It's Up to You New York from 2006

Celebrate the 50th Anniversary!

We are gathering together the full cast and crew to stage A Prairie Home Companion shows in advance of the 50th Anniversary of the first broadcast of the show which aired on July 6, 1974. Help us celebrate as we return to some of our favorite stages across the country and hear Guy Noir, The Lives of the Cowboys, a word from your favorite Mom, Powdermilk, Duct Tape, Rhubarb plus a few songs and stories. View all EVENT dates here.

Listen to the December 9, 2006 Show

I've gone to New York City
To hang out in a crowd
And walk the streets wherever walking is allowed
The gift of the city: to be alone and ignored
To simply walk
Block after block
And see the city. Praise the Lord.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, we'll wake up in the city that never sleeps and make a brand new start of it. With one of the loveliest voices in Irish traditional music Karan Casey, plus the master of tone, taste, and timing, fiddler Stuart Duncan, and a titan of the jazz tuba Howard Johnson and Gravity, this is a show not to be missed. Also with us, the Royal Academy of Radio Acting: Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Fred Newman, the samaritans of sole, The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, and the News from Lake Wobegon.

Highlights include Garrison talking about the anniversary of John Lennon’s death plus re-imagined words to a classic and a duet of ‘In My Life’ with Karan Casey, plus a spirited version of ‘Christmas Times A Comin’’ led by Stuart Duncan, a beautiful ‘Bright Winter’s Day’ from Karan Casey, scripts featuring our talented cast for Aida, Mom, Catchup, Guy Noir and the latest news from Lake Wobegon. Listen to the show now or tune in via social channels on Saturday.

Karan Casey

The Los Angeles Times has called Karan Casey's voice "as pure and clear as the crystal from County Waterford, where she was born." True enough. She grew up singing with her family and with the church choir, then studied voice and piano at the Royal Irish Academy of Music in Dublin. She emigrated to New York in 1993 and enrolled at Brooklyn's Long Island University as a jazz major, but she soon returned to her roots, joining the celebrated Irish-American band Solas. In 1997, she recorded her first solo CD, Songlines, and she worked on other projects, including Paul Winter's Solstice Celebrations and the PBS documentary (and album) Africans In America. Her most recent album, Nine Apples of Gold, was released earlier this year.

Stuart Duncan

Multi-instrumentalist Stuart Duncan took up fiddle at age seven. Since then, he has chalked up a career that includes two Grammys, a slew of Academy of Country Music Awards, and being named the International Bluegrass Music Association’s Fiddle Player of the Year nine times. He was a founding member of the Nashville Bluegrass Band and is perennially one of Nashville’s most sought-after session musicians, performing on thousands of recordings.

Howard Johnson and Gravity

Since the early 1960s, Howard Johnson has garnered acclaim as tuba soloist extraordinaire. After teaching himself to play baritone saxophone at the age of 13, he learned tuba a year later. He hit New York in 1963 and soon began working with Charles Mingus. In 1966, he started a 20-year off-and-on association with Gil Evans, and over the next four decades, he lent his talents to Buddy Rich, Quincy Jones, Taj Mahal, John Lennon, B.B. King and many others. He also did a five-year stint with NBC's Saturday Night Live. In the late '70s, Johnson formed Gravity, six tubas and a rhythm section. Howard passed away in 2021 after appearing on hundreds of recordings featuring him on saxophone or tuba, both as bandleader and sideman. His performance on this show was to promote the album Testimony.

The Beatles are back and have released new music. Imagine if John Lennon were here, maybe he would re-write lyrics to his tunes. . . well, probably not, so we’ve got a humorist/host who loved doing just that. Here are his re-worked lyrics to 'Imagine.’ from this week’s classic show:

Imagine there's no smoking
It's easy if you try
Imagine there's no parking
Between six and nine
Imagine we're broadcasting
Going on the air...
Imagine there's no hip-hop
It isn't hard to do
And no long black limos
Just folks like me and you
Imagine crowds of tourists
Walking 'round Times Square.
You may say I'm a weiner
But I'm not the only one
There are hundreds of hot dogs
Walking around in big white buns
Imagine there's no littering
There is a littering ban
No garbage in the gutter
Throw it in the can
No gum on the sidewalks
Or on the subway stair
You may say I'm a weiner
But I'm not the only one
There are hundreds of hot dogs
Walking around in big white buns

FLASH SALE: Boom Town $12 for a limited time!

With Boom Town, Garrison Keillor returns to his hometown of Lake Wobegon, which is in the midst of a rising economic tide driven by millennial entrepreneurs. “I go back home mainly for funerals, which these days are for people my age, 79, which gets my attention, an obituary with my number in it,” he writes, as he sits at the bedside of Arlene Bunsen dying with humor and grace, and recalls a teenage love affair with Marlys Gunderson and observes the millennial culture, a stark contrast to the Lutheran farm town of the radio monologues. He spends the summer in the old Gunderson lake cabin, reliving the past, postponing his return to New York and his wife Giselle. Get the book. Flash sale ends on Monday, December 11, 2023 at 11:59pm CT.

The Complete Lake Wobegon

This is a complete collection of the Lake Wobegon monologues that have been released. All your favorite stories are included: "Pontoon," "Homecoming," "Giant Decoys," "Gladys Hits a Raccoon" and much more. The gift set contains every title previously released plus Lake Wobegon monologues from live A Prairie Home Companion performances. Included in this set but not pictured are the 3 most recent collections: "The Road Home," "My Little Town," and "A Year in Lake Wobegon."

45 discs total and hours upon hours of great humor! Get the CDs.

A Prairie Home Companion 1974 Shirt

This collectible shirt features one of the earliest wordmarks of A Prairie Home Companion that feels as wistful today as it did some 40 years ago alongside the house that sat on stage for most every performance of the radio show.  Available in sizes S - XXL. Get the shirt.