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A Note from Garrison St. Paul, Minnesota Dear Friends, Welcome and I hope you enjoy this weekend's
live broadcast of "A Prairie Home Companion."
I've just returned from a whirlwind book tour to California
and Arizona and am glad to be back, out of that desert and
back to paradise. There are good people everywhere and I
love to go meet them, but my gosh, when you drive around
Phoenix/Scottsdale/Tempe it feels like a vision of The End
of the World. Wall-to-wall strip malls, parking lots, franchise
outlets --- it's uglier than the west side of St. Cloud.
I did a poetry reading there and afterward stood around
and talked to a few hundred folks and among them were many
many Midwesterners who are homesick for back here. They
miss their people. The high point of my trip was meeting
the poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti whose work I've enjoyed for
so many years. He had coffee with me Wednesday morning in
San Francisco and came riding up on his bike and tied it
to a parking meter on Columbus Avenue and strode into the
coffee shop, all bright and twinkly and full of mischief.
A man of 60 is so pleased to see the vitality and good humor
of a man of 83! (His secret: vigorous daily exercise. He
swims and he rows.) The painful part of touring is to be removed
from my daughter, who is four. Whenever I saw little girls
clutching their daddy's leg or hiding in their mother's
skirt, I missed my kiddo, who is strong-willed and can be
LOUD and has a big personality, like Eloise at the Plaza
or Pippi Longstockings. She loves to crawl in with my wife
and me around 3 a.m. and get crosswise in the bed and kick
one of us out. So I've been suffering from sleep deprivation
since 1997, and if you've noticed a decline in the show,
that may be the reason. But she and I enjoy the same dumb
jokes. And there is nothing so sweet as hearing a little
girl yell "Daddy! Daddy!" and come running from
a long way off and throw her arms around your neck and kiss
you as if you were the Prodigal Son. When she grows up and
becomes Cool and doesn't do that, I am going to be bereft.
I am going to lie in bed and turn my face to the wall and
cry. I may wind up pushing a grocery cart around downtown
St. Paul with garbage bags full of treasures culled from
trash barrels and arguing with streetlights. Meanwhile, I'm glad to be home, and thanks
again for visiting. ~Garrison Keillor |
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Singer and songwriter Andra Suchy talks about singing duets with Garrison, and her latest album, Little Heart.
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).
