A Christmas Companion Christmas time’s a-coming. Christmas time’s a-coming … ’Tis the season and thus it’s time for some holiday cheer! We’ve added three holiday-themed concerts to our upcoming tour schedule. Join Keillor & Company: A PRAIRIE HOME HOLIDAY with Garrison, Prudence Johnson, and Dan Chouinard for a few holiday favorites combined with a Christmas tale or two plus the latest News from Lake Wobegon. Come prepared to sing along to some of your favorite holiday songs and carols.
Dec. 10 7:30 PM Bridge View Center, Ottumwa, IA TICKETS
Dec. 11 8:00 PM Rialto Square Theatre, Joliet, IL TICKETS
Dec. 12 7:30 PM Holland Civic Center, Holland, MI TICKETS
ALSO AVAILABLE:
Information regarding previously announced solo shows in addition to dates with the Hopeful Gospel Quartet are available on our website. View ALL Tour Dates >>> |
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Got the autumn blues, put on the walking shoes I love October and I hate to see it pass so quickly. My love and I ate dinner outdoors last Friday and it felt like the Last Time and as an old man I find Lasts rather painful. I rode the Amtrak into New York from Boston, with that delicious flight in Queens as the train descends toward the tunnel to Manhattan and we’re skimming the housetops like Clark Kent in pursuit of evil gangsters, and I thought, “When will I get to do this again?” and it pained me. It pains me to see the wave of puritanism in the arts, arts organizations competing to see who can write the most militant mission statements declaring their dedication to Equality and Inclusivity and Anti-Elitism, which tells me clearly that the end is near. Art is elitist because some people are better singers than almost anyone else and some plays astonish and others only fill the time, and if equality is now the goal, then where do we go to experience the extraordinary? Art then becomes ideology, and for astonishment we must wait for the next blizzard or thunderstorm. A Manhattan thunderstorm is worth waiting for, but still... Go to Garrison Keillor and Friends on Substack
to read the rest of THE COLUMN >>> Become a member of THE BACK ROOM on our Substack page for exclusive access to News from Lake Wobegon stories, Post to the Host columns, writings, excerpts from unpublished works, previews of other works and a second weekly column. |
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This week on "A Prairie Home Companion" A few tricks and a few treats as we get set to celebrate October with a repeat from 1996 featuring Marcia Ball, Cephas and Wiggins, the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band, and our acting company. Highlights include “Power of Love” and “La Ti Da” from Marcia Ball, “Backwater Blues” from Cephas and Wiggins, “Bringing Mary Home” and “A Little Kiss Each Morning” by the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band — plus Cafe Boeuf, Mel’s Diner, Ghosts, Famous Celebrities, and Rhubarb, featuring the full acting company. All this plus the latest News from your favorite small town: 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 >>>
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More about this week’s featured guests
Born in Orange, Texas, in 1949 to a family whose female members all played piano, Marcia Ball grew up in the small town of Vinton, Louisiana, right across the border from Texas. She began taking piano lessons at age five, playing old Tin Pan Alley tunes from her grandmother’s collection. From her aunt, she heard more modern and popular music. But it wasn’t until she was 13 that Marcia discovered the blues when she heard Irma Thomas deliver a soulful and spirited performance. “She just blew me away; she caught me totally unaware,” says Ball. “Once I started my own band, the first stuff I was doing was Irma’s.” Marcia Ball — called a “powerhouse” by the New York Times — is an eight-time Blues Music Award winner and a 2010 inductee into the Gulf Coast Music Hall of Fame. “That’s Enough of That Stuff” >>>
View available music >>>
Almost immediately after guitarist/vocalist John Cephas joined forces with harmonicist/vocalist Phil Wiggins in 1978, the blues community took them to heart. Critics and fans proclaimed Cephas and Wiggins as the new champions of the East Coast Piedmont style of blues, a style first popularized by artists like Blind Boy Fuller, Rev. Gary Davis, Blind Willie McTell, and Blind Blake. They performed for people all over the world, from clubs for only a handful of people to major blues festivals in front of thousands to a 1997 inaugural party for President Clinton. A listen to “Richmond Blues” gives us a musical roadmap of the century-old blues sound of the Piedmont. “Richmond Blues” >>>
View available music >>> |
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The Lake Wobegon Virus
Just released in paperback (wherever books are sold) — bestselling author and humorist Garrison Keillor returns to one of America’s most beloved mythical towns, beset by a contagion of alarming candor.
“The novel is a nifty flight of fancy: The sensationalist title refers not to COVID-19 but to an imaginary plague that induces unseemly forthrightness among the inhabitants of Lake Wobegon, a ‘temporary loss of social filter,’ as one character puts it.” —Washington Examiner
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.” Get the softcover book >>>
Autographed hardcover >>>
Audiobook read by Garrison >>> |
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Make America Intelligent Again Masks (set of 3) |
We teach our children to cover their mouths when coughing or sneezing, so why not mask up in these trying times with an inspired message?
These washable, functional face masks feature an elastic ear loop that fits snugly but not too tightly. Order more to receive a lower price per mask. Get the masks >>> |
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Here is the Lunar Eclipse from A Year in Lake Wobegon, which features 12 never before available stories, one chosen specifically for each month of the year.
“It’s fall. It’s a gorgeous, gorgeous fall! It’s been chilly, down into the 30s at night, but people are still sleeping with their windows open because it’s good to breathe cold air.” The horizontal Lunar Eclipse when the moon is red is one of the reasons we are glad our family stayed and settled here in the north. Many of the townsfolk, including Pastor Liz, describe the powerful effect that the eclipse has had and what they were doing that fateful night.
A poem for October from the liner notes of A Year in Lake Wobegon:
OCTOBER
My novel has sold well (thank you, Lord)
And made the big bestseller lists
So let’s go home and lock the door
And practice being hedonists.
For years the old wolf lay in wait
Beside the door, about to pounce,
So we’re prepared to appreciate
Caviar at $100 the ounce
And a Montalcino — an ’82!
Outrageously expensive.
Nothing’s too good for me and you
Tonight. What is the sense of
Self-denial? We did that for years.
Here’s to joyful excess. Cheers. Listen to the story >>>
Get the CDs >>> |
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| The Writer's Almanac Paperweight Leaving Home is the first collection of Lake Wobegon short stories. The book includes 36 fan favorites taken from the live broadcasts of A Prairie Home Companion. The short stories are mostly from shows performed during the late ’80s. There is a wonderfully funny tale about a septic tank in Homecoming, a gathering of Lutheran ministers on a Pontoon Boat, an usher convention in Hawaii, news from the State Fair, and a fond farewell to a favorite son’s hometown taken from what was, at that time, the final broadcast in 1987. Softcover, 288 pages. “In the first collection of Lake Wobegon monologues, Keillor tells readers more about some of the people from Lake Wobegon Days and introduces some new faces. Leaving Home is a book of exceptional charm … delightful … genuinely touching” —The Wall Street Journal Subscribe to the daily newsletter >>>
Get the Paperweight >>> |
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