{"id":11465,"date":"2013-08-04T22:00:05","date_gmt":"2013-08-05T02:00:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=11465"},"modified":"2024-12-03T17:08:49","modified_gmt":"2024-12-03T22:08:49","slug":"turn-the-radio-on","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/?p=11465","title":{"rendered":"Turn The Radio On"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"05<\/a>Linda Burton posting from Lansing, Michigan <\/i>\u2013 First he had us stand and sing the Star Spangled Banner<\/i>. There was no fanfare, no \u201cHere\u2019s\u2026\u2026.Johnny!\u201d introduction, no curtain raised. Garrison Keillor simply walked out on the stage and asked us to stand and sing. At the end of two hours, he asked us to stand and sing again; this time it was Amazing Grace<\/i>; and we did it, respectfully and, I\u2019d say, rather enthusiastically. \u201cWhat is such a tactic supposed to do for the show?\u201d I was thinking, as I stood between two guys whose baritone voices completely drowned me out. I guess it served two purposes; a method of getting audience involvement so we\u2019d stop chatting with each other and pay attention to the show in the beginning; a seventh-inning stretch after we\u2019d sat so long. Or maybe he\u2019s just patriotic. He is that; patriotic, I mean; and irreverent too. Somehow he picks out exactly how \"05<\/a>we feel about something even when we think we have gracefully covered it up. And he tells on us. Faithful listeners of A\u00a0<\/em>Prairie Home Companion<\/em> know just what I mean. Pastor Liz. The Lutherans. Those folks who endure a Minnesota winter. Garrison Keillor knows about contentment, and he knows about longing; he gives the two a humorous twist; that\u2019s the way to survive. He ended the show with a singy-song burst of advice for happy living \u2013 \u201cIf you want something to get done\u2026do it…if you don\u2019t want to do it, don\u2019t worry a-bout it\u2026tell \"05<\/a>your kids not to wear their baseball cap back-wards and not to use four-letter words on their res-u-me\u2026.\u201d If you haven\u2019t figured it out, I was in the audience for Garrison Keillor\u2019s Radio Romance Summer Tour. <\/i>I was front row balcony in Lansing\u2019s Wharton Center, and I was loving it. <\/p>\n

\"05<\/a>Wharton Center for the Performing Arts is on the Michigan State University campus (which is actually in East Lansing, not to be confused with adjoining Lansing); it\u2019s been open since 1982 and claims to have \u201cthe largest programming schedule of any independent performing arts center affiliated with a university in the country.\u201d They have four stages and I wasn\u2019t sure which theater I was in; the place was enormous and crowds were thick in the hallways; the elevators and restrooms were full; lots of wheelchairs and walkers preceded me. Most of the crowd seemed to be as old as me and older; the \u201cKeillor generation\u201d I laughed to myself.<\/p>\n

\"05<\/a>He had talked about his upcoming birthday on a morning radio interview \u2013 he\u2019ll be 71 on August 7. And he gets back home that day, his 26-city coast-to-coast tour concluded. \u201cWill there be a birthday party?\u201d the interviewer had asked. \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d he replied. \u201cI was just told to be home by 3.\u201d The interviewer had also asked why he called the tour Radio Romance<\/i> and his answer was simple: \u201cRadio is the most intimate medium there is. You can be right there in the truck driver\u2019s cab, or in somebody\u2019s kitchen while they\u2019re frying eggs for breakfast; you can be with the bartender at 3 AM as he\u2019s washing that last glass.\u201d He talked about duets too, his favorite thing to do, sharing a song with someone else, \u201cvoices blending, in harmony.\u201d Yes, Keillor is about \"05<\/a>connecting with people, or at least, our sometimes bumbling efforts to do so.<\/p>\n

He sang duets with Sara Watkins throughout the show; he clowned with Fred Newman, master of sound effects; he sat on his stool and watched as others were showcased \u2013 dueling fiddles between Sara and Richard Keihn; Fred\u2019s incredible combination singing-sound effects performance (how does he do it?).\u00a0 And Keillor talked to \"03<\/a>us, in his personal, Lake Wobegon style. I was so far away I couldn\u2019t really see his face; I focused on the red tie, red shoes, and red socks. Still, I felt like he was talking just to me; rambling from Point A to Point G and then back around \"05<\/a>to Point D, the way my Dad used to tell stories, never quite getting to the end. Keillor did a lot more singing and story-telling after he had us sing Amazing Grace<\/i>, and our proper 15-minute intermission; the show began at 7 PM on the dot, and didn\u2019t end till 10. Keillor never referred to any notes; he had no script in hand; the show just seemed to flow.<\/p>\n

