A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor

Marcia Ball

MARCIA BALL was born on the Texas side of the line and raised just across it in Vinton, Louisiana; a small town just off Interstate 10 between Beaumont and Lake Charles. It's a hotbed -- like Yellowstone -- only not of geysers but of blues, country, Cajun, zydeco, rockabilly, gospel and swamp pop, an area that has given us Janis Joplin, Gatemouth Brown, George Jones, Clifton Chenier, Johnny and Edgar Winter, Joe Bonsall and Cleveland Crochet.

People down there like their music. She was soaking it all up and taking formal piano lessons at the same time; went to Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge and then moved to Austin in the 70s, where she's lived ever since. She was there at the beginnings of the progressive country movement, and it didn't take her long to become both popular and important, both as the leader of Freda and the Firedogs and as a solo artist on Capitol. She cut the progressive "Circuit Queen" in 1978, then switched to Rounder Records and focused on Texas blues and Gulf Coast R& B. She's recorded a great series of albums for them: "Soulful Dress," "Hot Tamale Baby," "Gatorhythms," "Blue House," and "Let Me Play with Your Poodle."

Her latest CD is "Presumed Innocent," on the Alligator label. With her on stage tonight are Don Bennett, Pat Boyack, Chris Hunter and Brad Dziedziec.

Stephanie Davis

Raised in Montana near the Clarks Fork of the Yellowstone, STEPHANIE DAVIS now lives in the next watershed west, the valley of the Stillwater River: between those two are years spent in Nashville writing songs for folks like Waylon Jennings, Laurie Lewis, Shelby Lynne and Garth Brooks. She's grateful for the big-time experience and she's happy to be back on a Montana ranch, writing songs, touring, recording on her own label and raising range animals.

She is featured in an upcoming Hal Cannon documentary film called "Why The Cowboy Sings", a subject about which she knows a thing or two. It will premiere at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, and will later air on PBS stations nationwide. Her two Recluse Records include the western-styled "River of No Return," and "I'm Pullin' Through," a collection of original and vintage '40s swing music.