The end of the worst, bring on the better It was a small Christmas, stockings full of candy and also toothpaste and soap, and Swedish meatballs with lingonberries and mashed potatoes and creamy gravy. The wind whistled outside, the tree sparkled, and though we weren’t what you’d call “joyful,” we were in good humor and sweet to each other, and admired each other’s presents, the electric footbath, the brilliant scarf, the woolen shoes, the earbuds, and peeled our Christmas oranges.
In the late morning lull, we attempted to watch the Netflix “California Christmas,” which was a lull even duller than the one it was meant to fill. It topped the TV charts and was as bad as a movie can possibly be. It died quietly before our eyes and I imagined its enormous viewing audience was mostly made up of the bedridden and the imprisoned. My daughter said that girls she knew liked to watch movies with their friends on smartphones, each person watching a different movie, a scene I could not imagine.
It was one of those moments when you hear the bells toll. Gone are the golden nights at the Ritz or the Roxy, hundreds of us absorbed in the action on a huge screen, our mouths full of popcorn, surrounded by others transfixed in the same magic spell, and we hold hands with our sweetie and remember the times when we sat in the back row where certain liberties could be taken — nobody gets transfixed by a screen the size of a credit card and if the two of you are watching two different tiny flicks, he a shoot-’em-up, she a weeper, how will each of you know when to take liberties? Read the rest of the column >>> |
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Spend New Year's Eve with A Prairie Home Companion A Prairie Home Companion travels back to 2006 for a wonderful show from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee. We welcome Old Crow Medicine Show, who ask "Are You from Dixie?"; Rhonda Vincent and the Rage play "All American Bluegrass Girl"; Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver turn things up past 11, acoustically, with "Sadie's Got a New Dress"; Suzy Bogguss sings "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?"; Emmylou Harris and Jon Randall perform the classic "If I Could Only Win Your Love"; Cowboy Jack Clement joins the band for his own classic, "Guess Things Happen That Way"; and our friends Robin and Linda Williams drop by for a tune or two, including a slow-burning "Ramblin' Man." Plus: a message from the Catchup Advisory Board and a visit to the Café Boeuf courtesy of Tim Russell and Fred Newman; an extra-wide Shoe Band, with Nashville pickers Buddy Emmons, Stuart Duncan, Sam Bush, and Jerry Douglas joining Richard Dworsky and the Guys; and Garrison shares a few notes on how Lake Wobegon is preparing for the New Year. We will post the link to the show at 10 p.m. CT, so to ring in the New Year.
Notes from Richard Dworsky on this special New Year's Eve rebroadcast: If you are a country music fan, this show is definitely for you — amazing artists performing their signature tunes. Pardon me for using the Lord's name in vain but OMG! Emmylou Harris singing "If I Could Only Win Your Love," great bluegrass from Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, AND Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver! Old Crow Medicine Show offering their killer tune "Wagon Wheel," country songstress Suzy Bogguss with an elegant version of the 1940s Frank Loesser standard "What Are You Doing New Year's Eve?" Our old friends Robin and Linda Williams doing their "Rollin' and Ramblin'." And our Guy's All-Star Shoe Band was augmented by a bunch of the greatest pickers who ever walked the earth: Sam Bush on mandolin, Jerry Douglas on Dobro, Stuart Duncan on fiddle, and Buddy Emmons on pedal steel guitar. As bandleader, I have to point to soloists on the fly. And due to their location in a line behind me, it was hard to tell which player I was pointing to. But I joked afterward that it didn't matter, 'cause whoever ran with that solo played a fantastic break. And last, but not least, we had the late, great Cowboy Jack Clement singing a couple of his tunes. It was always a pleasure and honor to accompany him. Jack wrote hit songs for Johnny Cash, recorded and produced Jerry Lee Lewis's very first demo (and first few records) at Sun Studio in Memphis, and produced everybody from Roy Orbison to the band U2! He was a funny guy and a true legend, and is greatly missed. The Ryman Auditorium was where Garrison first got his inspiration to create A Prairie Home Companion, and it's always fun to watch him perform in that historic hall. To wind up the night, Garrison led "Will the Circle Be Unbroken" as our full ensemble closing number — soul-stirring! I can't believe 10 years have passed since this great New Year's Eve show. Happy New Year to you all. Listen to the show >>>
