A Prairie Home Companion from American Public Media

Special Guests
Saturday, March 17, 2007

Dave Bargeron

Dave Bargeron's first lead trombone job was playing with Clark Terry's Big Band. Then he signed on as bass trombonist and tuba player with Doc Severinsen's Band, before joining the pioneering jazz-rock group Blood, Sweat and Tears, with whom he recorded 11 albums. A break in BS&T's schedule allowed Dave to join the Gil Evans Orchestra in 1972, and he remains a member of that organization. He is both a sought-after session musician and a well-known jazz artist in his own right. A charter member of Howard Johnson's six-tuba group, Gravity, and he has also recorded with Paul Simon, Mick Jagger, James Taylor and Eric Clapton, Gerry Mulligan and Dave Sanborn.

Bob Dorough

When Bob Dorough was growing up in Arkansas and Texas, he wanted to be a cowboy, but changed his mind once he began playing music. It was the right choice. His career in jazz took him to Paris in the mid-'50s, where he recorded with singer Blossom Dearie. Then it was on to New York. He collaborated with Miles Davis, the Fugs and Allen Ginsberg, and he served as musical director for ex-boxer Sugar Ray Robinson. He also launched his solo career with the album Devil May Care (Bethlehem). In the early 1970s, he began a project that would endear him to generations of young TV watchers — even if they didn't know his name. "Schoolhouse Rock" (remember Dorough's jingles "Conjunction Junction," "Three Is a Magic Number," and "My Hero, Zero"?) was on the air from 1973 to '86, and has appeared from time to time in the decades since. Bob Dorough continues to write, perform and record. His latest album is Small Day Tomorrow (Candid Records).

Jen Larson

Whether she's singing country, old time, or straight-ahead bluegrass with her band Straight Drive, Jen Larson's voice finds the perfect delivery. As Bluegrass Unlimited magazine recently wrote, "She calls on a beautiful blue, throaty quality when the song or the mood requires it and, with ease, shifts to an almost fragile lilt, often within a single phrase." Raised in a small town north of Boston, Jen Larson now makes her home in New York City. In addition to her work with Straight Drive — whose CD I'll Take a Page from Your Book (Cabinwood Music) was released in 2005 — Jen has recorded with banjoist Tom Hanway and with the Long Island-based bluegrass band Miller's Crossing.

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.

KT Sullivan

Born and raised in the small Oklahoma town of Boggy Depot, KT Sullivan always wanted to be a performer. Boy, did she get her wish! After majoring in fine arts at the University of Oklahoma, she spent time doing theater in California before moving to New York City. She has appeared in a number of Broadway productions, including The Three Penny Opera with Sting, the play Broadway directed by George Abbott, and Gentlemen Prefer Blondes in the leading role. On television, she has guest starred on Police Squad, Night Court, Remington Steele and other shows. She has performed at the Spoleto Festival, La Nouvelle Eve in Paris, the Chichester Festival in the UK and Australia's Adelaide Festival. Since 1992, KT has been a regular headliner at the Oak Room of New York's Algonquin Hotel. Stephen Holden of The New York Times called her "the cabaret equivalent of whipped cream atop a surprisingly nutritious dessert." Her many albums on the DRG label include Crazy World and Live From Rainbow and Stars: The Songs of Bart Howard, which won Backstage magazine's Bistro Award. Her latest CD — the songs of Cole Porter — was recorded during an engagement at the Prince Music Theater in Philadelphia.

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.