This week on A Prairie Home Companion This week on A Prairie Home Companion, we revisit a classic performance from 2000, with Czech bluegrass band Druhá Tráva, guitarist Pat Donohue along with accordion player Dan Newton, and singer/songwriter Lynn Peterson. Also with us, the Royal Academy of Radio Actors, Tim Russell and Sue Scott; the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band; plus the latest News from Lake Wobegon. Join us Saturday for a listen via our Facebook page at 5 p.m. CT (or click the link below). Listen to the Show >>>Like our Facebook page >>>
More about this week’s featured guests
DRUHÁ TRÁVA is referred to in the U.S. as “the Czech bluegrass band,” though this description is not altogether accurate. While they play instruments typically associated with bluegrass, their music incorporates elements of country, swing, jazz, folk, and rock. The band (whose name translates as “second grass” to reflect their new view of bluegrass) was formed in 1991 and quickly earned the Czech equivalent of the Grammy Award for Band of the Year in 1992. Performing interpretations of music ranging from Bill Monroe and Chick Corea to Bob Dylan and Bedřich Smetana, the group tours extensively in Europe and the U.S. Druhá Tráva has recorded some twenty albums, including Pojd’me se Napít (Let’s Have a Drink).
PAT DONOHUE is a life-long resident of St. Paul, Minnesota. He began playing guitar at age 12, when he first learned a few chords on his sister’s guitar and played through a Beatles songbook. He played drums in garage bands in high school, switching to guitar after being exposed to what he calls “serious guitar music” — country blues, ragtime, and jazz (nearly chronologically from Louis Armstrong through Miles Davis). Donohue took only a few guitar lessons, learning instead from recordings, a method he humorously documented in his song “Stealin’ From Chet.” He is a National Fingerstyle Guitar Champion and an innovative songwriter, with more than a dozen albums to his credit on Red House Records and Bluesky Records. He performed on A Prairie Home Companion as a regular member of The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band for almost two decades.
Accordionist DAN NEWTON joins Pat Donohue for this show. Now a performer, composer, and arranger living in Minneapolis, Newton grew up listening to big band, classical, and Broadway records, and to his mom playing hymns on the piano. He played piano, tin whistle, hammered dulcimer, and guitar before taking up the accordion in college. His 1993 solo release Café Accordion spawned the Café Accordion Orchestra, which he has led for more than 30 years. On their many recordings, the band performs “an eclectic mix full of French flare, Latin heat and Bohemian attitude.”
“Willie’s Blues” >>>Available Music >>>
LYNN PETERSON spent eight years in New York City, working as a performer, composer, and studio vocalist, before returning to her home base: the Twin Cities. She appeared in “Best of the Rest” at the Beacon Theater in New York and performed on the Today show several times with B.J. Thomas. Her Norwegian roots have served as inspiration for several recording projects.
“When I Dream” is a song interspersed through the sketch with Tom Keith, Sue Scott, and Tim Russell. Here are some of the featured lyrics:
I could have a mansion
That is bigger than the trees
I could have all the gifts I want
And never ask please
I could fly to Paris
All that’s at my beck and call
Why do I go through life
With nothing at all
But when I dream, I dream of you.
Maybe someday you will come true.
There’s a kind of hush
All over the world tonight.
All over the world
People just like us are fallin’ in love.
You know what I mean?
Just the two of us
And nobody else in sight.
There’s nobody else,
And I’m feelin’ good just holdin’ you tight.
But when I dream, I dream of you,
Maybe someday, you will come true. | 
