A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor

Jearlyn Steele

A native of Indiana, Jearlyn Steele first sang with her siblings (as The Steele Children) in churches, concert halls and on radio and television. After Jearlyn left home and moved to Minnesota, one by one the rest of the Steele kids followed, and they started singing together again as The Steeles. Now music is the family business. Fans still remember their participation in The Gospel at Colonus at the Guthrie Theater and on Broadway. Jearlyn has voiced many local and national commercials, and she has recorded with top acts including George Clinton and Prince. Her most recent CD is titled Steele Praising Hymn. She is the entertainment reporter for Twin Cities Public Television's public-affairs program, Almanac, and she hosts Steele Talkin', a Sunday-night radio show that originates on WCCO in Minneapolis and is heard in some 30 states nationwide.

In a circa 1900 one-room homestead cabin—a building on her ranch in south-central Montana—Stephanie Davis composes and records songs that reflect her life in Big Sky country. Back when, she spent a couple of years in Nashville, writing songs for the likes of Garth Brooks, Roger Whittaker, Martina McBride and Shelby Lynne. But there's no place like her home state of Montana—where her family has lived for four generations—and Stephanie is the first to tell you, daily ranch life provides constant inspiration. Her albums include I'm Pulling Through, River of No Return, Crocus in the Snow and her brand-new CD, Home for the Holidays (Recluse Records), a collection of holiday favorites, old and new.

Greg Brown’s mother played electric guitar, his grandfather played banjo, and his father was a Holy Roller preacher in the Hacklebarney section of Iowa. He studied classical voice and piano as a kid, and sang with choirs and in state competitions. When he was six or seven, he picked up the pump organ, and at twelve he learned the basics of guitar from his mother. At age 18, Brown moved to New York City, where he got his first professional singing job running hootenannies (folksinger get-togethers) at the Gerdes Folk City. After a year, he moved west to Los Angeles and Las Vegas, where he was a ghostwriter for Buck Ram, founder of the Platters. After a few years, Brown moved back to Iowa and began writing songs and playing in midwestern clubs and coffeehouses. His songs have been performed by artist as varied as Willie Nelson, Carlos Santana, Michael Johnson, Shawn Colvin, and Mary Chapin Carpenter. He recorded his first album in 1974, and later founded Red House Records, on which many of his albums, including One Big Town and The Poet Game, were released. Brown’s two latest recordings are Covenant (Red House) and Over and Under (Trailer Records). Brown also recently added author to his resumé. His new book, The Watsonville Sonata, was introduced to the public at a reading last fall. Brown and Garrison Keillor will perform a concert here at the Fitzgerald Theater following this evening’s broadcast.

Billy Collins

"Billy Collins writes lovely poems," John Updike has said. He does indeed. Collins was twice appointed United States Poet Laureate, and since January 2004, he has been the New York State Poet Laureate. His collections of poetry include Questions About Angels; The Art of Drowning; Picnic, Lightning; Taking Off Emily Dickinson's Clothes; Sailing Alone Around the Room: New & Selected Poems; Nine Horses and-his most recent—The Trouble With Poetry and Other Poems (Random House). He also edited two anthologies of contemporary poetry: Poetry 180: A Turning Back to Poetry and 180 More: Extraordinary Poems for Every Day. His poems have appeared in The New Yorker, The Paris Review, Poetry, American Poetry Review, The American Scholar, Harper's and many other magazines. Collins' honors include the Oscar Blumenthal Prize, the Bess Hokin Prize, the Frederick Bock Prize and the Levinson Prize-all awarded by Poetry magazine. In 1992, the New York Public Library chose him to serve as a Literary Lion. He has been a writer-in-residence at Sarah Lawrence College, and for more than three decades, he has been a Distinguished Professor of English at Lehman College, City University of New York. In October 2004, he was selected as the inaugural recipient of the Poetry Foundation's Mark Twain Award for humor in poetry.

Tom Hazelton

A California native, Tom Hazelton was a student of the late, reknowned Richard Purvis at San Francisco's Grace Cathedral. He has decades of experience playing and teaching the organ, including 14 years spent as organist and associate minister of music at Menlo Park Presbyterian Church and the honor of being the last staff organist at San Francisco's Paramount Theater. In 1986, Hazleton was named Organist of the Year by the American Theater Organ Society. He has released more than three dozen recordings, including Great Songs of Gershwin (Allen Organ Company). Tomorrow, at 1:30 and 4 p.m., at the Fitzgerald Theater, Tom Hazleton plays for a Laurel and Hardy silent film and then explores the many stops of the Mighty Wurlitzer with Minnesota Public Radio's Micheal Barone. These appearances mark the opening weekend of the FestivalOrgan exhibit at the Science Museum of Minnesota.

Maria Jette

In addition to her 45-plus operatic roles, soprano Maria Jette has performed pop songs, chamber music, oratorio and more. She has appeared with the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra, New York Chamber Symphony, Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra and Minnesota Orchestra, and with the Symphonies of Houston, Austin, San Antonio, Grand Rapids, Kansas City, Charlotte, Santa Rosa and Buffalo. She frequently collaborates with VocalEssence (formerly the Plymouth Music Series), the Handel Choir of Baltimore, the Choral Arts Society of Philadelphia and the Los Angeles Master Chorale. She has been a regular guest at the Oregon Bach, Victoria Bach and San Luis Obispo Mozart Festivals and the Oregon Festival of American Music. With the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, Maria starred as the "Mrs." in the May 2002 premiere of Garrison Keillor's opera, Mr. and Mrs. Olson. She has performed her own production of Dr. Seuss and Robert Kapilow's Green Eggs & Ham for more than 25,000 kids coast to coast.

Suzanne Ohlmann

Nebraska-born soprano Suzanne Ohlmann moved to New York in August of 2001 to pursue a career in the arts. She studied conducting for a semester at Juilliard, while she did various jobs-orchestra manager, orchestra librarian, etc.-at the school. Other music-related projects came and went, among them advisor to New York's Eos Orchestra and assistant conductor and orchestra manager for two summers at the Spoleto Festival in Italy. But Suzanne felt that something was missing. She began to re-evaluate, thinking about going into nursing and perhaps spending sometime overseas. Then a chance meeting gave her the opportunity to work with a foundation in Juanga, India. She left the day after Christmas, 2004, and spent 2005 working in the village school, assisting in the operating theater and helping at the women's clinic. Now back in the U.S., Suzanne is beginning her education to become a nurse, and she continues to perform both as a soloist and in ensemble settings.