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and production industries philip brunelle artistic director and founder of vocalessence and internationally renowned conductor my first show garrison called me and said he was going to start a radio program and wanted someone to play piano someone who could play classical music and hymns i told him that i could do that he asked if i knew a lot of hymns i told him that every hymn he knew i knew and the question would be who knew more verses the answer was me so i showed up for the first show playing on an upright piano i stayed with the show for a while but knew that with my work at minnesota opera and vocalessence i couldn t be there every week and so butch thompson took over the thanksgiving cantatas when gk decided to have vern sutton janis hardy and me create these cantatas improvised from audience suggestions we knew we could do it because all three of us could wing it we got all the slips of paper from the audience and went to the basement which in those days was freezing we separated all the suggestions into categories and decided on themes for what would become i am thankful i typed up our lists we were under a big time crunch since the cantata was on the final half hour of the show and we performed not sure how many years this happened rudolphus rubrinasus on one december show i was standing backstage and gk came off and said we were two minutes shy and did anyone have a short holiday song i told him i could sing rudolph the red nosed reindeer in latin and he said go i went out and sang it accompanying myself and dedicated it to my high school latin teacher evangeline peterson she was not listening that day but heard about it later and was thrilled that her name was mentioned on public radio freckles the only time that i saw gk lose it was when janis hardy came onstage with her dog freckles and sang indian love call janis walked out with freckles the audience exploded in laughter of course janis knelt down next to the dog and started singing when i m calling you freckles liked to howl when he heard janis singing and the combination of hearing janis sing and freckles howl caused gk to start laughing he had to leave the stage vocalessence among the many many appearances of the vocalessence ensemble singers on phc one of the most memorable was when the ensemble singers sang el hambo a song by the finnish composer jaakko mäntyjärvi that is in nonsense syllables gk decided that rather than singing it straight through we would sing a few measures and then he or jim ed poole would give a made up translation which brought the audience into hysterics janis hardy soprano like garrison i can t remember a lot of specifics about those early days more impressions than complete scenes for instance it seemed to me that every time i performed on a show in the tiny theater of the arts and science center in saint paul there was always a baby crying or child yelling i also remember with philip and vern frantically trying to put together the thanksgiving oratorio based upon suggestions from the audience downstairs at the fitz with pieces of paper flying everywhere doing it all in under half an hour as i recall it was also not unusual for garrison to throw an improv scenario at us vern philip and me and we d take it from there singing an opera scene at the drop of a hat scary but fun there was a period in my life where i inherited a bakery and spent most of my waking hours there so i often came to the show dressed in flour covered overalls and i m not exaggerating garrison would take that opportunity to describe to the radio audience the beautiful gown i was wearing much to the amusement of the theater audience and yes i m sure philip can regale you with the story of vern and me singing a duet with my dog freckles pretty hysterical we loved standing in the wings watching garrison and tom and sue and tim do their magic priceless it was a magical time and i ll be forever grateful charlie maguire singer songwriter spaghetti in saint paul 1974 returning to minneapolis from 14 months doing national service vista western nebraska in the fall of 1974 i got a call from fellow performers bill hinkley and judy larson that a writer and radio dj named garrison keillor had just started a variety radio show based in part on the grand ole opry they both knew my music like getting in the cows and winter on the farm the songs had a rural theme that garrison was after at the time and bill and judy pitched me to garrison thinking i might be a good fit he invited me and my wife to dinner at his house for spaghetti and afterward hearing a few of my songs clinched the deal i was a featured guest on the second or third broadcast and a fairly regular performer for years after sweeping up and eating up together when performers remember aphc it s the early years they seem to recall with the most warmth it was community in the truest sense we d all garrison included sweep up the theaters after a show then adjourn to la cucaracha the local mexican restaurant for a late dinner together born in a trunk daughter makes aphc appearance at 11 months during the early shows the green room was simply backstage behind a curtain local performers brought their children who could afford a babysitter who mingled like an extended family on one show garrison invited the persuasions who happened to be on tour through town the quartet too long on the road were missing their own families one of the members scooped up my 11 month old daughter elsie into his arms and took her out in front of the audience for the finale elsie put her little arm around the singer s neck as if he was a long lost uncle and quietly sucked her thumb as the persuasions smiled and laughed at her and went into their final song the morning show aphc incubator people may not know that garrison was on the air not only on saturdays but also worked monday through friday from 6 a m to 9 a m on minnesota public radio in saint paul i loved being on the show in the mornings since it was just garrison engineer tom keith bob potter who read the news and me i often used that time to work up new material for my tours and used aphc and the morning show to test things out if garrison heard a new song he really liked he d ask me to come on the show the following saturday and sing it that s how a lot of my songs came into being dm ir is about a railroad on the iron range of minnesota talking home improvement about the perils of making your own home repairs oh cold misery about starting your car on a cold minnesota winter morning and lots and lots of others spontaneous no rehearsal necessary one time on the morning show a retired guy who loved to write poetry about his childhood sent in a piece to garrison titled the evening train in it he painted a picture of his days as a kid going down to the railroad station to see who was getting on and off in his little town of cokato minnesota so garrison tom and i were sitting there at the mics in the mpr studio and during one of bob s newscasts when we could talk without being heard on air garrison turned to me and said tell you what i think this poem would make a good song this week on the show why don t you go into the hallway and set it to music and then try it out in the 8 30 segment i have always been fast with the music to a song having studied woody guthrie and carlton lee s poem was so songlike i had it ready in 15 minutes flat on a book tour with guitar spoons and new friends sometimes