A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media

Special Guests
Saturday, September 24, 2005

BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet

In the 30 years since Michael Doucet changed his mind about graduate school and went into Cajun music instead, BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet-and David Doucet, Billy Ware, Tommy Alesi, Al Tharp, and Jimmy Breaux-has recorded more than 20 albums. They released their first, The Spirit of Cajun Music, in the late '70s, and in 1998 won a Grammy for L'Amour ou Folie. Their latest album is Gitane Cajun (Vanguard). BeauSoleil has spent decades preserving Cajun music, and blending elements of zydeco, New Orleans jazz, Tex-Mex, and more into a tasty musical mix. Citing him as "the single most important figure in the revitalization of Cajun music in the United States," the National Endowment for the Arts has honored Michael Doucet with a 2005 National Heritage Fellowship.

Jack Knife and the Sharps

Jack Knife and the Sharps has been a favorite Minnesota rockabilly band since they formed in 1984. Led by guitarist/vocalist Rick Hollister-and with Elmer Johnston on bass and Johann "Yo-Yo" Swenson on drums-this trio gets the joint jumpin' every time they perform. Their latest CD is Big Hard Drive on Hollister Records. (Among the rockin' tracks is an old recording of 8-year-old Ric Hollister singing "Wreck of the Old 97.") In addition to being a staple on the Twin Cities bar scene, the Sharps have been trotting the globe, doing gigs for the U.S. armed forces. In 2004 and 2005, they traveled to Germany, Bosnia, and Kosovo. Last year, they also entertained the troops in Iraq, where they earned the distinction of being the first rockabilly band in Fallujah. Another trip to Iraq is planned soon.

Erica Rhodes

Erica Rhodes When Erica Rhodes first appeared on A Prairie Home Companion, the young actress had to stand on a box in order to share a mic with the other performers. Since then, she has grown up, studied at Boston University's College of Fine Arts and the Deena Levy Theatre Studio, and is currently enrolled at the Atlantic Theater Conservatory in New York. She toured with the children's theater company TheatreWorks/USA in a production of Ramona Quimby, and on television, she has appeared on Film Fakers (AMC).

The High-Flyers

The High-Flyers have only been together a couple of months, but separately these four have been wowing audiences for more years than they care to admit. After a long stretch of jamming in various incarnations, they decided to play together on a steady basis. Members of this honky tonk-swing-jazz-country-twang group are: dobro and steel guitar ace Cindy Cashdollar; fiddle player Elana Fremerman, the driving force behind the hot jazz/western swing trio Hot Club of Cowtown; guitarist Redd Volkaert, who is—as the Austin Chronicle put it—a Telecaster master who's "all over the guitar like grease on a pork chop"; and Kevin Smith, who has also slapped bass with High Noon, the Brian Setzer Orchestra, and Dan Hicks and His Hot Licks.

Prudence Johnson

Her 25-year career in music has taken her from nightclubs and honky-tonks to Carnegie Hall, from the theater stage to the Silver Screen (Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It), from the Midwest to the Middle East. She is a regularly featured guest on Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion, heard across the country on public radio stations. Her ten album releases include Little Dreamer, a collection of international lullabies, Moon Country, which features the music of Hoagy Carmichael, and S'Gershwin, a collaboration with pianist Dan Chouinard. She recently collaborated with four Minnesota composers to create A Girl Named Vincent, a presentation of the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay set to music, to be released on CD this year.

Andy Stein

Violinist and saxophonist Andy Stein was a regular member of Guy's All-Star Shoe Band on A Prairie Home Companion from 1989 to 2001. He 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.