Why You Should Keep on Getting Older

Serenity at 70; Gaiety at 80: Why You Should Keep on Getting Older includes 25 Rules of the Game to make one’s life simpler and more enjoyable. We will look at each of them over the next few weeks:

19. There is a lot of outrage going on around us, most of it pretty cheap, and why add to the surplus? Count to 10 before you condemn. I come from judgmental people, northerners, who examine a person and give you a grade that sticks and is not easily appealed. I’ve carried this disapproving gene, the tendency to be a royal pain in the ass, and now, Praise the Lord, it has left me. I am able to read things I mightily disapprove of and set them aside, and don’t feel obliged to be angry. I just click Delete or Unsubscribe and move along. We don’t have a sign in the front yard: THIS HOUSE IS OPPOSED TO GENOCIDE. It isn’t for fear that we'll be assumed to be genocidal but for fear the neighbors will feel a need to construct a billboard opposing bestiality, torture, genocide, cannibalism, and the mass incarceration of Methodists. Bumper stickers will appear: We Stop For Deer. People will petition the school board to forbid the assigned reading of literature that involves cruelty.

More suggestions coming from the book the Saturday Evening Post called “a self-published masterwork on aging.” Get the book.

Nothing You Do For Children Travel Mug

This gem of wisdom from Leaving Home, Garrison Keillor’s best-selling book of Lake Wobegon stories, is for every parent, grandparent, and teacher — anyone, really, who cares deeply about children. Without a doubt, the eight simple words are a big reason all children in Lake Wobegon are “above average.” Quotation is printed on the outside of our stainless steel travel mug. Get the Travel Mug here.

Also available: Etched Glass Paperweight

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