Joanne and Garland sat to my left; they did some story-telling too, as we had time to talk. Both in their 70\u2019s, \u201cWe\u2019re just now a couple,\u201d Joanne explained. They were high-school classmates; Garland and Joanne\u2019s husband-to-be were best friends. \u201cGarland was my husband\u2019s best man in our wedding,\u201d Joanne said. And Garland came to their 50th<\/sup> Anniversary celebration. Garland\u2019s wife had died by then; Joanne\u2019s husband died a few years later. They started going out to dinner \u201cas friends\u201d last year, and now \u2013 \u201cNow we\u2019re a couple,\u201d said Garland, giving Joanne\u2019s hand a squeeze. Keillor could make a good story out of that; I imagined the details he\u2019d add, as the years collected, the children were born, and left home, the spouses became ill, and then, an unexpected reconnect.<\/p>\n

\"05<\/a>My knees were stiff when I stood to applaud at the end of the show; Keillor took one bow and the house lights went up. It was a three-elevator wait to get to the first floor; the crowds and walkers and wheelchairs took their time inching down the long hallway towards the parking garage. Nobody seemed antsy to get out; the good mood lingered and conversations continued; the Keillor spell followed\u00a0me home in Lansing\u2019s summer evening air. Whenever\u00a0I wanted to hear more,\u00a0I knew\u00a0I could just turn the radio on.<\/p>\n

Wharton Center, East Lansing, Michigan http:\/\/www.whartoncenter.com\/<\/a><\/p>\n

A Prairie Home Companion http:\/\/prairiehome.publicradio.org\/programs\/<\/a><\/p>\n

Radio Romance Tour http:\/\/prairiehome.publicradio.org\/tickets\/2013\/radio-romance\/<\/a><\/p>\n

About the tour:<\/p>\n

A Prairie Home Companion’s Radio Romance Tour 2013 hit the road coast-to-coast this summer, starring host and writer Garrison Keillor, singer Aoife O’Donovan, singer and fiddler Sara Watkins, comedian Fred Newman, and Rich Dworsky and The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band with guitarist Pat Donohue and violinist\/mandolinist Richard Kriehn, two hours of duet singing, absurd improv with sound effects, Guy Noir Private Eye, poetry, outright foolishness, and the News from Lake Wobegon.<\/i><\/p>\n

Bios for the Tour<\/p>\n

Garrison Keillor was born in 1942 in Anoka, Minnesota, and began his radio career as a freshman at the University of Minnesota. He went to work for Minnesota Public Radio in 1969, and on July 6, 1974, he hosted the first broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion. Today, some 4 million listeners on more than 600 public radio stations tune in to the show each week. His many books include Lake Wobegon Days, The Book of Guys, and Guy Noir and the Straight Skinny (Viking). He is the host of the daily program The Writer’s Almanac and the editor of several anthologies of poetry, most recently, Good Poems: American Places (Viking). In 2006, Keillor played himself in the movie adaptation of his show, a film directed by Robert Altman. In 2007, he opened an independent bookstore, Common Good Books, in Saint Paul, Minnesota.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"05<\/a>Sara Watkins was a mainstay of the Grammy-Award-winning bluegrass trio Nickel Creek, an accomplished fiddler and singer\/songwriter who, with her albums Sara Watkins and Sun Midnight Sun, has established her identity as a solo artist.<\/i><\/p>\n

\"03<\/a>Fred Newman is a storyteller, sound-effects artist, actor, writer, musician, and author of the best-selling MouthSounds.<\/i><\/p>\n

The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band is an all-purpose roots quintet covering blues, jugband, primitive jazz, good timey, R&B, swing, and hillbilly, with occasional ventures into classical, romantic, French cafe, music hall, surfer, spa, and Scandihoovian. \"05<\/a>The band is: Richard Dworsky (leader, keyboards), Pat Donohue (guitar), Gary Raynor (bass), Peter Johnson (percussion), and Richard Kriehn (fiddle, mandolin).<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Linda Burton posting from Lansing, Michigan \u2013 First he had us stand and sing the Star Spangled Banner. There was no fanfare, no \u201cHere\u2019s\u2026\u2026.Johnny!\u201d introduction, no curtain raised. Garrison Keillor simply walked out on the stage and asked us to stand and sing. At the end of two hours, he asked us to stand and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4587,1729],"tags":[2570,2576,2565,2573,2571,3091,2546,2564,986,2578,2574,2579,2572,2575,2440,2577,2566],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11465"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11465"}],"version-history":[{"count":65,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11465\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11468,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11465\/revisions\/11468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/capitalcitiesusa.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}