A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor

Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver

When Doyle Lawson was growing up in East Tennessee, he'd look forward to Saturday nights when the Grand Ole Opry was on the air and he could hear the likes of Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys. At age 11, he taught himself to play the mandolin, and still in his teens, he got a job playing banjo with Jimmy Martin. After stints with J.D. Crowe and The Country Gentlemen, he started his own band in 1979. The group has earned multiple Grammy nominations and innumerable International Bluegrass Music Association awards, including IBMA's 2007 Vocal Group of the Year and Gospel Recorded Performance of the Year. Their most recent recording is More Behind the Picture Than the Wall (Rounder). The band: Darren Beachley (guitar), Joey Cox (banjo), Josh Swift (dobro), Carl White (bass and piano), and Alan Johnson (fiddle).

The Boys of the Lough

The Irish Times described the Boys of the Lough's music as "full of guts and technical brilliance." The group, which has helped to keep the centuries-old music of Ireland and Scotland close to its roots, was formed in 1967. Since then, they've done more than 60 U.S. tours, in addition to their performances worldwide. Members of the band are Dave Richardson (mandolin, cittern, English concertina, button accordion), from Northumberland; Cathal McConnell (flute, whistles), from County Fermanagh, in Northern Ireland; Kevin Henderson (fiddle), from the Shetland Islands; Brendan Begley (button accordion, melodeon), from the Dingle Peninsula in County Kerry; and Malcolm Stitt (guitar), from Fort William in the Scottish Highlands. In 2005, they released their 20th album — aptly titled Twenty (Lough Records). A new CD, Midwinter Live, is just out.