FORGET ABOUT SONGWRITING. TRY FICTION.

The word from people who know is that Taylor Swift is working with younger edgier indy artists, trying to stay relevant, hoping to hang on in today’s rapidly shifting pop culture, trying to free herself from the bonds of the narrative lyric and pick up the style of spatter imagery. Miss Swift is 32.
 
So forget about songwriting. Thirty-two is much too young for irrelevance. In solid professions such as medicine, engineering, law, the humorous essay, you’re just hitting your stride at 32. Miss Swift’s problem is that she prospered for years appealing to 11-year-old girls but now much of her audience is in its early twenties and doesn’t want to be in the same demographic with 11-year-olds so she needs to change the act to drive away the children, make it edgy, frighten the parents.

Read the full column >>> 

Featured A Prairie Home Companion Show:

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, a mix of shows from the San Diego Civic Theatre, including a rousing performance by the U.S. Navy Band Southwest, Sean and Sara Watkins with “I’m a Memory,” and Guy Noir on the trail of a wayward seal trainer named Frank Fish. Plus, Jearlyn Steele sings “Tell Mama,” surf band the Duo-Tones plays “Pipeline,” and Cape Breton’s Natalie MacMaster with “The Fairy Dance.” In Lake Wobegon, Clint and Irene Bunsen “celebrate” 38 years of marriage at the Moonlight Bay Supper Club.


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:

Fiddler Natalie MacMaster has been referred to as “the busiest woman in the Canadian music business.” She hails from Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, where she grew up steeped in the traditions of Celtic, Scottish, and Acadian music and picked up the fiddle at the age of nine. She is the winner of two Canadian Juno Awards and several Canadian Country Music Awards for Fiddler of the Year. She has shared stages with such artists as Alison Krauss, Carlos Santana, Paul Simon, and Luciano Pavarotti. In 2019, Natalie released the album Sketches, which features a mix of traditional Celtic songs with a few new ones for flavor. It was her first solo release in a decade.

“G Medley” >>>

Singer, songwriter, fiddle player Sara Watkins was only eight when she and her brother, Sean Watkins, became two-thirds of the genre-bending, Grammy Award-winning acoustic trio Nickel Creek. Two decades later — with Nickel Creek on indefinite hiatus — they both struck out on their own solo careers before rejoining for a decadelong run of shows with friends called Watkins Family Hour. Watkins Family Hour Vol. 2, which is the second volume of highlights and collaborations, has just been released. 

Listen to “Let It Be Me” >>>

The United States Navy Band is the premier musical organization of the U.S. Navy. Since it was established by Congress in 1925, the Navy Band has been entertaining audiences and supporting the Navy with some of the best musicians in the country. From national concert tours to presidential inaugurals to memorial services at Arlington National Cemetery, the Navy Band is constantly reaffirming why they are called “The World’s Finest.”

Listen to a performance at Disneyland >>>

Boom Town: A Lake Wobegon Novel AUDIOBOOK

The wait is over! Many have inquired about getting Boom Town read by Garrison himself. Well, last year Garrison visited a recording studio in New York City for over a week to read his most recent work, which he feels could be his best. The result is a download or CD set that spans over 12 hours.

Lake Wobegon is having a boom year thanks to millennial entrepreneurship — AuntMildred’s.com Gourmet Meatloaf, for example, or Universal Fire, makers of artisanal firewood seasoned with sea salt. Meanwhile, the author flies in to give eulogies at the funerals of five classmates, including a couple whom he disliked, and he finds a wave of narcissism crashing on the rocks of Lutheran stoicism. He is restored by the humor and grace of his old girlfriend Arlene and a visit from his wife, Giselle, who arrives from New York for a big love scene in an old lake cabin.

Read the first chapter >>>
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Ricky Skaggs

Ricky Skaggs is a legendary performer who graced the stage of A Prairie Home Companion many times — always a gentleman and always a fan favorite! He was recently inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and International Bluegrass Hall of Fame, two well-deserved honors. To celebrate the news, we decided that now would be a good time to revisit an interview he did for our show, covering topics from his early influences, to how he chose to become the champion of bluegrass music, and his most recent album. 

Read the interview >>>
Watch “Sis Draper” >>>

Lake Life Tote

Grab a towel, some water, and suntan lotion, along with this roomy and spacious tote bag, and head to the beach. The lake life is so relaxing. Yes, “Sumos Quod Sumos” (we are what we are) is our motto and this bag is certainly fitting. 

Purchase the tote >>>

Summer Love from A Prairie Home Companion

In the summer of 2010, Garrison Keillor, Nickel Creek’s Sara Watkins, the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band, and sound-effects artist Fred Newman went on a whirlwind tour of 25 cities in less than two months. The theme was everlasting love; the shows were jam-packed with tender duets and ballads, poetry, and stories of passion and marriage, all done Prairie Home Companion-style.

Now the best performances from that tour are available on this Summer Love collection. Never broadcast and therefore available for the first time on this collection, selections include favorite Prairie Home Companion elements: Guy Noir, “show sponsor” commercials, and the News from Lake Wobegon.

If you are one who misses the old show, our State Fair shows, or summer tours, you will LOVE this collection featuring all the elements you like about Prairie Home, from the music to the sketches to the stories.

Get the CDs >>>
Listen to a sample >>>