A Texas Takedown from June 10, 2006

Featuring Joe Ely, Cindy Cashdollar, Elana James and The High Flyers.

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A Prairie Home Companion’s 50th Anniversary Tour

Let’s get this party started — leading up to A Prairie Home Companion’s 50th Anniversary in the summer of 2024. We’re getting the crew together for a few shows as we head toward this milestone year, starting with a performance on July 29, 2023, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

The 50th Anniversary Prairie Home Companion shows celebrate the Last Live Radio Variety show with an opening video of PHC’s origins in Minnesota and Garrison Keillor’s stand-up on the beauty of being 80. Comedy sketches include “Guy Noir, Private Eye,” “The Lives of the Cowboys,” “Duane’s Mom,” and “Ruth Harrison, Reference Librarian” with the Royal Academy of Radio Acting and sound-effects wizard Fred Newman. There will also be a commercial for Powdermilk Biscuits on this subject: Cheerfulness Is a Choice. Also a word or two from the American Duct Tape Council, Coffee, Guy’s Shoes, and the Catchup Advisory Board.

Rich Dworsky and the Guy’s Hot Shoe Band will be on hand playing rags, stomps, and blues. Heather Masse and Garrison Keillor will sing a medley of love poems and old jokes. There's an audience sing-along intermission, and the latest News from Lake Wobegon (where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and the children are all above average). Other EVENTS coming soon!

Get ticket information for the July 29th 7:00 p.m. event. > >

A CLASSIC FROM JUNE 10, 2006

Highlights include Garrison’s chat with the legendary Molly Ivins, Pat Donohue and the band have the “Texas Blues,” Joe Ely is “On the Run,” Elana James and The High Flyers see an “Old Waterfall,” plus Guy Noir, a visit from the Cowboys, Catchup, and the latest News from Lake Wobegon. Follow our Facebook page here where the link debuts each Saturday at 5 p.m. CT.Click here to listen now.

Molly Ivins

Perhaps the title of her 1991 best-selling book puts it best: Molly Ivins Can’t Say That, Can She? Well, she could and she did. No one could accuse political journalist Molly Ivins of being shy about speaking her mind. Her shoot-from-the-hip column ran in more than 400 newspapers across the United States, and her freelance work appeared in Esquire, Harper’s, Atlantic, The Nation, The Progressive, Mother Jones, and many other publications. She was a three-time finalist for the Pulitzer Prize, and won numerous awards, including the Smith Medal from Smith College, the Pringle Prize for Washington Journalism from Columbia University, the Ivan Allen Jr. Prize for Progress and Service, and the 1992 Headliners Award for the best newspaper column in Texas. She passed away in January 2007.

Joe Ely

Joe Ely is a master of blending rock ’n’ roll with hardcore honky-tonk. Born in the western plains of Texas, he started traveling in his teens going from Lubbock to London with many stops in between. Known in the genres of outlaw country, alt-country, Texas country, and Americana, he is regarded as one of the best songwriters of his generation. This 1989 Lubbock West Texas Walk of Fame inductee was named Texas State Musician for 2016. His many recordings include Panhandle Rambler, Full Circle: The Lubbock Tapes, and Love in the Midst of Mayhem.

The High Flyers

We were lucky to catch the High Flyers since their work together was short-lived. Separately, they have been wowing audiences for longer than they care to admit. After a stretch of jamming in various incarnations, they finally decided to form a band and work together. Their mixed bag of honky-tonk, Western swing, classic country, and hot jazz was perfection. The High Flyers are: dobro and steel guitar ace Cindy Cashdollar; fiddle player Elana (Fremerman) James, formerly of Hot Club of Cowtown, and with her own trio called Elana James & the Continental Two; and guitarist Redd Volkaert, about whom the Austin Chronicle offered this winning description: “Telecaster master who’s all over the guitar like grease on a pork chop.

Accordion ace Joel Guzmán accompanies Garrison and the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band early on during this program on the humorous song “Wahoo.” Here are the lyrics:

Oh, give me a horse, a great big horse
And give me a Stetson, too, and let me
Wahoo, wahoo, wahoo
Oh give me a ranch, a big pair of pants
And put a little dirt on my shoe, and let me
Wahoo, wahoo, wahoo
Give me these halls of Austin
For I’m just an old Calvinist
Thinking about all I’ve missed
Oh, why do the Calvinists feel cooped up
Like animals in the zoo? They never
Wahoo, wahoo, wahoo
Just take a look in the holy book,
It’ll tell you what to do — thou shalt
Wahoo, wahoo, wahoo
My family came here from Scotland
Dark and damp and full of sin
Sunlight almost did us in
I calm the herd with Beethoven’s Third
Or a Chopin pas de deux. And they can
Wahoo, wahoo, wahoo

At night we holler to Gustav Mahler
His symphony number two.
Wahoo, wahoo, wahoo

The world has wahooed for ages
Some like to wahoo soft and low,
Others like to let it go
The signal floats across the prairie
Love that great old public radio.
Makes me want to yodel-ai-dee-o
Come September I’ll become a member
Maybe my horse will too, and we can
Wahoo, wahoo, wahoo

I came down from a Northern town
Looking for something new
We’re serious folks and we tell no jokes
And our horses have turned blue
We need to —
A Northern liberal
I’ve read Kierkegaard and Camus
I’ve studied the theory and principles of wahoo
But philosophy’s not enough for me
I’ll tell you what I’m going to do

Grab Garrison’s newest book, which is a great summer read and a perfect attitude for the upcoming political season. We all need to be more cheerful! Get the book.

A Prairie Home Companion Hat

Our new hat features one of the original wordmarks for A Prairie Home Companion. Comfy, cotton low-rise hats have an adjustable strap on the back so one size fits most. Available in khaki, blue and multicolored versions.

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A Prairie Home Companion Original Logo hoodie or shirt

Like the men and women of Lake Wobegon, this comfortable shirt is strong and good-looking, and 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.

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Get the hoodie.

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