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Special Guests Saturday, June 19, 2004 The Hopeful Gospel Quartet was formed when four friends discovered their shared interest in gospel music; they were standing around backstage, waiting for one of the Prairie Home Companion shows to begin ,and one of them began to sing. The others joined in, and since then the Hopeful Gospel Quartet, or the Hopefuls, have toured with Chet Atkins and performed at Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, The Universal Amphitheatre, and at The Great Prairie Home Hymn-Sing Festival in Moorhead, Minnesota. The Hopefuls have released two albums titled Garrison Keillor & the Hopeful Gospel Quartet, and their most recent, Climbing Up on the Rough Side. The current members of the Hopeful Gospel Quartet are Mollie O'Brien, Garrison Keillor, and Robin and Linda Williams. 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 including George Clinton and Prince. Buy Jearlyn Steele's CD Steele Praising Hymn Originally from Minnesota, Greg Fideler is a Los Angeles-based writer and comedian who has been contributing jokes and scripts to A Prairie Home Companion for several years. A former panelist on the PBS show Mental Engineering, he is currently writing for the animated series This Just In on SpikeTV. | | | | |
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An Interview with Heather Masse
In a 2009 interview, Heather Masse tells us about her earliest influences, auditioning in a women's bathroom, and a few memorable moments from A Prairie Home Companion.
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).
