A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media

Special Guests
Saturday, November 4, 2006

Shawn Colvin

Singer-songwriter Shawn Colvin — perhaps best known for her 1998 hit "Sunny Came Home" — picked up her first guitar at the age of 10. More precisely, it was a four-string tenor guitar that belonged to her brother. Their dad — a folk music buff with a fondness for the likes of Pete Seeger and the Kingston Trio — gave Shawn the chording and picking basics; she fleshed out her chops with Mel Bay books. She started out life in Vermillion, South Dakota, and now calls Austin, Texas, home. In between, she's lived in Illinois (where she had lead roles in her high school's musicals, and where, in her Southern Illinois University days, she did her first paying gigs), and on the East Coast (where her career really took off). Now, after many years, a slew of recordings, three Grammys, a few TV acting jobs (including a role on The Simpsons), marriage, children, divorce and other mileposts, Colvin is just out with These Four Walls, her first recording in five years. Joining her tonight: Buddy Miller (guitar); Debra Dobkin (percussion).

Larry Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers

Larry Sparks grew up in Lebanon, Ohio, the youngest of nine children in a family where everyone took an interest in music. He started playing guitar when he was just five, and by the time he was 16, he had signed on with the Stanley Brothers. (Nothing like starting your life's work at the top.) A few years later, in 1969, he formed Larry Sparks and the Lonesome Ramblers and began a recording career that has established Sparks as one of the top names in bluegrass music. He was named Male Vocalist of the Year in 2004 and 2005 by the International Bluegrass Music Association, which also gave Sparks' most recent CD, Larry Sparks 40 (Rebel Records), the nod in the Album of the Year and Recorded Event of the Year categories. The group is: Larry Sparks (guitar and vocals), Josh McMurray (banjo), Randy Pollard (fiddle), Jackie Kincaid (mandolin), and Larry D. Sparks (bass).

Dan Neale

Guitarist Dan Neale moves easily from blues and country to pop, jazz, and rock. Fingerpicking, flatpicking — he's got it covered. As a studio player and sideman, he has worked with Martin Zellar, Bobby Vee, and a host of others. A solo album is in the works.

John Niemann

After playing electric bass in a high school rock 'n' roll band, fiddler and mandolinist John Niemann took up guitar, fiddle, mandolin, and mandocello. He was a member of Peter Ostroushko's quartet The Mando Boys, and he spent seven years with the bluegrass group Stoney Lonesome.