Drama is life trying to get our attention
When an old man prepares for open-heart surgery, he maintains a confident demeanor and so does his good wife. He has an excellent surgeon and the procedure has been around since he was a teenager, pioneered by Dr. Walt Lillehei of Minneapolis. All is well. Stay calm and pull your socks up.
The old man is me and Dr. Lillehei attended the University of Minnesota, as I did, but he did not major in English as I did nor did he write surreal poetry and doomsday fiction that took a stab at cynicism. I come from fundamentalist Scots who would’ve looked on heart surgery as a waste of money. The heart is sinful and heart disease is caused by rich living and can be remedied by physical labor, thinner dinners, and prayer. Dr. Lillehei came from progressive Norwegians and he had more curiosity.
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A Prairie Home Companion American Revival It’s time to join again in song for two more American Revival performances. We had so much fun in Denver and Nashville that we are bringing the crew together for a few more shows. This time, we are visiting Washington, D.C., and then on to The Town Hall in New York City. These are two great cities for some sightseeing as well as a visit with some old friends.
There’ll be humor, music, no end of fun, and, of course, all the latest News from Lake Wobegon. The Washington, D.C., show at The Anthem will feature two-term U.S. poet laureate Billy Collins, acclaimed soprano Ellie Dehn, vocalist Heather Masse, Broadway conductor and pianist Rob Fisher, Richard Dworsky, and The Friendly String Quartet. As usual, actors Tim Russell and Fred Newman will be on hand, along with guitarist Pat Donohue, and more.
At The Town Hall, featured performers include Tony Award-winning director Walter Bobbie, Broadway conductor Rob Fisher and the Coffee Club Orchestra, vocalists Christine DiGiallonardo and Heather Masse, keyboardist Richard Dworsky, actors Tim Russell and Sue Scott, and sound-effects ace Fred Newman.
THE DETAILS: Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion American Revival
WASHINGTON, D.C.: Friday, October 21, 2022, 8:00 p.m.
The Anthem, 901 Wharf St. SW, Washington, D.C. 20024
Tickets now on sale, $75, $95, and $125 GET TICKETS >>> NEW YORK: Saturday, November 26, 2022, at 7:30 p.m. (lobby open 6:30; doors open 7:00)
The Town Hall, 123 West 43rd St., New York, NY 10036
Tickets now on sale, $59.50–$119.50 GET TICKETS >>>
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Featured A Prairie Home Companion Show: This week is a can’t-miss episode of A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor: we look back to June 2014 and our show at the Greek Theatre in Los Angeles, California. Ann and Nancy Wilson of Heart sing “Dreamboat Annie” and “The Great Ship Titanic,” our friend Greg Brown performs “Fat Boy Blues” and “Bones,” Jearlyn Steele joins us for “Fools Fall in Love” and “Ordinary People,” and Hilary Thavis accompanies Garrison on “Love in L.A.” Plus: Rich Dworsky and the Canyon Band play “Hopper Scenes,” Guy Noir gets a job as a Hollywood consultant, and there’s a message from Capistrano Car Pools. In Lake Wobegon, parents contemplate their graduates’ futures. Join us this Saturday where we revisit this wonderful program on our Facebook page; the link will appear at 5 p.m. CT (or, if you simply can’t wait, use the link below). Listen to the show >>>
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More information about our featured guests:
Heart first stormed the charts in the 1970s with hits like “Crazy on You,” “Magic Man,” and “Barracuda.” Back then, Ann and Nancy Wilson were the first women to front a hard rock band. More than four decades later, the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees were still recording, touring, and performing sold-out concerts worldwide. Heart’s story is chronicled in the Wilson sisters’ 2012 book, Kicking & Dreaming: A Story of Heart, Soul, and Rock & Roll (HarperCollins). Earlier this year, Ann Wilson released a new solo album called Fierce Bliss, which returned her to classic rock and roll and includes a duet of the Queen classic “Love of My Life” with Vince Gill. “Dreamboy Annie” >>>
Greg Brown was raised in southeastern Iowa, with a banjo-playing grandfather, a poet grandmother, an English teacher mother who played guitar, and a Pentecostal preacher father. The environment, combined with abundant talent, produced one of the most acclaimed singer-songwriters of the past five decades. Said a Boston Globe music critic, “Brown is to this country what Richard Thompson is to Britain: its most essential modern troubadour.” Greg’s 30-plus recordings may just prove the point. In 2017, Greg released “Trump Can’t Have That.”
