A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor

Butch Thompson

Laura Sewell

Over the past several years, pianist and clarinetist Butch Thompson and cellist Laura Sewell have played the music of Duke Ellington, Scott Joplin, Cole Porter, Giuseppi Verdi, J.S. Bach and many others in an unique partnership that blurs the line between formal and informal music. This week, Thompson and Sewell will showcase the music of ragtime composer Joseph Lamb (1887-1960), a contemporary and friend of Scott Joplin.

 

Butch Thompson is one of the most prominent musicians in traditional jazz. Born in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota, he began his professional career at age 16, and two years later made the first of many pilgrimages to New Orleans, where he studied with clarinetist George Lewis and others. His association with A Prairie Home Companion dates to the show's second broadcast in 1974, and he was a full-time staffer until 1986. Today, Butch tours the world as a soloist, with the Butch Thompson Trio, with Laura Sewell, and with his eight-piece band the New Orleans Jazz Originals. His most recent CD, "Thompson Plays Joplin," is the ninth in his series for Daring Records of Boston.

Laura Sewell studied at Julliard, at the Cleveland Institute of Music, and with Jacqueline du Pre. She is the founder of the acclaimed Lark Quartet, with whom she toured in the U.S. and abroad for five years. Currently much in demand as a freelancer, she is also a member of the unique ensemble VIDA.

BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet

BeauSoleil, which is French for “good sun,” is a name taken from a fertile region of Nova Scotia, settled in the 17th century by French people who fled to New Orleans when asked to declare their allegiance to the French or the English. These settlers are credited for the beginnings of Cajun (Acadian) music, which began as the settlers’ old French songs mixed with the Louisiana country music. The leader of BeauSoleil, Michael Doucet, grew up when the traditional Cajun culture was on the decline, and so he played rock’n’roll and New Orleans-style swamp pop in high school before playing French music in an improvisational group called Coteau. Coteau, described as the “Cajun Grateful Dead,” was invited to play a festival in France, and Doucet returned to the States with a newfound appreciation for his own culture. Upon his return, Doucet received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and spent years tracking down the artists who had written and sung on the first Cajun records. In 1977, Doucet and BeauSoleil had their American debut album, "The Spirit of Cajun Music." Since then, BeauSoleil has been a frequent guest on "A Prairie Home Companion," and has received other nationwide attention, including seven Grammy nominations and critical acclaim for more than a dozen albums. Their newest album, "Cajunization" (Rhino Records). follows their 1997 Grammy-winning "L’Amour ou la Folie" (Love or Folly), also on Rhino. The members of BeauSoleil are: Michael Doucet (vocals, fiddle), David Doucet (guitar, vocals), Jimmy Breaux (Acadian accordion), Al Tharp (bass, banjo, fiddle, vocals), Billy Ware (percussion), and Tommy Alesi (drums).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Lynn Peterson is a Minneapolis-based singer/songwriter who has appeared in "Best of the Rest" at the Beacon Theater in New York and performed on the "Today" show several times with B.J. Thomas. She sang the national anthem at several professional basketball games in Denver and lived in New York for eight years singing commercial jingles and recording R&B songs. Her latest CD project is "Hymns for the Whole Family."