Out of the bubble, into the hullabaloo Spent twenty-four hours in an emergency ward and am still giddy from it and from having gotten off light when it could’ve been otherwise, which someday it will but not yet. I lay in a little alcove, off a busy core of staff at computers, gurneys coming and going, beepers beeping, but vast professional courtesy prevailing. It was a big hospital on 68th and York in Manhattan, so it was an international staff, Asia, Africa, all over. My neighbor was a woman with cancer who often yelled, “Somebody come and help me! I just want to die! Help me!” and my other neighbor was a drunk who was mentally ill and also a jerk, a terrible combination. He had checked himself in and was now calling 911 to come get him out. Four cops arrived. It may have been the highlight of their day. Go to Garrison Keillor and Friends on Substack
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This week on A Prairie Home Companion This week on the classic A Prairie Home Companion, we travel back to 2010 for a show that was performed at the Santa Barbara Bowl, with special guests including the master of flatted thirds and minor sevenths, bluesman Elvin Bishop, and fiddler extraordinaire Sara Watkins. Also with us, the Royal Academy of Radio Actors (Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Fred Newman), The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band, and the latest News from Lake Wobegon.
Highlights include “Keep a Dollar in your Pocket” by Elvin Bishop, Sara and her brother Sean offer their take on “River of Jordan,” a few duets, a song about Santa Monica, plus the latest from Dusty and Lefty, Guy Noir and Rhubarb. The link is posted on Saturdays at 5 p.m. CT each week on our Facebook page. Listen to the Show >>>
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More about this week’s guests
For every show, we will start on Tuesday of each week to promote Saturday’s classic broadcast. But as a primer, we will publish links to teasers, bios, and videos of the week’s musical guests to whet your appetite to tune in for the show. And who knows, we may even pop in for some live commentary and profiles via the Facebook page.
Bluesman Elvin Bishop was a founding member of the groundbreaking Paul Butterfield Blues Band. He went solo in 1968, moved to the Bay Area, and continued a music career that’s now into its seventh decade. The most recent of his twenty-some albums is 2020’s 100 Years of Blues. Trombonist Ed Earley joins Bishop for this show. “Ace in the Hole” >>>
View available music >>>
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 — Sara struck out on her own. Her most recent release is the family-friendly solo album Under the Pepper Tree. Sara and Sean’s latest is brother sister, a recording featuring songs from their LA residency for the Watkins Family Hour. “My Friend” >>>
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The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band
The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band is led by A Prairie Home Companion music director Richard Dworsky. Keyboard player, composer and improviser in any style, he also writes all the script themes and underscores. His latest CD is All in Due Time.
Chet Atkins called Pat Donohue (guitar) one of the greatest fingerpickers in the world today. And he writes songs too — recorded by Suzy Bogguss, Kenny Rogers and others. Blue Yonder is the most recent of Pat’s 11 albums.
Gary Raynor (bass) has performed with the Count Basie band, Sammy Davis Jr. — with whom he toured for several years — and the Minnesota Klezmer Band. He has also taught jazz bass in the Twin Cities.
Peter Johnson (percussion) has played klezmer music with Doc Severinsen and jazz with Dave Brubeck. He was a drummer for The Manhattan Transfer and for Gene Pitney. He has toured the world, but he always comes back to home base: Saint Paul.
Andy Stein (violin, saxophone) definitely has far-flung musical leanings. He collaborated with Garrison Keillor to create the opera Mr. and Mrs. Olson, and he has performed with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Eric Clapton, Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Joel, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, and Bob Dylan. “Waitin’ for You” >>>
View available music >>>
More from Sara Watkins
Who were your early musical influences and what did you learn from them or by listening to them?
When I was little, my parents listened to a lot of folk music, some classical, early rock and roll and ’80s country music. I’d listen to lyrics, and would act out, in my imagination, the story of a song as it played.
The music that really sunk in at that time were things like Linda Ronstadt’s Greatest Hits (vol. 1), the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and early George Straight, and I’m still a sucker for a good groove with a little recklessness thrown in there; it makes me want to move! Another record that has stuck with me from that time was Trio. That’s how I came to love harmony. Even as a little kid, their singing of those songs made me stop and listen. Read our full guest interview >>>
Listen to “Tumblin’ Tumbleweeds” feat. I’m with Her >>>
More from Elvin Bishop:
We asked Elvin what he has been up to this past year and this is what he wrote:
Early in the pandemic I made a video about the situation — after that I figured more complaining wouldn’t do any good, and it was just a matter of riding it out. I live kind of in the country, and there are worse places to be stuck: the company’s good — my wife, Cara, is a very nice person and a good cook, and our dog Spotty is a lot of fun. Every year I raise a big garden and can up tons of fruit and vegetables. I always say if I could find a pork chop tree, I’d never have to go to the store at all, so not being able to go out didn’t hurt me as bad as some people. Music? I practiced some but didn’t write much of anything the whole year — just wasn’t in the mood — so when things open up, there’ll either be a hell of a burst of creativity, or I’ll just be rusty, who knows. Ain’t life interesting!
