Sunshine & Happiness - May 6, 2000

CHEERFULNESS by Garrison Keillor — click here to purchase

Shipping for Garrison’s newest book begins on May 13th! From the back cover:Cheerfulness is a choice. Happiness is circumstantial, joy is for special occasions, bliss is brief (except for blissful ignorance), jubilation is rare and elation even more so, contentment is lovely but easily broken, glee is often cruel, triumph is beyond the pale, delight is inexplicable, gaiety was possible once and now it belongs to Dan and George, but cheerfulness is a simple practical option: put yesterday behind and seize the day. Try it tomorrow morning and make it work. Click here to pre-order CHEERFULNESS.

On The Road — click to view full tour schedule

Two special shows featuring Garrison Keillor performing alongside PHC favorites Robin & Linda Williams in an evening of poetry, songs, stories, a few sing-alongs plus the latest news from Lake Wobegon. There probably will be a gospel number or two since The Hopeful Gospel Quartet was such a mainstay on the radio show. Watch “Crossing the Bar.” 

July 6, 2023 at 8:00 pm — Sellersville Theatre in Sellersville, PA

July 8, 2023 at 8:00 pm — Lime Kiln Theater in Lexington, VA

May 6, 2000, from Sun City West, Arizona

From May through to the end of the season — around the fourth of July— A Prairie Home Companion generally hit the road, performing the show LIVE around the country for host stations and giving longtime listeners of the radio show a chance to see how it’s all put together. This week’s classic show was performed live from the Sundome Center for the Performing Arts in Sun City West, Arizona, and featured special guests Linda Ronstadt, Butch Thompson, and Lynn Peterson. 

Highlights include Garrison singing with Lynn on the Marty Robbins tune “At the End of a Long, Lonely Day,” some talk with Linda Ronstadt before she shares “Heart Like a Wheel’ and “Lush Life,” and “Kansas City Blues Man” played by Butch Thompson. And the sketches: Cowboys, Bertha’s, Rhubarb, Catchup, and the latest News. Join us on Facebook at 5:00 p.m. CT this Saturday. Or if you can’t wait, click this LINK now.

Linda Ronstadt

Linda Ronstadt is one of the greatest singers of all time and her distinctive vocals lend themselves to many different genres. Her musical career spans rock, country, opera, easy listening, standards, and Latin. She has won more than a dozen Grammy Awards plus countless other honors, including being inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 2014 and being saluted with the Kennedy Center Honors in 2019. Though a health condition has ended her singing career, she keeps a busy schedule mentoring other artists. A documentary called Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice was released in 2019 to great acclaim. She also released an archived album called Live from Hollywood.

Lynn Peterson

Singer-songwriter-science geek Lynn Petersonis a native Minnesotan whose career took her to New York City, where she spent eight years as a performer, composer, and studio vocalist, before returning to the Twin Cities. And the science geek part? She studied chemistry as an undergrad and now continues work focused on chemistry and sustainability. 

Butch Thompson

For 12 years of his four-decade career, Butch Thompson was the house pianist on A Prairie Home Companion, dating back to the show’s second broadcast in July 1974. As a soloist, he had earned a worldwide reputation as a master of ragtime, stride, and classic jazz piano. Described by Jazz Journal International as “the premier player in traditional jazz today,” Thompson also performed with his well-known trio, his eight-piece New Orleans Jazz Originals, and with symphony orchestras, including the Hartford Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Cairo (Egypt) Symphony. Sadly, Butch passed away in 2022.

Here is a song that is featured in “The Lives of the Cowboys” sketch from this show:

Last night as I lay on the prairie Asleep on the rocks and the dirt I dreamed that I lived in Sun City And wore a bright green polo shirt. I dreamed that I lived in a condo And lay by the pool every day Snacking on shrimp and on lobster And sipping a fine chardonnay. I played bridge at the club every morning Did aerobics three times a week On Wednesday and Friday there’s dancing On Sunday we hear someone speak. And one day I felt a dark shadow And the temperature dropped ten degrees It was Agnes, my wife, she was angry Right away I got down on my knees She said, Get up, you ridiculous idiot, Go and get dressed right away We’re going to have lunch with the pastor I told you ten times, it’s today. I said to her, I’m not going She said you are so get changed I said to her, I’m not either And I woke up out here on the range. Sleeping with rocks for a pillow And my roof is that cottonwood tree I’m sure that she is a fine woman But a cowboy is meant to be free. 

The Lives of the Cowboys — click to purchase

Like the News from Lake Wobegon and Guy Noir, Private Eye, The Lives of the Cowboys sketch has become a signature part of A Prairie Home Companion. Each week, radio listeners can't wait to hear Lefty’s latest poem and Dusty’s latest rant.

In six complete sketches drawn from the radio show, the two pardners cope with hangovers and citrusy aftershave, try to get in the Christmas mood (not much luck there), meet a vampire, drive a herd of 10,000 free-range chickens, tangle with a territorial poet named Big Messer, pay a visit to the New York Public Library, and wind up in the San Luis Obispo County Jail for mistaking a cocker spaniel for a coyote. Each is a glimpse into daily life in and mostly out of the saddle. Includes four songs.

Garrison Keillor stars as Lefty; Tim Russell as Dusty; with Sue Scott, Tom Keith, Danielle Di Vecchio, and Julie Boyd.

Here is a classic sketch from the release called “The Copper Casserole Café,” which you should find entertaining. Click here to purchase the collection.

Serenity at 70, Gaiety at 80: why you should keep on getting older by Garrison Keillor — click here to purchase

“The second of his new books is likewise about moving on. It’s a 90-page self-­published masterwork about the inexorable decrepitude that accompanies old age — but, more importantly, also the manifold pleasures that accrue as you arrive there. Serenity at 70, Gaiety at 80 is a playful yet deeply felt meditation that ought to be a standard in the literature of human aging.” — The Saturday Evening Post (read the full review)

A book from Garrison Keillor, a man nearing age 80, on leaning into the beauty of getting old. “My life is so good at 79, I wonder why I waited this long to get here,” he writes. You learn that Less Is More, the great lesson of Jesus and also Buddha. Each day becomes important after you pass the point of life expectancy. Big problems vanish, small things make you happy. And the worst is behind you because you lack the energy to be as foolish as you might otherwise be.
 
You’ll learn the 23 rules for aging, including “Enumerate your benefits,” “Enjoy inertia,” “Get out of the way,” “Don’t fight with younger people; they will be writing your obituary,” and finally, “Ignore rules you read in a book. Do what you were going to do anyway.”
 
Readers are sure to chuckle at the wisdom and humor contained in this short, full-color volume, which includes as supplementary material, both photos from Garrison’s life as well as fine art. Click here to purchase the book. 

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