A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor

Jearlyn Steele

Jearlyn Steele grew up in Indiana and first sang with her siblings (as The Steele Children). After she left home and moved to Minnesota, one by one the rest of the Steele kids followed. They started singing together again as The Steeles, and now music is the family business. Jearlyn also hosts Steele Talkin', a Sunday-night radio show that originates on WCCO in Minneapolis and is heard in some 30 states nationwide. Jearlyn Steele Sings Songs from A Prairie Home Companion is her most recent CD.

Jevetta Steele

Plans change. Jevetta Steele first moved to the Twin Cities from Gary, Indiana (her childhood home) to become a criminal lawyer. Instead, she and her sister Jearlyn — along with their siblings — turned to performing. In the 1980s, she toured the world (including Broadway) in the musical The Gospel at Colonus. And many remember her Academy Award-nominated performance of “Calling You,” from the film Baghdad Café. She has recorded several solo albums, including My Heart.

Robin and Linda Williams and Their Fine Group

“Individually their voices can melt cheese, and in duet they can do all-purpose welding,” Garrison Keillor has said of Robin and Linda Williams. And while their fans might not put it quite that way, they'd 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. Buena Vista (Red House) is Robin and Linda's latest recording. Their Fine Group: Jim Watson (bass, mandolin) and Chris Brashear (fiddle).

Will Farley

Last month, Will Farley took top honors at the 2009 Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest, an arts education program and competition sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts and the Poetry Foundation. He advanced from a competitive field of some 300,000 students who participated across the country. A senior — and class president — at Washington-Lee High School in Arlington, Virginia, Will plans to enter Bucknell University in the fall. He credits Poetry Out Loud with making public speaking a lot easier. And, he adds, "It's shown me that there are poems out there for everyone."

The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band

Richard Dworsky, who week in and week out leads A Prairie Home Companion's Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, is a classically trained pianist and composer who rocks, swings, plays great blues and gospel, tears it up on Hammond B3 organ, and keeps up with world-class pickers playing his unique "bluegrass piano” style. He writes all APHC's script themes and underscores, and during his 16-year stint, he has accompanied guests from James Taylor to Renée Fleming. His latest CD is So Near and Dear to Me (Prairie Home Productions).

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.

J.T. Bates started playing drums when he was seven. By the time he was 15, he was sitting in with his dad's big band. Since then, he has backed up countless musicians, as well as working with his own bands — Fat Kid Wednesdays and Poor Line Condition.

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.