A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media

Special Guests
Saturday, February 17, 2007

The Grapes of Wrath cast

A new opera, based on John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, The Grapes of Wrath, made its world premiere on February 10th at the Ordway Center in St. Paul. It is a production of the Minnesota Opera. New York-based composer Ricky Ian Gordon and librettist Michael Korie spent several years working on what the Minneapolis Star Tribune described as "a splendid, almost perfect production of an opera that is smart, funny, touching and harrowing, in all the right places." Cast members appearing on tonight's show are: Brian Leerhuber (Tom Joad), Deanne Meek (Ma Joad), Roger Honeywell (Casy, the "fallen" preacher), Peter Halverson (Pa Joad), Robert Orth (Uncle John), Jesse Blumberg (Connie), Andrew Wilkowske (Noah), Maeve Moynihan (Ruthie), Henry Bushnell (Winfield), Kelly Kaduce (Rosasharn Joad), and Joshua Kohn (Al Joad). The pianist is Bryan Lemke. "The Grapes of Wrath" is scheduled at the Utah Opera this spring and at Houston Grand Opera and Pittsburgh Opera in 2008.

Phil Heywood

Acoustic Guitar magazine once said Phil Heywood "may be the Midwest's best-kept secret," and clearly no one will ever accuse Phil of tooting his own horn. He really doesn't need to. When this unassuming fingerstyle player picks up a guitar, his quiet virtuosity is absolutely stunning. He has attracted fans coast to coast, and fellow guitarists like Pat Donohue and Leo Kottke hold him in high esteem. Originally from Mount Vernon, Iowa, Heywood has been based in Minneapolis-St. Paul since the mid-'80s. In 1986, he won the National Fingerpicking Championship, and the following year, he took first place in the American Fingerstyle Guitar Festival Competition. He has recorded four solo albums; the most recent is titled Banks of the River (Arabica).

Prudence Johnson

That silky alto and striking style — you'd expect to find Prudence Johnson singing at a high-tone nightspot. And you might. But be it a concert hall, a little jazz club or A Prairie Home Companion, Pru is the perfect complement. 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. On the silver screen, she appeared in Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It, and in Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion. On the music front, a new CD of French songs — pop to classical — with accordionist Dan Chouinard is in the works for later this year.

Dan Neale

Dan Neale is a guitarist who moves easily from blues and country to pop, jazz, and rock. Fingerpicking, flatpicking — he's got it covered. Back when he was a high school kid in Chattanooga, he began to think about a career in music. He played in the school band and in a group formed by his brother. That led to work with a slew of bar bands and a full-time stint in country rock group called Rawhide. In 1986, he left Tennessee for Minnesota ("I married a woman who hates hot weather," he says). As a studio player and sideman, he has worked with Martin Zellar, Bobby Vee, and a host of others. Recently, he teamed up with singer/songwriter Rex Haberman to do a CD aptly called Neale & Haberman (Reissner Records). A solo album is in the works, due for release this spring.

Andy Stein

Andy Stein (violin, saxophone) definitely has far-flung musical leanings, He collaborated with Garrison Keillor to create the opera Mr. and Mrs. Olson, and he's performed with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Eric Clapton, Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Joel, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles and Bob Dylan.

Vern Sutton

Tenor Vern Sutton grew up in Oklahoma City. He remembers being applauded for the first time in first grade — for his performance in the role of Baby Bear in Goldilocks. From that day on, he was hooked on show business. Sutton first met Garrison Keillor when they both were students at the University of Minnesota. Sutton went on to spend 36 years as a faculty member at the U of M School of Music. He directed the opera program at the university, and he served as director of the School of Music. In addition to his work on campus, Sutton appeared with many major orchestras, opera companies, and musical groups and earned an international reputation for his work with the BBC, the New Opera Theatre of New York, the Wolf Trap Festival and other organizations. He has directed plays, operas and musicals all over the Midwest, including a 1993 tour of Aaron Copland's The Tender Land, which was performed on seven Midwestern working farms. Vern has made frequent appearances on A Prairie Home Companion for more than three decades. In fact, he was a guest on the very first show, in July of 1974.

Butch Thompson

For 12 years of his four-decade career, Butch Thompson was the house pianist on A Prairie Home Companion, dating back to the show's second broadcast in July, 1974. As a soloist, he has earned a worldwide reputation as a master of ragtime, stride and classic jazz piano. Described by Jazz Journal International as "the premier player in traditional jazz today," Thompson also performs with his well-known trio, his eight-piece New Orleans Jazz Originals, and with symphony orchestras, including the Hartford Symphony, the St. Louis Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Cairo (Egypt) Symphony. Thompson's first recording, Butch Thompson Plays Jelly Roll Morton Piano Solos, has been re-issued as a Biograph CD. His latest recordings are Butch Thompson's Big Three: 'Tain't Nobody's Business (Jazzology Records), featuring Butch on piano, Duke Heitger on trumpet, and Jimmy Mazzy on banjo and vocals; and At First Light (Turnagain Music), in which Butch teams up with the Miami Philharmonic and conductor Gordon Wright for a program of originals by Wright.