Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: PHJim
Date: 30 Jun 15 - 12:28 PM

Folks who are critical of Garrison's singing just don't get the concept of the show. Most of the music presented on the show is roots based music. I'm sure these same people would have to criticise Roscoe Holcomb, Doc Watson, Ralph Stanley or Karen Dalton if they had ever appeared on the show.
It brings to mind the Youtube comments on Pete Seeger's Rainbow Quest clips that say, "Why doesn't the dude with the banjo just shut up."
I'd be willing to bet that most of Garrison's guests enjoy singing with him.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 25 Jun 15 - 04:20 PM

"No, no thank you. I'm fine."

When I visited Sweden in the '80s our hosts required us to eat and eat -- the only thing that could stop the offers was consenting to eat. Day and night (not that you can tell the difference very well when the sun sets at 10 p.m.). On our last day one of the children of the family remarked, "Now we can go back to gruel."

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 25 Jun 15 - 02:50 PM

I've seen something like that in Greece. It seems to vary depending on the exact relationship between the guest & host. I remember once when the guest was a young man, a friend of the son of the hosts. After they talked for a while the mom suddenly appeared with a massive feast like an invading army. They argued furiously and ridiculously for a long time, the young man insisting that he wouldn't touch a crumb. Then they settled down and ate heartily.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 24 Jun 15 - 11:48 PM

A story (many years ago) on PHC described the process one goes through when visiting a Norwegian home.

You visit for a few minutes, and then the host offers pie and coffee.

"No, no thank you. I'm fine."

A few minutes later, the host again offers pie and coffee. Again it is declined.

Only on the third offer is the reticence set aside, and the pie and coffee accepted.

Keillor nailed it, something I'd never realized we did in our family. If you grew up in a Norwegian home, you know this silliness to be true, and learn pretty quickly that in other cultures, the pie and coffee are only offered once. If you really wanted some, you need to accept on the first offer, because it is the last!

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 24 Jun 15 - 10:18 PM

Shakes asked,

"Would you say that the problems I touched on earlier, such as responding to an idea with an ad hominem attack or insult against the person who presented the idea rather than responding to the idea itself, don't happen among people who think of themselves as part of the Mudcat virtual community? I think that would be the case in a real-world community. Are the people who do that either outsiders themselves or else replying to someone they think of as an outsider?"

I think ad hominem occurs wherever there are hominids. I think there is less ad hominem on Mudcat than on many other internet sites (but don't mention MacColl). I have never done a study to determine whether what ad hominem there is comes from outsiders, or is directed at outsiders, or what, and I decline to offer an opinion.

We are way off-topic here. You may want to post a question, in the BS section, about Mudcat sociology. I should perhaps note that all my experience with Mudcat has come from above the line, as I almost never look at the BS portion.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 24 Jun 15 - 12:44 PM

Arthur Pewty would be at home in Minneapolis.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 24 Jun 15 - 12:31 PM

"What's the connection between Michael Palin and Scandinavian-Americans?" Palin finds humor in Brits' politeness and reservedness, and Keillor finds humor in Minnesotans' politeness and reservedness, and Palin appreciates Keillor's work and vice-versa.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Shakes
Date: 24 Jun 15 - 12:22 PM

Gerry: Yes, thanks, that does explain it very clearly. I was thinking of Mudcat from the Vulcan point of view, as just a storehouse for information about folk music. Human emotions often surprise and confuse me. They seem to pervade everything, even when the only physical connection is the movement of electrons through wires and microprocessors.

Perhaps that perception of a virtual community explains the many reactions against the theme of this thread as compared with, for example, the "I am sick of the Beatles" thread. Is Keillor thought of as a member of this community?

Would you say that the problems I touched on earlier, such as responding to an idea with an ad hominem attack or insult against the person who presented the idea rather than responding to the idea itself, don't happen among people who think of themselves as part of the Mudcat virtual community? I think that would be the case in a real-world community. Are the people who do that either outsiders themselves or else replying to someone they think of as an outsider?