Listen to “Spring Wind” >>> Growing up in Indiana, Jearlyn Steele sang with her siblings as The Steele Children. One by one, they moved to Minnesota and started singing together again. Now music is the family business. Jearlyn also hosts Steele Talkin’, a Sunday-night radio show that originates on WCCO in Minneapolis. Jearlyn will next perform on August 24th with her brother Fred at the Dakota in Minneapolis — a show titled “Duos, Duets, & Pairings.” Listen to “Coffee Jingle” >>> |
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Singing with Lutherans In this classic essay, Garrison Keillor praises the singing talents and culinary preferences of Lutherans:
I have made fun of Lutherans for years — who wouldn’t if you lived in Minnesota? But I have also sung with Lutherans and that is one of the main joys of my life, along with hot baths and fresh sweet corn. We make fun of Lutherans for their blandness, their excessive calm, their fear of giving offense, their lack of speed and also for their secret fondness for macaroni and cheese. But nobody sings like them.
If you ask an audience in New York City, a relatively Lutheranless place, to sing along on the chorus of “Michael Row the Boat Ashore,” they will look daggers at you as if you had asked them to strip to their underwear. But if you do this among Lutherans, they’ll smile and row that boat ashore and up on the beach! And down the road!
Lutherans are bred from childhood to sing in four-part harmony. It’s a talent that comes from sitting on the lap of someone singing alto or tenor or bass and hearing the harmonic intervals by putting your little head against that person’s rib cage. It’s natural for Lutherans to sing in harmony. We’re too modest to be soloists, too worldly to sing in unison. When you’re singing in the key of C and you slide into the A7th and D7th chords, all two hundred of you. It’s an emotionally fulfilling moment.
I once sang the bass line of “Children of the Heavenly Father” in a room with about three thousand Lutherans in it, and when we finished, we all had tears in our eyes partly from the promise that God will not forsake us, partly from the proximity of all those lovely voices. By our joining in harmony, we somehow promise that we will not forsake each other.
I do believe this: These Lutherans are the sort of people you could call up when you’re in deep distress. If you’re dying, they’ll comfort you. If you’re lonely, they’ll talk to you. And if you’re hungry, they’ll give you tuna salad! |
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Make American Great Again Hat Garrison waded into the 2020 presidential election, devising an alternative to President Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan. As we head into the 2022 mid-terms, let's keep the slogan going. While America has never NOT been great, it has always been intelligent! Hat is printed on Democrat blue and is adjustable so one size fits most. Purchase the hat >>> |
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Church People: The Lutherans of Lake Wobegon Lutherans have given us hotdish, church ladies, self-effacement, and solid advice (“Watch your manners, make yourself useful, and mind your own business”). Now they’ve given us a this A Prairie Home Companion collection. Sketches, songs, stories, and more from A Prairie Home Companion reveal the secret world of a stalwart people. When you fly Lutheran Air, there’s no first class, meals are potluck with assignments by rows (rows 1–6, bring rolls; rows, 7–15, salad), all fares are by free-will offering, and the plane doesn’t land until the budget is met.
Welcome to the land of Lutherans, where people drive Fords, wear cardigans, go to church at Third Lutheran (which used to be called First Lutheran, but Lutherans are more comfortable with being Third), drink a lot of coffee, serve chow mein noodles on tuna hotdish, work hard, and don’t make a fuss. Selected from live broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion, this collection celebrates the kindest people on God’s green earth — except for the mean ones. If you’re not a Lutheran, you’ll laugh out loud. If you are, you’ll smile as hard as you can. Get the CDs >>>
Listen to a sample >>> |
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