His most recent recording 100 Years of Blues, debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard Blues Chart upon its release in fall 2020, and remained there for 22 weeks. Tastemaker UK magazine MOJO selected it as the No. 3 Blues Album of the year. More information and updates about Elvin can be found in our guest profile. Read our guest profile >>>
Whoopi-ti-yi-yo This week’s featured show features the song “Whoopi-ti-yi-yo” in its entirety. The song went on to become the theme song for the Adventures of Dusty and Lefty. Here they are in printed form (as they appear on the Dusty and Lefty T-Shirt too).
I’m just an old cowboy with twigs in my hair
I’m two-third alligator and three-quarters bear
And one half a liar but let it be known
I never told one lie that was not my own.
Whoopi-ti-yi-yo git along little doggies.
I came to California for the salt air
And for the mountains, which we don’t have back there
What we have is flatness and cold, goodness knows,
So this is a paradise one would suppose.
Whoopi-ti-yi-yo git along little doggies.
I love California, say what you will
And maybe you have but I love it still
Where there is opportunity for each
And even the homeless can lie on the beach
Whoopi-ti-yi-yo git along little doggies.
I walked in San Francisco in the fog and the mist
I went out a Lutheran, came back a humanist
Got back to the hotel and my spirit rejoiced:
That town may be cold but by gosh it is moist
Whoopi-ti-yi-yo git along little doggies.
I’ve been up north, near the big redwood trees,
Where they live in the fog of the late Seventies,
It’s very sustainable, organic and pure
Everything’s natural, especially manure
Whoopi-ti-yi-yo git along little doggies.
I went through Orange County, full of new building sites
It has no oranges except orange warning lights
The freeways were humming, the streets were abuzz
And it didn’t look bad for whatever it was.
Whoopi-ti-yi-yo git along little doggies.
I spent a few days seeing L.A.
Where everyone’s working on a screenplay
Your waiter picks up his cellphone and talks
To his agent who’s in touch with somebody at Fox.
Santa Barbara’s organic, relaxing, harmonic
Where the only ice is in your gin and tonic
It is full of Midwesterners here in disguise
But I know who they are by the guilt in their eyes. |
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Garrison Keillor in Concert As things reopen and it is safe to stage concerts again, we are looking at the calendar and figuring out how to get back out on the road for a few live shows. It’s an industry that truly has borne the brunt of the pandemic and if possible and if you feel safe, please go out and support live performances by all the great artists that have graced the A Prairie Home Companion stage! It not only helps to support them, but also supports the bands, management, sound and tech crews at the venues, and all the venue staff without whose help staging events would not be possible. Thanks so much!
We have announced three shows. It’s all about independence — from Virus and Virtual Life, Back to what’s real. Poetry and Stories and Classic Duets with Prudence Johnson, Bob Douglas, Adam Granger, and music director Dan Chouinard.
June 30th Dinner & Stories by Garrison from a riverboat in Stillwater, MN
July 2nd at 7:30 p.m. at Big Top Chautauqua in Bayfield, WI
July 4th at 4:00 p.m. at Summerfield Amphitheater in St. Michael, MN
Best-selling author and radio legend Garrison Keillor will be telling stories about his childhood, sharing wry observational comedy, and leading the audience in poetry and song. Garrison will be joined onstage by a few friends who appeared with him on A Prairie Home Companion. June 30th in Stillwater, MN >>>
July 2nd in Bayfield, WI >>>
July 4th in St. Michael, MN >>> |
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PHC Power Pack Make sure you don't miss a minute of the classic A Prairie Home Companion show each Saturday by having this charging bank ready for your phone. . . ensure there is no stoppage while you listen. More than enough battery life to listen to the classic show from wherever you are! Get the Power Pack >>> |
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That Time of Year: A Minnesota Life |
In That Time of Year, Garrison Keillor looks back on his life and recounts how a Brethren boy with writerly ambitions grew up in a small town on the Mississippi in the 1950s and, seeing three good friends die young, turned to comedy and radio. Through a series of unreasonable lucky breaks, he founded A Prairie Home Companion and put himself in line for a good life, including mistakes, regrets, and a few medical adventures. PHC lasted forty years, 750 shows, and enjoyed the freedom to do as it pleased for three or four million listeners every Saturday at 5 p.m. Central. He got to sing with Emmylou Harris and Renee Fleming and once sang two songs to the US Supreme Court. He played a private eye and a cowboy, gave the news from his hometown, Lake Wobegon, and met Somali cabdrivers who'd learned English from listening to the show. He wrote bestselling novels, won a Grammy and a National Humanities Medal, and made a movie with Robert Altman with an alarming amount of improvisation.
He says, "I was unemployable and managed to invent work for myself that I loved all my life, and on top of that I married well. That's the secret, work and love. And I chose the right ancestors, impoverished Scots and Yorkshire farmers, good workers. I'm heading for eighty, and I still get up to write before dawn every day." Listen to a sample >>>
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