A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media

Special Guests
Saturday, January 28, 2006

Purdue Varsity Glee Club

Since their first performance-with 11 voices-in 1893, the Purdue Varsity Glee Club has brought recognition and honor to the university. These days, under the direction of Brian Breed, the 50-plus members are always on the go. They have performed at five presidential inaugurations, represented the university on nine European tours and trips to Canada, Mexico, Australia, New Zealand, Fiji and China. And they've traversed the U.S., including a 2005 appearance with the New York Pops orchestra at Carnegie Hall-the group's second time on the Carnegie stage in just the past three years.

The Jerry Douglas Band

The New York Times called Jerry Douglas "Dobro's matchless contemporary master." He's a nine-time Grammy winner and has twice been named Musician of the Year by the Country Music Association. In 2004, the National Endowment for the Arts awarded Douglas a National Heritage Fellowship. He has recorded both as a solo artist and as a member of groundbreaking bands, including J.D. Crowe & the New South, the Country Gentlemen and Alison Krauss & Union Station. And his distinctive sound can be heard on more than 1,500 albums, including discs by Garth Brooks, Paul Simon, James Taylor and Ray Charles, among many others. Douglas' latest solo album, The Best Kept Secret, was released in 2005 on Koch Records. "Who's Your Uncle?"—one of the songs from The Best Kept Secret—has received a Grammy nomination, as has his composition "Unionhouse Branch" from Alison Krauss's CD Lonely Runs Both Ways. Jerry Douglas is joined by Viktor Krauss on bass, Larry Atamanuik on drums and Gabe Witcher on violin.

Howard Levy

Howard Levy plays piano, sax, Chinese flute and a bunch of other instruments. But he is perhaps best known for taking the standard diatonic harmonica into territory where no one expects it to go, covering the entire musical scale. Anyone who has ever picked up a little Hohner Marine Band can appreciate the feat; the rest of us just enjoy the music. Howard was raised in Brooklyn and in the part of Queens known as Rockaway Beach, where the movie Radio Days was filmed. He studied piano and theory at the Manhattan School of Music for four years, then studied pipe organ for two years. In 1969 he continued his schooling at Northwestern University, where played in the jazz band. He has lived in the Chicago area since 1972. He was a founding member of Béla Fleck and the Flecktones and is currently leading two bands in Chicago. He has contributed to hundreds of CDs and won a Grammy in 1997. In 2005, he released three new CDs on his own Balkan Samba Records label: Howard Levy & Paul Sprawl, Cappuccino (with violinist Fox Fehling), and Secret Dream with the band Cheveré de Chicago.

Prudence Johnson

Prudence Johnson's 25-year career in music has taken her from honky-tonks to Carnegie Hall, from the theater stage to the Silver Screen (Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It). As one music critic put it, "[There's] not a genre she hasn't interpreted with her ducky, sensual alto voice and terminally good taste." Her 10 album releases include Moon Country, featuring the music of Hoagy Carmichael, and 'S Gershwin with pianist Dan Chouinard. Collaborating with four Minnesota composers, she created A Girl Named Vincent, the poetry of Edna St. Vincent Millay set to music and scheduled for CD release. Prudence also appears on (and produced) a new recording of Gales of November, the concert version of the play Ten November, chronicling the sinking of the S.S. Edmund Fitzgerald. The CD is on the Sleeper label.

Andy Stein

Violinist and saxophonist Andy 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 artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Eric Clapton, Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Joel, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles and Bob Dylan.