Guest Information

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.

Raúl Melo

Metropolitan Opera tenor Raúl Melo has sung principal roles with major opera companies worldwide. In 2005-2006, he made his Met debut as the Duke in Rigoletto. The following season found him performing the role of Pinkerton in Madama Butterfly and in a live broadcast from Symphony Space — both with the New York City Opera. This season, his performances include Cavaradossi in Tosca with the New York City Opera and as the tenor soloist in the Verdi Requiem with the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires and the Orlando Philharmonic Orchestra. He is currently appearing at the Spoleto Festival in Charleston, South Carolina, singing the part of the Navigator in the Anthony Davis opera Amistad. Michael Recchiuti is at the piano.

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 are the Grammy-nominated The Blues Rolls On (Delta Groove Music) and Chicago Blues Buddies, featuring his musical mentor Chicago guitarist Little Smokey Smothers. Trombonist Ed Earley joins Bishop for today's show.

Chanticleer

Chanticleer, under the direction of Matthew D. Oltman, is the San Francisco-based, Grammy Award-winning "orchestra of voices" that has been winning praise around the globe since 1978. Named for the "clear-singing" rooster in Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, the group was called "the world's reigning male chorus" by The New Yorker magazine and honored as 2008 Ensemble of the Year by Musical America. Their 2009&##150;2010 season takes them across the U.S. and Europe. The Best of Chanticleer, the most recent of their dozens of recordings, was released last year on Rhino Records.

Jean Redpath

The Edinburgh Evening News may have put it best: "To call Jean Redpath a Scottish folk singer is a bit like calling Michelangelo an Italian interior decorator." Indeed, this song collector, vocalist and M.B.E. (Member of the British Empire) is a pivotal figure in traditional music. She arrived in the U.S. in 1961, fresh out of university with $11 in her pocket. A hootenanny appearance at Gerdes Folk City led to bookings and a rave review in The New York Times. Now, 40 albums and thousands of performances later, Redpath is still exploring the wealth of Scottish oral tradition, and she continues to win raves from fans worldwide. Her latest CD is By Request (Jean Redpath Records).

Frederica von Stade

Since her 1970 debut with the Metropolitan Opera, mezzo-soprano Frederica von Stade has appeared with every leading American opera company and throughout Europe from Teatro alla Scala and Royal Opera Covent Garden to the Vienna State Opera and the Paris Opera. She has made more than 70 recordings, including Songs of the Cat (HighBridge), a collaboration with Garrison Keillor. In addition to her six Grammy nominations, two Grand Prix du Disc awards, the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis, and Italy's Premio della Critica Discografica, she was appointed as an officer of L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, France's highest honor in the arts. Nicole Rodriguez joins von Stade for today's performance. James Meredith is at the piano.

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.

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.