there was aphc work to be had without actually being on the air out of aphc s department of folk song came a book by jon and marcia pankake titled a prairie home companion folk song book it was a full sized hardcover published by viking press with a foreword by garrison released in the fall of 1988 viking hired me to go out on the road with the authors and we sang songs from the book at store signings we had a ton of stops all over the place there were a lot more independent bookstores in those days and as we wore into tour i taught marcia how to play wooden spoons in rhythmic accompaniment to the songs we sang it was the beginning of a friendship that lasts to this day on experiencing vietnam via omaha i credit garrison and aphc for my start in minnesota as a songwriter performer getting on the show on a regular basis often led to other well paying gigs around the region for anyone who wanted to travel to an audience that wanted a bit of the show in their own backyard a request for me came in from a law firm in nebraska the day before thanksgiving that year i flew down to omaha with my little martin terz guitar that fit easily in the overhead compartment of the airplane and upon landing was promptly chauffeured to a holiday party i had a great time with that little guitar in the law library surrounded by people who loved the songs they had heard me sing on the show between sets one of the lawyers came up to me with a request i thought unusual for his line of work it was for traditional folksongs joan baez had recorded i sang as many of the old ballads as i could remember and this guy filled in beautifully with a soft voice right on key he introduced himself as william holland and then proceeded to tell me that he would listen to baez while piloting a huey helicopter in vietnam holland told me story after story about the war and later put many of them into a novel titled let a soldier die delacorte press the longer i was on the show i realized that aphc was not only entertainment for many but also a way for some to find peace in their lives music as they say is medicine and as the show endeared itself to more and more listeners i think that many were eased by garrison s stories and the way a good song can go straight to the heart it seems we met somewhere before looking back i like to think that we took our work and our music seriously but not ourselves that was partly the secret to the early success of the show the beginnings of a prairie home companion grew out of the west bank folk scene that passed for greenwich village around minneapolis in the 1970s we had a lot of good times comradery and encouragement and got to share our songs and the music we loved with the world andra suchy singer one of my favorite recollections is the time i was in the car with gk goinh from the hotel in nashville to the ryman gk asked if i had ever been to the country music hall of fame museum i had not so he looked at his watch gave me a twenty dollar bill and had the car drop me off he said you can be an hour and a half late to rehearsal i know the boss come over after you get through i ll never forget that another memory is being on the tour bus and making cheese curds in the middle of the night in the microwave which i had no idea was the proper way to eat them not cold right out of the bag or when we did a show in bismarck and i suggested rewriting the words to an old cowboy song come a ti yi yippee etc he said ok be back with it in 20 minutes keep in mind my idea was for him to write it the muses were good to me that day because i came back with the old suchy trail and it made it on the show tim russell actor garrison invited me to be on the show in may of 1994 my first show was in portland oregon i remember passing him at the door of the hotel on the day before the show he said i m going to buy some reds socks i need to write something for you he wrote a script about the plaid pants warehouse that featured my president reagan impression and we were off and running needless to say i enjoyed doing the recurring characters dusty in lives of the cowboys a chance to dig up a voice from the tv western serials of my youth jim for the catchup advisory board which started out as a parody of the tv spots of ad guru hal riney the voice of president reagan s morning in america spots i had great fun doing the panoply of famous celebrities ruminating on the importance of various holiday s or topical events the voices of current and past politicians and presidents the washington post noted that my john mccain was dead on i told them his voice was a strange combination of carol channing and liberace there were also the many bob and ray nods as garrison interviewed characters like my version of paul bunyan or f scott fitzgerald he challenged me with various dialects the script might say italian and i would have to create italian gibberish and so on none of this would have been as fun without garrison s great script his scripts made it easy to envision the voices needed and most of the time he didn t tinker with whatever choice the actors would make and if we were off the mark he would guide us to a better choice garrison is a writing machine it s all about the rewrites right up to showtime and sometimes during the show itself there s a picture of garrison reaching around my shoulders as i was reading a script on the air and editing the script midstream most importantly i enjoyed working with a great cast sue scott fred newman and the late great tom keith plus the one of a kind staff and technical crew that made every weekend a joy the musicians were always world class led by rich dworsky who was a valuable part of every script with his amazing inventive underscoring the scripts would jump to life thanks to rich then there was the opportunity to travel new york city taking the walk though times square to the legendary town hall on w 43 rd st in nyc sharing a stage once trod by the greats in jazz opera folk and spoken word downstairs bathroom challenged but full of camaraderie klezmer musicians and broadway stars sharing curtained cubbyholes the energy of the great outdoor spring and summer venues miami where a bunch of deceased famous celebrities like jimmy stewart and john wayne welcomed the recently passed mr rogers to heaven gk i m sorry i wasn t kinder to you mr rogers mr rogers that s okay i ve talked to the man upstairs and guess what gk what mr rogers you re not going to be my neighbor tanglewood in the unparalleled beauty of the berkshires quick jaunts to the rockwell museum in stockbridge where his four freedoms paintings can bring a grown man to tears joined onstage with the likes of james tylor meryl streep sara bareilles and great classical musicians like emanuel ax major thunderstorms driving the lawn attendees under the great roof for epic marathon post show sing alongs with everything from hymns and the great patriotic anthems to the beatles and neil diamond s sweet caroline wolf trap national park in virginia where the lawn crowds howl with enthusiasm at the mere mention of wolves my imitation of al gore saying president george bush s policies creating a giant sucking sound sounded like something entirely different drawing a light gasp from the crowd and some serious pearl clutching from the npr listeners did i hear word sucking or something else majority leader harry reid was sitting on stage and he evidently heard the something else and he loved it ravinia in the northern chicago suburbs where on...