White Christmas from 2002

featuring Leo Kottke and John Sebastian

Listen to the December 7, 2002, show

This week’s classic show was performed live from The Town Hall on West 43rd Street in New York City, with Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon, and John Sebastian joins the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band. Listen to the show.

“Today’s show brings you the famed guitarist Leo Kottke teamed with Phish bassist Mike Gordon, and, sitting in with the Shoe Band, the rock ’n’ roll jug band hero John Sebastian. And the stylish Sue Scott and the reliable Tim Russell. And the fresh-faced Fred Newman doing the creaking doors, cougars, dynamite explosions, men falling into vats of raspberry gelatin, or whatever the scripts call for. Last week, Fred was a talking saxophone, and it’s hard to think of anyone else in America who could do that. Or Canada, for that matter.” —Garrison Keillor

With his quick wit and astounding virtuosity, guitarist Leo Kottke has amassed a huge and loyal following since making his debut album in 1969: 12-String Blues, recorded live at the Scholar coffeehouse in Minneapolis. Then came major-label releases Mudlark and the seminal 6- and 12-String Guitar, which has been reissued on CD three times since it first came out in the early 1970s. Among his dozens of albums are Try and Stop Me and Sixty Six Steps, a collaboration with Phish bassist Mike Gordon.

Mike Gordon is bassist and co-founder of the seminal improvisational rock band Phish. His sixth solo LP, Flying Games, is filled with constant and wildly hypnotic movement, each moment animated by unexpected sounds that morph and expand and spin off into their own strange orbits, revealing entirely new dimensions of the kaleidoscopic musicianship he’s displayed as a bassist for the last four decades.

John Sebastian is an American singer-songwriter, guitarist, harmonicist, and autoharpist. He may be best known as the founder of the Lovin’ Spoonful and his impromptu performance at the Woodstock festival in 1969.

Today’s show features a new verse written by Garrison for the song “Tramp on the Street”:

Only a tramp was Laz’rus that day
He lay down by the rich man’s gate
He begged for crumbs from the rich man to eat
But they left him to die like a tramp on the street

He was somebody’s darlin’, he was some mother’s son
Once he was fair and once he was young
Some mother she rocked him, her little darlin’, to sleep
But they left him to die like a tramp on the street

I go to the train, to the platform below
Crowded with people, not a face do I know
But there is a man, lying on the concrete
And his eyes meet mine, and he says to me

If Jesus should come and knock at your door
Would you let him come in and take from your store
Or would you say no and turn him away
For this he will judge you on the great day

Third stanza written by Garrison Keillor; © Garrison Keillor.
Stanzas 1, 2 and 4 written by Grady Cole and Hazel Cole; © DIXIE MUSIC PUBLISHING CO.

Make your holiday shopping easy with a few gift sets featuring our newest LIVE recording of the 50th Anniversary Shows.

Serenity at 70 — which has been called “a 90-page self-published masterwork on aging” by the Saturday Evening Post — is paired with our newest release, the 50th Anniversary Celebration. The CD is a brand-new LIVE recording featuring all the elements you loved about the old radio show, from Guy Noir, to Mom and Duane, to sponsor ads and sketches, duets, poetry, humor, and the latest News from Lake Wobegon. A two-CD collection with over 2 1/2 hours. Get the gift set.

Our most popular hat features the water tower from Lake Wobegon and is adjustable so one size fits most. It is paired with our 50th Anniversary CD — a brand-new LIVE recording featuring all the elements you loved about the old radio show, from Guy Noir, to Mom and Duane, to sponsor ads and sketches, duets, poetry, humor, and the latest News from Lake Wobegon. A two-CD collection with over 2 1/2 hours. Get the gift set.

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