Garrison Keillor and The Prairie Home Companion

Jun 25, 2006 01:05 AM Filed in: Now Playing
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This week is the opening of the Prairie Home Companion movie. I'm sure I will go see this one. The cast is outstanding (Meryl Streep, Lilly Tomlin, Tommy Lee Jones, John C. Reilley, Woody Harrelson, Virginia Madsen, Kevin Kline, and Lindsay Lohan among others, and of course Garrison Keillor) and it's directed by Robert Altman, so it will be very interesting to see what they've made of it.

I first ran across the Prairie Home Companion radio show back around 1982 or so, and I quickly became a devoted listener spending 2 hours of many a Saturday afternoon doing chores around the house with the radio on so I could listen to the latest news from Lake Wobegone "where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average." And for many years later when I was not quite so glued to my radio on Saturday afternoons I would still, countless number of times, find myself sitting in the car in a parking lot somewhere not quite ready to get out because I had stumbled across Garrison and his latest update from Lake Wobegone, and Life took a short break while I listened to that voice and his meandering and yet so funny and insightful tales of small town midwestern life.

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The PHC is a 2 hour live radio broadcast every week, and something about that immediacy and sharing the listening experience with listeners all around the country makes it a unique and special part of Americana. We'll see how much of its charm and quirkiness Mr. Altman & Co. were able to capture on the big screen.

But just in case some of you are wondering what the hub bub is all about, I'm going to share with you a few favorite PHC clips of mine from many years ago. I actually used to tape many of the broadcasts and a few of the tapes managed to survive my many moves around the country. The sound quality is a bit dicey at times, but I think you can still catch the gist of it.

So try putting Life on pause for just a bit, kick back, and enjoy catching up with The Fearmonger Shop, Norwegian bachelor farmers, Powder Milk Biscuits (to give shy persons the strength to stand up and do what needs to be done!) Bertha's Songs Of The Cat Songbook, and of course the news from Lake Wobegone. There's about 90 minutes worth of The Prairie Home Companion here. If you have time for only a bit of it now, come on back later because it will be here waiting. We'll leave the lights on for you.

The Powder Milk Biscuit Quartet (1:30)
Bed Snakes (3:00)
The Finn Who Would Not Take A Sauna (6:20)
The In And Out Song (3:12)
Tomato Butt (11:39)
Sylvester Krueger's Desk (18:32)
Quebec Fiddler (3:21)
The Catskill Mountains (2:11)
Black Is The Color Of My Cat Ramon (2:27)
The Royal Family (20:19)
The Old School and Reformation Sunday (22:22)
The Lake Wobegone Hymn (Song Of The Exile) (6:29)