A Prairie Home Companion: May 15, 2004

Special Guests
Saturday, May 15, 2004

Hillbilly band BR5-49 takes its name from Junior Samples's phone number on Hee Haw. The group began playing in the mid-1990s on Nashville's Lower Broadway, and released their first EP on Arista records in 1996. BR5-49's current lineup is Chuck Mead (vocals, guitar), Don Herron (fiddle, guitar, steel guitar), Shaw Wilson (drums, vocals), Geoff Firebaugh (bass), and Chris Scruggs (vocals, guitar). Their most recent release is entitled Tangled in the Pines.

Philip Brunelle has been a frequent guest on A Prairie Home Companion since its very first show in 1974. A renowned conductor and choral scholar, he was the music director of the Minnesota Opera for 17 years. He has appeared with such groups as the Chicago Symphony, the Houston Grand Opera, and the San Francisco Symphony. The founder and artistic director of VocalEssence (formerly the Plymouth Music Series), he holds honorary doctorates from St. Olaf College, Gustavus Adolphus College, United Theological Seminary, and Saint John's University, and is a member of the Minnesota Music Hall of Fame.

Growing up in Woodstock, New York, Cindy Cashdollar, was captivated by Delta blues music and began learning to play the guitar when she was only 11 years old. This led to her mastering the dobro and steel guitar and, eventually, eight years playing with Western swing band Asleep at the Wheel. She has won five Grammy Awards, and she can be heard playing on Bob Dylan's Time Out of Mind (Columbia), as well as recordings by Manhattan Transfer, The Dixie Chicks, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, and numerous others. Always willing to help others musically, she has issued three instructional videos for steel guitar and dobro on Homespun Tapes. She was recently a featured guest on Beausoleil's 25th Anniversary tour.

Peter Ostroushko's latest album is Coming Down from Red Lodge, featuring The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band. There are nine previous, all beautiful and most interspersed with wry humor, with song titles such as "Rumba de los Holsteins," "Whalebone Feathers," "B-O-R-S-C-H-T," "Sluz Blues," "Too Tight Polza," "Corny Dog Ramble," and "Puppy Belly Dance," The Pig's Eye Reel," and "Unknowingly She Walks with Grace Among Tall Men." Asked how many albums, besides his own 10, that he played on, he said: "Played on ... well .... Hard to say, exactly .... Five hundred is the number that comes to mind. It would be right around that ...."

Jearlyn Steele started singing with her siblings in the aptly named group The Steele Children. The children sang in churches, concert halls, and on radio and television across the state of Indiana. Jearlyn left the Hoosier state to attend the University of Minnesota and, one by one, the rest of her brothers and sisters followed. For fun, they started singing together again as The Steeles. The public wanted more, and so the family turned to singing full-time, which they've been doing for more than a decade. In 1983, the Steeles sang in Gospel at Colonus at the Guthrie Theater. The show toured and ended up on Broadway in 1988. Jearlyn has recorded many local and national commercials, and has been heard on various albums with top acts like George Clinton and Prince.

Violinist and saxophonist Andy Stein has been called "The original fifth Shoe." A member of Guy's All-Star Shoe Band on A Prairie Home Companion from 1989 to 2001, Stein collaborated with Garrison Keillor to create the opera Mr. and Mrs. Olson. He has appeared on Saturday Night Live and Late Night with David Letterman, and has performed with such artists as Itzhak Perlman, Eric Clapton, Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Joel, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, Bob Dylan, and many others.

Inga Swearingen began her career as a singer/songwriter, accompanying herself in alternate tunings on the guitar, and later made a transition to singing jazz. In July 2003, she was recognized at Switzerland's Montreux Jazz Festival during the 2003 Shure Montreux Jazz Voice Competition, receiving the Prize of the Public from the audience and First Place from the judges. Her debut CD is called Learning How To Fly (2003). Currently, Inga is earning a masters degree in choral conducting at Florida State University.