A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor

Elvin Bishop

Growing up in Tulsa in the 1950s, guitarist Elvin Bishop could — if the conditions were just right — pick up Nashville radio station WLAC. He was captivated by the piercing harmonica sounds of Jimmy Reed coming over the airwaves. The blues cast a spell on him — one that has never lifted. He went off to college in Chicago and became a founding member of the Paul Butterfield Blues Band. In 1968, he went solo and moved to the San Francisco area. The latest of his twenty-some albums is the Grammy-nominated The Blues Rolls On (Delta Groove Music). Harmonica ace Norton Buffalo — you've heard him with everyone from The Doobie Brothers, Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen, and Steve Miller to Bonnie Raitt and Johnny Cash — joins Elvin Bishop for tonight's show.

Sara Watkins

Singer, songwriter, fiddle player Sara Watkins was only eight when she, her brother Sean, and Chris Thile started Nickel Creek. The Grammy Award–winning acoustic trio spent nearly two decades winning fans with their innovative, genre-bending style before calling an indefinite hiatus a couple of years ago. Now Sara has struck out on her own. And while she had been thinking for some time about doing a solo recording project, the notion has finally become reality: This spring, she released her first album, Sara Watkins (Nonesuch), produced by Led Zeppelin's John Paul Jones.

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.

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.

Trombonist Dave Bargeron has played with Clark Terry's Big Band, Doc Severinsen's Band and Gil Evans' Orchestra. For many years, he was a member of Blood, Sweat and Tears, with whom he recorded 11 albums. A sought-after session musician and a well-known artist in his own right, he has recorded with Mick Jagger, Eric Clapton, Gerry Mulligan, Dave Sanborn and others.

Trumpeter Jon-Erik Kellso has lived and breathed music since his childhood in Detroit. At 11, he was already doing big band work. And by the time he was 17, he played alongside famed cornetist Wild Bill Davison. He has performed with groups such as the New McKinney's Cotton Pickers, J.C. Heard's Orchestra, James Dapogny's Chicago Jazz Band and Vince Giordano's Nighthawks.