Guest Information

Ricky Skaggs

At 17, Ricky Skaggs — already an accomplished singer and mandolin player — was invited to join the band of the legendary Ralph Stanley. That was in the early 1970s, and since the moment he first took the stage, Skaggs has built a reputation rarely equaled in the world of bluegrass music. In addition to his own projects, the 12-time Grammy winner has collaborated with a host of musicians, from Emmylou Harris to pianist/composer Bruce Hornsby. His latest CD is Ricky Skaggs Solo: Songs My Dad Loved  (Skaggs Family Music). Kentucky Thunder is Mark Fain, bass; Cody Kilby, guitar; Paul Brewster, guitar; Andy Leftwich, fiddle, Eddie Faris, guitar; and Justin Moses, banjo.

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.

Peter Ostroushko

Peter Ostroushko's first recording session was an uncredited mandolin set on Bob Dylan's Blood on the Tracks. His compositions have been performed by the Saint Paul Chamber Orchestra, the Minnesota Sinfonia, the Rochester (Minnesota) Symphony Orchestra, the Des Moines Symphony and the Kremlin Chamber Orchestra. Ken Burns used music from Peter's recording Heart of the Heartland for his PBS documentary Lewis & Clark, and Twin Cities Public Television commissioned Peter to provide music for their nationally distributed programs The Dakota Conflict and Grant Wood's America. Among Peter's recent CDs is Postcards: Travels with a Great American Radio Show (Red House Records), songs he composed while traveling with A Prairie Home Companion.

Becky Schlegel

Becky Schlegel took piano lessons all through her childhood. She sang in choir and, while still in junior high, she joined her mother's professional country band, The Country Benders. But when a college friend gave Becky Schlegel three Reno and Smiley albums, the die was cast: She became addicted to bluegrass music. She left South Dakota, her home state, and moved to Minnesota. That was a dozen years ago, and since then, Becky has become a big favorite in the Upper Midwest's bluegrass, country and acoustic rock scenes. Becky formed the band True Blue in March 1997. The following year, they released their debut CD, This Lonesome Song, which was nominated for 1998 Bluegrass Recording of the Year by the Minnesota Music Academy, and they did win the Bluegrass Band of the Year award for 2000. Becky's second CD, Red Leaf, came out in 2001. That year, Becky was awarded Bluegrass/Old-Time Artist of the Year at the Minnesota Music Awards. She repeated the honor in 2002, 2003 and 2004. She was selected to showcase at the International Bluegrass Music Association's World of Bluegrass in 1999 and at the 2005 IBMA Songwriters' Showcase. Becky's most recent CD is Drifter Like Me, released last year. It was included on the 2005 Top-10 lists of a number of Twin Cities reviewers. Brian Fesler is Becky's accompanist.

Wilco

From the time he was a kid in Belleville, Illinois, Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy was consumed with music. In the late 1980s, he and his pal Jay Farrar started the seminal alt-country band Uncle Tupelo. After that group split up, Jeff and Uncle Tupelo bassist John Stirratt formed Wilco. Since then, this Chicago-based rock band has amassed a huge following and turned out a stack of innovative albums, including two-time Grammy-winning A Ghost is Born. Their latest CD, Wilco (the Album), came out this past summer on the Nonesuch label. Wilco is: Jeff Tweedy (guitar, vocals), Nels Cline (guitar), Pat Sansone (keyboards, guitar), Mike Jorgensen (keyboards), John Stirratt (bass), and Glenn Kotche (percussion).

Brothers Frantzich

The Brothers Frantzich have spent several decades writing songs and singing in close harmony. And, yes, they really are brothers — Tim and Paul Frantzich, who grew up in Minneapolis and are still based in the Twin Cities. They have performed in clubs, theaters, churches, prisons, even on center ice before hockey games in Minnesota and elsewhere, and they are founders of Feed Them With Music, an organization promoting artists and events that donate 15 percent of profits toward feeding starving people worldwide. Heart Wing is The Brothers Frantzich's latest recording.

Cowboy Jack Clement

"I've got a bunch of people who say I'm a genius," Cowboy Jack Clement once said. "That don't make me a genius. But you've got to be pretty smart to get all them people to say that on cue." Clement is a producer, songwriter, recording studio pioneer, publisher and performer. He was born in Whitehaven, Tennessee, in 1931. After a stint in the Marines, he played in a bluegrass band, then got a job at Sun Records, mixing sessions with the likes of Johnny Cash, Charlie Rich, Jerry Lee Lewis, Roy Orbison and Carl Perkins. Later, he moved to Nashville and went to work for Chet Atkins. He launched the careers of Charley Pride and Don Williams, and over the years he has collaborated with a who's who of musicians - from George Jones to U2, Townes Van Zandt to Doc Watson, Garth Brooks to Emmylou Harris. Clement has recorded two of his own albums: All I Want to Do in Life came out in 1978, and Guess Things Happen That Way (Dualtone) was released in 2004.

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. Keyboard player, composer and improviser in any style, he also writes all the script themes and underscores. His latest CD is So Near and Dear to Me.

Chet Atkins called Pat Donohue (guitar) one of the greatest fingerpickers 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.

Originally from Cloquet, Minnesota, pedal steel player Joe Savage made his way to Minneapolis in the 1980s. These days, he is a fixture on the Twin Cities music scene, performing with a number of artists in addition to keeping up his work as a studio musician.

After playing electric bass in a high school rock 'n' roll band, fiddler and mandolinist John Niemann took up guitar, fiddle, mandolin, and mandocello. He was a member of Peter Ostroushko's quartet The Mando Boys, and he spent seven years with the bluegrass group Stoney Lonesome.