Guest Information

Roy Blount, Jr.

The New York Times Book Review has called Roy Blount Jr. "one of America's wittiest writers." Readers of his articles in The Oxford American, Sports Illustrated, Esquire, Vanity Fair, GQ, National Geographic, Rolling Stone and The New York Times could tell you that. So could fans of his 20 books, including the most recent, Long Time Leaving: Dispatches from Up South (Knopf). He has been honored as a Literary Lion by the New York Public Library and a Literary Light by the Boston Public Library. On radio, he is a panelist on NPR's news quiz show, Wait Wait ... Don't Tell Me. Born in Indianapolis and raised in Decatur, Georgia, Blount makes his home in western Massachusetts and Manhattan.

Rachel Sclafer-Parton

A resident of Luttrell, Tennessee, Rachel Schlafer-Parton, sent a tape of her syringe-playing to A Prairie Home Companion's "Talent From Towns Under 2,000" contest. A sign-language interpreter by day, Schlafer-Parton plays flutes, hammered dulcimer, guitar, spoons, and other instruments for a musical trio called Farr Horizons. She started playing syringe after a series of allergy shots forced her to become more familiar with the instrument.

Walter Bobbie

At the University of Scranton, Walter Bobbie thought he'd be an accounting major. Thank goodness he came to his senses. These days, he's an award-winning director known for his work on Chicago (for which he won the Tony, Drama Desk Award and Outer Critics Circle Award), Sweet Charity, Footloose, High Fidelity and other productions. After graduate school at Catholic University, Bobbie hit New York, where he did four or five shows before landing a role in the original cast of Grease in 1972. He acted in other plays, including Guys and Dolls, Assassins, Anything Goes and Driving Miss Daisy, and in movies and television shows like The First Wives Club, "Hill St. Blues" and "Law & Order." He was artistic director of New York City Center's Encores!, where he directed Fiorello!, Chicago, Tenderloin and Golden Boy. He has also directed for the New York Shakespeare Festival, Manhattan Theatre Club, Philadelphia Theatre Company, Sundance, the O'Neill Center and Goodspeed Opera House. His stage adaptation of Irving Berlin's White Christmas is in its third season, with productions in Minneapolis, Detroit and the United Kingdom.

The 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.