A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor

Mollie O'Brien

MOLLIE O’BRIEN grew up in Wheeling, West Virginia, where she and her brother Tim were the youngest children in a large Irish Catholic family. As teens, the two sang covers of Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, and Peter, Paul & Mary at folk masses, ski lodges, and local coffeehouses. After two years of college, O’Brien moved to New York to become a musical-comedy star on Broadway. Instead, she became bogged down in day jobs until friends changed her life by introducing her to the music of the Boswell Sisters and Cab Calloway. O’Brien moved to Boulder, Colorado in 1980, where she started the Prosperity Jazz Band. In 1985, O’Brien and Tim reformed their high school duo for a one-off show in Boulder. It was such a success that it became an annual event. O’Brien released her debut album on Resounding Records in 1987, then recorded an album with Tim for the Sugar Hill label. In the early ’90s, O’Brien sang with the blues and R&B band the Blue Tips, recorded two more albums with Tim, Remember Me and Away Out on the Mountain (both on Sugar Hill), and released her second solo album, Every Night of the Week (Resounding Records). The duo finally split up after Tim moved to Nashville in 1996. With her next solo albums, Tell It True and Big Red Sun (Sugar Hill), O’Brien moved out of her brother’s shadow and out of the folk-bluegrass niche. Her latest record is Things I Gave Away (Sugar Hill). (http://www.mollieobrien.com/)

Joining O’Brien on guitar for this performance is Nina Gerber (http://www.ninagerber.com).

THE SKANDIA FOLKDANCE SOCIETY is a non-profit, educational, and cultural organization founded in 1949 by Gordon E. Tracie. The Society strives to preserve and teach traditional dance culture and music of the Nordic lands. More than 150 Seattle-area musicians have studied with master Scandinavian musicians, and many have attended “folkhögskolar”—schools in Sweden and Norway that specialize in teaching folk music. At least twice a month, Skandia hosts dance parties with live music. Dancing may include waltzes, hambos, schottisches, set dances, and mixers, as well as regional dances particular to the area from which they come. There are always basic dances for beginners, as well as partner dances for those more comfortable with the subtleties of the regional dances. Dance classes at all levels are taught each week and before most bi-monthly dance parties. One can learn the basics of partner dances, figure dances, variations of polka, schottis, and waltz, or the adventuresome may try the athletic “Halling” dances of Norway. The fiddlers joining us today from Skandia are: Anna Abrahams, Gina Boyd, Bill Boyd, Leslie Foley, Kris Forster, Bob Hamilton, Bud Johnson, Chris Johnson, David Lamb, Irene Myers, Mary Nelson, Iain Morris, Lars Saxegaard, and Ellen Wijsman. They are led by Bart Brashers. Born in Sweden to a Swedish mother and American father, Brashers has spent time living in both the US and Sweden. He began playing Swedish folk music at the age of 11, when he started playing a nyckelharpa built by his father. He took up the fiddle in 1991, and has been active in the Swedish folk music and dance scene wherever he has lived. In addition to being an active Skandia member, he is the President of the American Nyckelharpa Association. These musicians, and a host of others, will perform at Skandia’s Midsommarfest tomorrow from 11 am to 6 pm at St. Edward State Park in Kenmore, Washington.