A Prairie Home Companion: June 26, 2004

Special Guests
Saturday, June 26, 2004

Singer/songwriter/guitarist Kelly Joe Phelps is based in Portland, Oregon. He made his recording debut in 1994 with Lead Me On. Some of his songs feature performances by such artists as guitarist Bill Frisell, bassist Larry Taylor (Tom Waits), and drummer Billy Conway (Morphine). He has toured the United States, Canada, Scandinavia, and Australia, and his most recent album is called Slingshot Professionals on Rykodisc.

Peter Ostroushko's latest album is Meeting on Southern Soil, with Norman Blake. There are eight 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 Polka," "Corny Dog Ramble," and "Puppy Belly Dance," "The Pig's Eye Reel," and "Unknowingly She Walked With Grace Among Tall Men."

Asked how many albums, besides his own nine, that he had 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..." He's currently working on a project of old live tracks of the Mando Boys, and he's also transcribing music of the great Irish fiddler John Dougherty to put in book form. He recently took a trip to Ireland, particularly to County Donegal and to the archives in Dublin, to track down his works; said he liked Ireland a lot more than he expected to.

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.