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Special Guests The Ensemble Singers of the Plymouth Music Series first sang together in 1991. They are the professional core of the larger Plymouth Music Series, which, for 30 years under the direction of founder and artistic director Philip Brunelle, has grown to become one of the premier music organizations in Minnesota. Commissions and world premiere performances include works of Dominick Argento, Randall Davidson, Libby Larsen, Stephen Paulus and Conrad Susa. The Ensemble Singers are heard on the Angel, Collins Classics, and RCA labels. In December they represented the US in Stockholm's "Midwinter Festival," were featured at the American Choral Directors National Convention in Chicago in February, will present the opening concert for the Chorus America conference in June, and in July will appear in Rotterdam at the World Choral Symposium. Performing tonight are: soprano: Kathleen Hanson, Barbara Nelson, Andrea Schussler, Ruth Spiegel, Amy Walter-Peterson, Linda Zelig; alto: Anna M. Dick, Rosita Elhardt, Nina M. Heebink, Barbara Kastens, Karen Lovgren Kennedy, Christy Pritchard; tenor: Robert Griffin, Thomas Larson, Jordan Sramek, Glen Todd, Peter Vitale; bass: James Bohn, Mark Dietrich, Jerry Johnson, Arthur LaRue, Michael P. Schmidt. Butch Thompson is well-remembered for his 12-year run as the house pianist on A Prairie Home Companion, dating back to the show's second broadcast in July 1974. In 1978, The Butch Thompson Trio was formed for the show and remained the house band until 1986. Thompson's interest in jazz began during his childhood in Marine-on-St. Croix, Minnesota, where he discovered the piano at age three. As a teenager, he led his first band (Shirt Thompson and his Sleeves), and played his first professional engagements on both piano and clarinet. In 1962, he joined the Hall Brothers New Orleans Jazz Band on clarinet and began a series of pilgrimages to New Orleans, where he studied with clarinetist George Lewis and became one of the few non-Orleanians to guest occasionally at Preservation Hall. By the early '70s, his recordings on both instruments were noticed abroad, and he toured Europe and Australia. Thompson's first recording, Butch Thompson Plays Jelly Roll Morton Piano Solos, has been re-issued as a Biograph CD, and he recently released the ninth CD in his acclaimed solo series, Thompson Plays Joplin (on Daring/Rounder Records). As a soloist, Thompson has long been regarded as a leading traditional jazz musician. More recently, he has put together an eight-piece group called the New Orleans Jazz Originals. Dave Van Ronk is a musician whose versatility defies pigeon holing. As a teenager in Brooklyn, he played tenor banjo in a group called the Brute Force Jazz Band before switching to guitar and developing a style that combined blues, jazz and folk music. After moving to Greenwich Village, he was encouraged by Odetta to pursue music as a profession. From his start in the folk boom of the 1960s to jug band music and cabaret theater, from ragtime guitar arrangements of Jelly Roll Morton to covers of Tom Waits and Paul Simon tunes, he's done it all. Now, after nearly 40 years, he is doing the best work of his career, as his Grammy nomination for his latest CD, From...Another Time and Place, and his 1997 ASCAP Lifetime Achievement Award confirm. With two dozen albums to his credit, Van Ronk has a repertoire of over 300 songs from which to choose. Still a resident of Greenwich Village, he teaches guitar and tours steadily.
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An Interview with Heather Masse
In a 2009 interview, Heather Masse tells us about her earliest influences, auditioning in a women's bathroom, and a few memorable moments from A Prairie Home Companion.
Old Sweet Songs: A Prairie Home Companion 1974-1976
Lovingly selected from the earliest archives of A Prairie Home Companion, this heirloom collection represents the music from earliest years of the now legendary show: 1974–1976. With songs and tunes from jazz pianist Butch Thompson, mandolin maestro Peter Ostroushko, Dakota Dave Hull and the first house band, The Powdermilk Biscuit Band (Adam Granger, Bob Douglas and Mary DuShane).
