A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media

We Now Present The APHC Camp-Song Songbook!
June, 1997
Enjoy the complete collection!

Set 1 - Set 2 - Set 3 - Set 4 - Set 5 - Set 6 - Set 7 - Set 8 - Set 9 - Set 10

WE ASKED FOR IT, and we got it: The good, the bad, the disgusting, the absurd and the utterly hilarious. Thanks to your submissions, we now have a treasure trove of camp songs compiled for A Prairie Home Companion's July 5 broadcast from Yellowstone Park.

We asked the former director of Camp Knutson in central Minnesota to comment on these songs - you'll find his remarks here and there in the collection.

Find out if GK and the Prairie Home Companion crew sang your campsong submission on the July 5 Performance Rundown!

S A M P L E
The Camp Icaghowan Store Song
VERSE PART I
Oh it's (name, name, name of someone in the group)
CHORUS PART I
In the store,
In the store. . .
VERSE PART II
Oh it's (name, name, name of that person in the group)
Who always (is doing something weird in the store that rhymes with name)
CHORUS PART II
In the Camp I-cag-'wan, Camp Icag'wan store!
My eyes are dim, dim, di-dim-dim-DIM,
I ca-a-an-NOT see-ee-EE!
I have (HEY!)
Not (HO!)
Brought my specs with me!
Camp Icaghowan is a YMCA camp on Lake Wapogaset in Amery, Wisconsin, which I attended in 1963. There may have been more to the verse. Anyone else remember how that part went?
- J. Pearson, Hudson, Wisc.
See The Quartermaster's Store for another version of this song.

Set 1 - Set 2 - Set 3 - Set 4 - Set 5 - Set 6 - Set 7 - Set 8 - Set 9 - Set 10

On July 4th, help us celebrate the 35th Anniversary of A Prairie Home Companion and the Fourth of July with a free live nationally broadcast show from Avon, MN.

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From Garrison Keillor:
“When I was 16, Helen Fleischman assigned me to memorize Shakespeare’s Sonnet No. 29, ‘When in disgrace with fortune and men’s eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state’ for English class, and fifty years later, that poem is still in my head. Algebra got washed away, and geometry and most of biology, but those lines about the redemptive power of love in the face of shame are still here behind my eyeballs, more permanent than my own teeth. The sonnet is a durable good. These 77 of mine include sonnets of praise, some erotic, some lamentations, some street sonnets and a 12-sonnet cycle of months. If anything here offends, I beg your pardon, I come in peace, I depart in gratitude.”

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Robin & Linda Williams are among the most popular guest performers of A Prairie Home Companion (they also appeared in the movie, have performed as part of the The Hopeful Gospel Quartet, and made appearances as Marvin & Mavis Smiley). This CD features some of the duo's best harmonies from the show. Among the 12 tracks are familiar fan favorites, including "For Better or Worse", "Visions of Mother and Dad", "Tied Down, Home Free" and the title track. A collection that is muy bueno!

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