Hanukkah Trimmings from 2006

Next Events: Nashville, TN, & Manhattan, KS, in January!

Give the gift of A Prairie Home Companion this holiday season! Our next two shows on the 50th Anniversary Tour featuring Garrison Keillor with Guests: CHUCK MEAD & HIS GRASSY KNOLL BOYS, HEATHER MASSE, CHRISTINE DIGIALLONARDO, and RICHARD DWORSKY, SAM BUSH, STUART DUNCAN, BRYAN SUTTON, and MIKE ELIZONDO. PLUS, OUR ACTING COMPANY: SUE SCOTT,  TIM RUSSELL, and FRED NEWMAN. Memorable cities shall lead to a memorable show, and we hope you join us to hear some great music along with Guy Noir, Dusty and Lefty, Mom and Duane, and the latest News from Lake Wobegon. Last year, one of the extraordinary experiences was the audience sing-along at the Mother Church of Country Music! Join us in song again . . . (click for ticket info)

January 11, 2024, at the Ryman in Nashville, TN, at 7:30 p.m.

January 13, 2024, at the McCain Auditorium in Manhattan, KS, at 7:30 p.m.

Listen to the December 16, 2006, show

This week on the classic episode of A Prairie Home Companion, we return to The Town Hall, which served the show’s seasonal needs almost every December. Our special guests: Jerry Douglas, the prolific resophonic guitarist and the most recorded Dobro player in history, and his band. We've got Billy Collins — former poet laureate of the United States and a Distinguished Professor of English at the City University of New York (1968–2016). Also with us, the Royal Academy of Radio Acting (Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Fred Newman), the News from Lake Wobegon, and sitting in with the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, the cunning commander of catgut Andy Stein.

Highlights include talk of Hanukkah and a special medley from Rich Dworsky, Billy Collins reads his ode to aging (“The Golden Years”), Jerry Douglas picks the classic “Away in a Manger” with his band, Garrison’s humorous ode called “The Waffle Song,” plus Catchup, Rhubarb, Guy Noir, a few words from Mom, and the latest News from Lake Wobegon. Listen now or via social channels on Saturday evening.

JERRY DOUGLAS

These days, when someone mentions a Dobro, Jerry Douglas immediately comes to mind. Little wonder. The 15-time Grammy winner and Country Music Association’s Musician of the Year can be heard on more than a thousand albums, including discs by Garth Brooks, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Vince Gill, and Ray Charles. Born in Warren, Ohio, Douglas developed an early interest in bluegrass. His father, a steelworker, played music, and Jerry took up the mandolin at age five. He switched to Dobro when he was 11, after seeing a Flatt & Scruggs concert featuring Dobro master Josh Graves. Before he was out of his teens, he had joined the Country Gentlemen. He has been a member of other groundbreaking bands like J.D. Crowe & the New South, Alison Krauss & Union Station, and The Earls of Leicester — and he has a thriving career as a solo artist as well. The New York Times called Douglas “Dobro’s matchless contemporary master.” 

BILLY COLLINS

Billy Collins was twice appointed United States poet laureate and also served as New York State poet laureate. In 2004, he was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Poetry Foundation's Mark Twain Award for humor in poetry. The poems in Questions About Angels; Picnic, Lightning; Sailing Alone Around the Room; Nine Horses; The Trouble with Poetry; Ballistics, and his other best-selling books have sparked a firestorm of interest in the art. His most recent collection of poetry is 2022’s Musical Tables: Poems.

ANDY STEIN

Violinist and saxophonist Andy Stein was a regular member of Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band on A Prairie Home Companion from 1989 to 2001. He collaborated with Garrison Keillor to create the opera Mr. and Mrs. Olson. He has appeared on Saturday Night Live and Late Night with David Letterman, and has performed with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Eric Clapton, Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Joel, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, and many others.

And here are the lyrics in printed form of Garrison’s humorous ode “The Waffle Song”:

Here we come a-waffling
Among the leaves so green,
Here we come, our teeth are brushed,
Our clothes are nice and clean.

CHORUS: Love and joy come to you,
And to you your waffle, too,
And God bless you, and send you
A Happy New Year,
And God send you a Happy New Year.

We are not daily beggars
Who go from door to door,
But we are rather tired
And our feet are sore. (CHO)
Good master and good mistress,
As you sit beside the fire,
Pray think of us old folks
About to retire. (CHO)
We have a little pension fund,
We’re hoping it will pay
So make a contribution
And we will go away. (CHO)
Bring us out a table
And spread it with a cloth;
And bring us out some noodles
Cooked in chicken broth. (CHO)
God bless the master of this house,
Likewise the mistress too;
And may they never get a call
From Internal Revenue. (CHO)
We sit and drink another glass
And partake of the grape
And lean a little to the left
To let the wind escape. (CHO)
How lovely on a winter night
Amid the dark and gloom
To see that dinner’s ready
In the dining room. (CHO)
We’ll sit down at the table
With napkins round our necks.
And then go see a movie
At the multiplex. (CHO)

FLASH SALE: A Year in Lake Wobegon for $12 for a limited time!

One might think not a lot happens during a course of a year in a small town, but one would be wrong! This collection gathers 12 "above-average" stories representing all the goings-on in Lake Wobegon during one calendar year. Family gatherings, holiday celebrations, the predictable, the unexpected — it all happens in "the little town that time forgot and decades could not improve."

Each monologue is culled from episodes of A Prairie Home Companion that aired between 2014 and 2016. As an added bonus, liner notes contain a poem for each month written by Garrison Keillor. Plus, between monologues you will hear music by Peter Ostroushko.

Stories:

Polar Vortex - Train Robbery Romance - Mysterious Divorce - Mr. Berge & the Ice Melt - Mattress - Graduation Prank - Parade - Cemetery on the Hill - Bears - Lunar Eclipse - Thanksgiving - The Messiah

Full songs:

McCully's Waltz - The Whalebone Feathers - Heart of the Heartland

GET THE CDs

Nothing You Do For Children Paperweight

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 etched on a substantial glass weight and packaged in a lovely gift box. Made in the USA. Get the paperweight.

A Prairie Home Companion Scroll Shirt

This has quickly become our most popular shirt design! A spring vine scrolls around the classic A Prairie Home Companion microphone logo. This shirt was inspired by a design used by the Grand Ole Opry, which itself was the inspiration for Garrison's show! Lightweight, brown T-shirt is a cotton/poly blend. Get the shirt.