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The Classic A Prairie Home Companion show Our normal Saturday evening broadcast will bring a treasure trove of good moments from the 2009 season, including Pat Donohue, Brad Paisley, and Sam Bush performing "Stealin' from Chet" at the Ryman Auditorium, Elvis Costello as an English author and stuttering son of the Earl of Twickerham in an episode of Guy Noir, and Martin Sheen as a flimflamming, four-flushing, shortchanging, deck-stackin' yahoo in an episode of The Lives of the Cowboys. Plus, Marvin and Mavis Smiley's tribute to Bruce Springsteen, Nellie McKay's tribute to Doris Day, and Patty Loveless sings "The Bramble and the Rose." In Lake Wobegon, the story of Margie Krebsbach checking herself into a hotel for Mother's Day to watch movies. Listen to the show >>>
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That Time of Year: A Minnesota Life Garrison's new memoir is gathering some attention, not only from readers who are telling us how much they are loving and enjoying the book and reading about the details of Garrison's life, how his aunts have come to affect the residents of Lake Wobegon and the history of A Prairie Home Companion. Here are a few of the reviews that have appeared in the past few weeks since the books publication.
"Keillor is 78 now, sharing with readers a lifetime of success and regrets. His book is funny, sad, poignant, and sometimes wistful, especially when he recalls good times on the PHC tour bus, traveling to performances all over the country. Yards of copy has been written about Keillor in Twin Cities newspapers, with whom he had a long, contentious relationship, but this is the first time he’s shared the feelings behind his sometimes-inscrutable facade." –Pioneer Press
"In his new memoir, That Time of Year, Keillor tells a story as evocative as the Lake Wobegon tales he would spin each Saturday evening as part of the 'Prairie Home' show." –Union Leader
“Die-hard fans will treasure stories with Keillor as the central character, rather than trying to discover him behind that Guy Noir mask.” –Star Tribune Read the Reviews:
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From the Archives: Lake Wobegon 1981 Behold! The second CD collection of our "From the Archives" series which is dedicated to vintage monologues from A Prairie Home Companion. In “From the Archives: The News from Lake Wobegon, 1981,” the Christmas story is re-told Lake-Wobegon-style. We also hear the first telling of the classic "Living Flag" story as the residents create a human flag on Main Street. Plus: updates about the Whippets; visits to the Chatterbox Cafe, Our Lady of Perpetual Responsibility, and the Sidetrack Tap; stories of bachelor farmers, the Bunsens, Tollefsons, and other characters you have come to love in Lake Wobegon. It's a collection you will treasure!
This collection gathers 21 stories that originally aired in 1981. Get the CDs >>>
Download as mp3s:
Disc 1 - January thru May >>>
Disc 2 - May thru August >>>
Disc 3 - August - December >>> Downloads are also available from Amazon, iTunes & other digital retailers |
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The Lake Wobegon Virus Bestselling author and humorist Garrison Keillor returns to one of America's most beloved mythical towns, beset by a contagion of alarming candor.
A mysterious virus has infiltrated the good people of Lake Wobegon, transmitted via unpasteurized cheese made by a Norwegian bachelor farmer, the effect of which is episodic loss of social inhibition. Mayor Alice, Father Wilmer, Pastor Liz, the Bunsens and Krebsbachs, formerly taciturn elders, burst into political rants, inappropriate confessions, and rhapsodic proclamations, while their teenagers watch in amazement. Meanwhile, a wealthy outsider is buying up farmland for a Keep America Truckin' motorway and amusement park, estimated to draw 2.2 million visitors a year. Clint Bunsen and Elena the hometown epidemiologist to the rescue, with a Fourth of July Living Flag and sweet corn feast for a finale.
In his newest Lake Wobegon novel, Garrison Keillor takes us back to the small prairie town where for so long American readers and listeners have found laughter as well as the wry airing of our foibles and most familiar desires and fears—a town where, as we know, "all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." Listen to a sample >>>
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