A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor

Elvis Costello

In 1977, a young London pub-rocker named Declan McManus signed with Stiff Records, changed his name to Elvis Costello, and recorded his first album, the Nick Lowe-produced My Aim Is True. It won the Rolling Stone Critics Poll for best album. Rock critic Greil Marcus wrote that Costello “emerged ... as one of the unquestioned originals of modern pop music.” Three decades later, Costello still is. As a solo artist and with his band, the Attractions, he has turned out a string of groundbreaking recordings. In 2003, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Elvis Costello’s latest CD, Secret, Profane and Sugarcane (Hear Music), is scheduled for release in June.

Tom Rush

James Taylor once told a reporter that Tom Rush "was not only one of my early heroes, but also one of my main influences." Lots of artists could say the same. Rush has had a profound impact on American music ever since his early days on the 1960s Boston/Cambridge coffeehouse scene, where he began performing while he was an English lit student at Harvard. He made his first record, Tom Rush at the Unicorn, in 1962. He has since released dozens of albums, but the most recent, What I Know (Appleseed), is his first studio recording in thirty-five years. Tom Rush makes his home in New Hampshire with his wife, author Renée Askins, and their nine-year-old daughter.

Heather Masse

Heather Masse grew up in rural Maine and currently makes her home in New York. She has appeared on A Prairie Home Companion a number of times, often with her band the Wailin’ Jennys. Now, while the Jennys take a break from touring, Heather is keeping busy with other projects. She performs regularly with her Brooklyn-based outfit, Heather and the Barbarians — a group that first formed when the members were students at the New England Conservatory of Music. Their album Tell Me Tonight was released in 2007. Heather’s solo EP is titled Many Moons (Heather Masse Music). Look for a full-length album from her later this year.

Guy's All-Star Shoe Band

The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band is led by A Prairie Home Companion music director Richard Dworsky. A masterful keyboard player, composer and improviser in any style, he writes all the script themes and underscores, and he has accompanied guests from James Taylor to Renée Fleming. His latest CD is So Near and Dear to Me.

Chet Atkins called Pat Donohue (guitar) one of the greatest finger pickers in the world today. And he writes songs too — recorded by Suzy Bogguss, Kenny Rogers and others. Freewayman (Bluesky Records) is the most recent of Pat's nine albums.

Gary Raynor (bass) has performed with the Count Basie band, Sammy Davis Jr. — with whom he toured for several years — and the Minnesota Klezmer Band. He teaches jazz bass at the McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul.

Peter Johnson (percussion) 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: Saint Paul.

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 has performed with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Eric Clapton, Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Joel, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles and Bob Dylan.

The Town Hall

“Not a bad seat in the house.” That’s been The Town Hall’s motto almost from the beginning, when a group of suffragists hired architectural firm McKim, Mead & White to build a hall for their organization, the League for Political Education. The design had no box seats and no columns to obstruct anyone’s view. Hence, the slogan. Since its opening on January 12, 1921, this building has seen its share of stunning performances and historic controversy. Poet Edna St. Vincent Millay made her public debut here, as did singer Marian Anderson. Birth-control advocate Margaret Sanger was arrested and carted off the stage during a speech. There were lectures by Theodore Roosevelt, Booker T. Washington, Eleanor Roosevelt and countless others, in addition to 20 years’ worth of American Town Meetings of the Air radio broadcasts, launched by NBC in 1935. Performers from Billie Holiday to Bob Dylan, Ruth St. Denis to Ravi Shankar have entertained Town Hall audiences — more than eight decades of music and dance and ideas. And still not a bad seat in the house.