Hail to Wisconsin Garrison has always had a soft spot for Wisconsin, even calling it home for several years. From shows in Madison to Milwaukee, to even opening his America the Beautiful tour in Bayfield, Garrison has traveled and performed regularly throughout the state. This week, Garrison will be performing two shows in the Badger state with stops in Ladysmith and Menomonie. We hope you can join us for an evening of duets, stories, and songs with Garrison, Prudence Johnson, and Dan Chouinard.
COVID-19 protocol: We will require masking where we are legally able to do so. In communities where mandates are not allowed, we will strongly recommend masking for all.
Garrison Keillor with Prudence Johnson and Dan Chouinard Saturday, September 11 Ladysmith, WI Tickets >>>Sunday, September 12 Menomonie, WI Tickets >>> |
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In defense of feeling good in perilous times
I am thinking about moving to Texas so that I can be in open disagreement with the powers that be and express this freely, instead of living in colonies of liberal progressives where I must put tape over my mouth except when among close personal friends. Freedom of speech is watched closely where I live and we all know it. “What exactly is it you want to say that you can’t?” you wonder. It is something that, were I to say it, I’d be kicked out of the Democratic Party and my library card would be confiscated and I’d be barred from Amazon and Starbucks and the Episcopal church would make me sit in the Penitents’ Corner. So I’ll keep it to myself.... Read the COLUMN >>> Note: Try subscribing to THE BACK ROOM, where you will have access to specially chosen pieces from the archive, access to works in progress or other writings, a few full-show videos (limited run) and NEWLY added material each a week, including audio of a monologue from the 1980s. Join on our Substack page. |
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This week on A Prairie Home Companion This week is a music lover’s delight as we revisit two classic shows, featuring Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris, Geoff Muldaur, Dan Newton, and Jearlyn Steele, as well as our regular cast and house band. Get set for some great music and two hours that will fly by much too quickly.
Highlights include the “Bob Dylan Polka” from Dan Newton, “My Little Pumpkin Pie” from Richard Dworsky, a “Song for Sonny Liston” delivered by Mark Knopfler, some “Small-Town Talk” from Geoff Muldaur, “Love and Happiness” and “If This Is Goodbye” from Emmylou Harris and Mark Knopfler, plus Ruth Harrison, Guy Noir — and in Lake Wobegon, Arlene Bunsen buries her leftover ham in her backyard. This is a can’t-miss classic so tune in along with us! The link is posted on Saturdays at 5 p.m. CT each week on our Facebook page. Listen to the Show >>>Like our Facebook page >>>
More about this week’s featured guests:
Mark Knopfler is perhaps best known as the lead guitarist and vocalist for Dire Straits, but he’s also a producer (for artists such as Tina Turner, Bob Dylan, and Randy Newman) and composer, including film scores for Local Hero, The Princess Bride, Wag the Dog, and others. He grew up in the northeast of England, and after high school, he took a journalism course at a technical college, then pursued an English degree at Leeds University. In the late 1970s, he formed the phenomenally successful British rock band Dire Straits, with which he released a string of hit albums, including the top-selling Brothers in Arms. The group (inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of fame in 2018) disbanded in the mid-’90s, and Knopfler launched his solo career with the album Golden Heart. His most recent recording is 2018’s Down the Road Wherever, and he has a new box set: Mark Knopfler — The Studio Albums 1996–2007. Knopfler and his associated bands have sold more than 100 million albums. Watch “This is Us” with Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris >>>Browse Mark Knopfler’s music >>>
Emmylou Harris’s albums are mainstays in any music fan’s collection: Wrecking Ball, Luxury Liner, Roses in the Snow, The Ballad of Sally Rose, Trio, Red Dirt Girl. The list goes on and on. And you can add to it All the Roadrunning, her duet CD with Mark Knopfler. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, and raised in North Carolina and Virginia, Harris began playing the guitar at 16 and eventually left college to pursue a career in music. She recorded her first album, Gliding Bird, in 1969. In the early ’70s she moved to Los Angeles and joined forces with Gram Parsons, with whom she made two albums. After Parsons’ death in 1973, Harris moved back to the Washington, D.C., area and made her major label debut, Pieces of the Sky. Now, after more than a half-century of performing, umpteen albums, and countless awards, including 14 Grammys, Emmylou maintains a widespread and loyal following, whether she’s singing folk, country, pop, or traditional tunes. ”Guy Noir” with Emmylou Harris >>>Browse Emmylou Harris’s music >>>
Geoff Muldaur has played guitar and sung on some dozens of albums. His roots in the blues run about as deep as those roots can go. In his Butterfield Blues Band days he was able to spend time with Muddy Waters, who, he said, could “summon angels and look at his watch at the same time.” He’s done composing for film and television, receiving an Emmy for the score of It Happened Right Here. His recording of “Aquarela do Brasil” provided both the inspiration and the title music for Terry Gilliam’s acclaimed 1985 cult film of the same name. His new recording is titled His Last Letter. The two-LP boxed set pays homage to the diverse musicians who influenced Muldaur’s life — Duke Ellington, J.B. Lenoir, “Fats” Waller, Don Redman, Jimmie Rodgers, Dock Boggs, Eric von Schmidt, and more. He even provides musical settings for the poetry of Tennessee Williams. Watch “Trouble Will Soon Be Over” >>>Browse available music >>>
This show also features accordionist Dan Newton, fiddler John Niemann, vocalist Jearlyn Steele, and Andy Stein, who joins the Guys All-Star Shoe Band.
All The Good Times Are Passed and Gone
CHORUS:
All the good times are passed and gone
All the good times are o’er
All the good times are passed and gone
Little darling, don’t you weep no more
O, don’t you see that lonesome dove
Flyin’ from pine to pine
Why did I have to raise up my eye
Just as that bird flew by?
All the good times are passed and gone
All the good times are o’er
All the good times are passed and gone
Little darling, don’t you weep no more
Whenever I hear that lonesome train
I wish I’d never been born
And I wouldn’t have been if my daddy had seen
That the end of the condom was torn.
All the good times are passed and gone
All the good times are o’er
All the good times are passed and gone
Little darling, don’t you weep no more
I never thought I’d be this old
In the over-sixty group
My wife, she offered me “super sex.”
And I said, “I’ll take the soup.”
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A Prairie Home Companion Shirt |
Like the men and women of Lake Wobegon, this comfortable shirt is strong and good-looking. It features a spot-on reproduction of the original sign that anchored the stage during the live shows from 1974 to 1979, handsomely re-created and screened onto the front of our lightweight T-shirt. Get the Shirt >>>View all A Prairie Home Companion merchandise >>> |
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| That Time of Year The audio version of Garrison’s memoir is our featured product of the week and has a special price!
“That Time of Year is a major work: a thoroughgoing portrait of its artist as both a young man and a somewhat sad but grateful oldster. Each period of Keillor’s life is recounted, frequently in novelistic detail, with humor and humility.” —Washington Examiner
Garrison’s life in his own words and voice. Get the history of A Prairie Home Companion from the man himself. Available as a hardcover book or on CD. Get the Book >>>Get the CD >>> |
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