About Prairie Home Companion

Since 1974, A Prairie Home Companion has entertained audiences with a variety-show format that features unforgettable comedy sketches, eclectic music that ranges from acoustical, classical, folk, jazz, rhythm & blues, and international, and Garrison Keillor's signature monologue, "The News From Lake Wobegon," the little town that time forgot and decades can't improve. The two-hour broadcasts in front of theater audiences are carried live throughout the country on over 530 stations—a remarkable feat in a day when many shows are taped ahead and heavily edited before being aired.

GREAT MUSIC
Each week, A Prairie Home Companion features wonderful musicians such as classical violinist Chee-Yun, jazz pianist and singer Diana Krall, R&B singer Delbert McClinton, folk music sensation Gillian Welch, and bluegrass singer Rhonda Vincent. Listeners also will hear occasional cameos from classical pianist André Watts, comedian Al Franken, flutist James Galway, actress Sarah Jessica Parker, and many others. The "house" band, The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, led by composer and keyboard extraordinaire Rich Dworsky, comprises some of the most talented musicians in the business, solo stars in their own right, such as guitarist and songwriter Pat Donohue and violinist and arranger Andy Stein.

SPECIAL SKETCHES AND SHOWS
Creative host Garrison Keillor is the mastermind behind special theme shows and sketches such as The Talent From Towns Under 2,000 Contest, which featured musicians from town with fewer than 2,000 people; the ever-popular Joke Show, plus comic operas, including a five-minute opera about the common cold, La Influenza; and of course, ongoing comedy sketches such as "Guy Noir, Private Eye" and "The Lives of the Cowboys."

TOUR SHOWS
While most of the live broadcasts originate from the show's home at the Fitzgerald Theater in "Good Old" St. Paul, Minnesota, on a number of occasions, the cast and crew will load up the big semi-truck and take their little radio show to various parts of the country and even to places where visas are necessary. From the asphalt streets of New York, to the sunny beaches of California, from the northern tip of the great Mississippi River, to it's southern entry into the Gulf of Mexico, from big cities across the nation, to small towns dotting the countryside, from the rolling green hills of Ireland, to the ancient castle lands of Scotland, Garrison Keillor has lead his talented troupe of radio thespians and musicians to perform in front of his enormous pool of and loyal fans. When on the road, A Prairie Home Companion typically features guests from the tour area, and Garrison gives listeners the flavor of each city or town the show originates from with his wry commentary mixed with historical notes.

A HOST WHO HAS BEEN CALLED AMERICA'S FINEST STORYTELLER
Garrison Keillor's signature monologue, "The News From Lake Wobegon," is the heart of each week's broadcast. The lights go down, Garrison Keillor steps into the spotlight and says, "It's been a quiet week in my hometown—Lake Wobegon, Minnesota ..." For the next 15 to 30 minutes, Keillor weaves tales of the Chatterbox Café, Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery, the Sidetrack Tap, the Lake Wobegon Whippets, and all the people who live, love, work, and play in this little mythical town that's located somewhere between the mind and heart of its creator. By the time Keillor ends the monologue with "... and that's the news from Lake Wobegon, where the women are strong, the men are good looking, and all the children are above average," the audience has been transported to small-town America amidst the Ingqvists, Krebsbachs, Tolleruds, and Bunsens.

ASTOUNDING SOUND EFFECTS
Since 1976, sound-effects wizard Tom Keith has been imitating helicopters, garden sprinklers, spinning tires, and animals of all kinds for A Prairie Home Companion's comedy sketches. Keith, with his table of homemade props, frequently gets huge applause from the live theater audiences for seemingly impossible sound-effects feats such as a pig jumping off a diving board into a vat full of Jell-O. This past season, the very talented Fred Newman has joined the touring cast of APHC and brings a uniquely animated style of producing lifelike and very amusing sound-effects, mostly with the use of his mouth that have had audiences doubled over with laughter.

BROUGHT TO YOU BY...
Each show is "sponsored" by fictional entities such as Powdermilk Biscuits ("Heavens they're tasty"), The Catchup Advisory Board, the American Duct Tape Council, American Pharmaceuticals, Guy's Shoes, Bertha's Kitty Boutique, Caf&ecaute; Boeuf, Beebopareebop Frozen Rhubarb Pie, American Lock & Latch, and others.

A PUBLIC RADIO CLASSIC CONTINUES
More than 3.3 million listeners on over 530 public radio stations in the United States, hear A Prairie Home Companion each week from coast to coast. Garrison Keillor is into his 29th season of writing, producing, and hosting one of America's most popular weekly radio shows that continues to attract larger and loyal audiences season after season.

CONTACT INFORMATION
The program is presented by Minnesota Public Radio and distributed by Public Radio International. Garrison Keillor is the program's Executive Producer and Kate Gustafson is its Producer.

A Prairie Home Companion
611 Frontenac Place
Saint Paul, MN 55104
Show Contact:
Alan Frechtman
651-290-1397
afrechtman@mpr.org

Minnesota Public Radio
45 East 7th Street
St. Paul, MN 55101
651-290-1500
www.mpr.org

Public Radio International
100 North Sixth St., Suite 900A
Minneapolis, MN 55403
phone: 612.338.5000
fax: 612-330-9222
www.pri.org/infosite

PRAIRIEHOME.ORG WEB SITE
You will find A Prairie Home Companion's Web site to be a great resource for your station, your underwriters, your local media, and most of all, your listeners. Whether you're looking for show information, bio's of performers and guests, photos, post messages to Garrison Keillor, share your thoughts with APHC's online forum, post an online greeting, or listen to past shows stored in our extensive archives, you will discover that www.prairiehome.org is a very thorough, entertaining and user-friendly tool.