A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor

Some call The Derailers the best pure country band in America. They themselves refer to their sound as "Beatles-meets-Bakersfield." Any way you look at it, since this hard-driving, Austin, Texas-based band first got together in the mid-'90s, they have keep a lot of honky-tonk and rockabilly fans hanging on their every note. Their eighth album — Under the Influence of Buck (Palo Duro), a tribute to Buck Owens — was released a few months ago. The current line-up is Brian Hofeldt (guitar), Ed Adkins (bass), Scott Matthews (percussion), Sweet Basil McJagger (piano, organ) and Chris Schlotzhauer (pedal steel, Dobro).

The Jerry Douglas band

Mention a Dobro and Jerry Douglas immediately comes to mind. Little wonder. The 12-time Grammy winner and Country Music Association's Musician of the Year can be heard on more than a thousand albums, including discs by Garth Brooks, Paul Simon, James Taylor, Vince Gill and Ray Charles. He has been a member of groundbreaking bands like The Country Gentlemen, J.D. Crowe & the New South and Alison Krauss & Union Station, and he has a thriving career as a solo artist as well. Jerry Douglas: Americana Master Series, The Best of the Sugar Hill Years (Sugar Hill) is his latest recording. The band: Douglas Belote (drums), Luke Bulla (violin), Todd Parks (bass) and Guthrie Trapp (mandolin, guitar).

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.

Peter Johnson

Peter Johnson (percussion, Guy's All-Star Shoe Band) has played Klezmer music with Doc Severinsen and jazz with Dave Brubeck. He was a drummer for The Manhattan Transfer and for Gene Pitney. He has toured the world, but he always comes back to home base: St. Paul.

Andy Stein

Andy Stein (violin, saxophone, Guy's All-Star Shoe Band) 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.

While they might not put it quite the way Garrison Keillor once did — "Individually their voices can melt cheese, and in duet they can do all-purpose welding ..." — fans of Robin and Linda Williams would certainly agree. Singing the music they love, be it bluegrass, folk, old-time, or acoustic country, these two have carved out a three-decade career that has taken them from Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl. And they have written dozens of terrific songs, ones that have been covered by Emmylou Harris, Tom T. Hall, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kathy Mattea, The Seldom Scene and many others. Radio Songs (Red House Records), a CD of favorite APHC performances, will be released in November.