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Gerry
Date: 24 Jun 15 - 03:42 AM

Shakes wrote,

"When I read an internet forum, I'm only interested in the ideas presented. I read each post to see if it has any ideas I'm interested in, but usually without being aware of who made the post. If I post, I think of it as just adding another idea to the discussion. I don't see why it matters whose idea it is. Can anyone explain that?

"I also believe that internet forums would be more productive if everyone took the same approach. I think the need to protect the virtual ego of a user ID leads to a lot of ridiculous bickering. The same would be true with real-world identities and egos, except that in the real world I think people are more careful about what they say and don't as often get into a position of needing to defend an ego. Just as some very polite and considerate people turn into homicidal maniacs when they get behind the wheel of a car, it seems to me that many people who would not reply to an opinion expressed in a normal conversation with an ad hominem attack or insult directed against the speaker will nevertheless respond in exactly that way on an internet forum. And I suspect that many forum users react viscerally to each new user ID that appears on the forum in the same way that the males in a wolf pack or chimpanzee community react to a new lone male that appears near their circle, i.e. as another potential challenge to their authority."

Shakes, I think you're missing something about this particular internet forum. Among the people who have been here a few years, and that's a lot of people, there is a real sense of community, of knowing each other as individuals. You can see it in the obit threads for Catspaw (Pat Patterson), for Art Thieme, for Jean Ritchie (kytrad), for a few others. Sure, one evaluates the ideas on their own merits, but one also associates them with the people who posted them, and one builds up a picture of the poster, and it adds something intangible but very powerful to the discussion, to the interaction. It's not just ideas, either. It's jokes and stories, it's tales of woe and tales of triumph, it's feelings and emotions.

This is actually true of most of the internet fora I've participated in. Maybe you're just not going to the right sectors of the internet. Or maybe community is not what you're looking for. But community is what Mudcat has, and it's why Mudcatters would like to be able to associate a unique identifier to each poster.

Does that answer your questions?

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 24 Jun 15 - 03:18 AM

Another reason why I don't think Keillor would be well understood in Britain. The only stereotypes we have about Swedes concern nudity and mixed saunas. The ones about slowness we reserve for Americans. Used to be Irish, but not so much now.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 23 Jun 15 - 08:44 PM

A stereotype which I have not found to be all that accurate.

In one of the Seattle coffeehouses where I sang during the early Sixties, one of the other singers was Britt Mongstadt, a young Swedish exchange student attending the University of Washington. Quite outgoing as I recall. She had a substantial repertoire of Scandinavian and other folk songs and for the short period of time she was here, she was one of the favorite singers at the coffeehouse.

Also, currently, in the cooperative apartment where my wife and I live, a Swedish woman named Mariam (don't recall her last name) maintains a pied á terre for when she is in Seattle. She and I got to talking about Sven Scholander, the Swedish lute-singer who was mentor to the young Richard Dyer-Bennet way back. Mariam loaned me a mess of CDs she had, a boxed set consisting of old recordings of Scholander, plus a whole batch of similar singers—modern day "minstrels," a tradition that she tells me is still alive in Sweden. Interesting stuff!

Mariam is quite friendly and outgoing.

Of course, there's a whole encyclopedia of jokes about how slow and thick-headed Swedish men are—told mostly by Swedish men….

Sven and Ole take jobs on a house construction site. Sven steps into the on-site trailer where the boss's office is. "Boss, when we build this house, do we start with the roof or the foundation?"

The boss looks at Sven, aghast, and says, "You start with the foundation!"

Sven sticks his head out the trailer door and shouts, "Hey, Ole! Come on down!"

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Shakes
Date: 23 Jun 15 - 05:31 PM

I like that kind of humor, as long as it doesn't involved singing basset hounds.

What's the connection between Michael Palin and Scandinavian-Americans? Isn't he English? One of his movies, A Private Function, is on my all-time ten best list, and another one, The Missionary, is not far behind.

A Danish-Swedish friend once told me that's a misconception about the reserve, that it's really only Swedes who are like that, and Danes and Norwegians are anything but. He had a story about some Scandinavians who were shipwrecked on a deserted island, and when the rescue ship came one of the groups (Danes or Norwegians, I can't remember which) had just finished building a boat, and another group had just finished drinking all the beer from the wrecked ship, but the Swedes still weren't talking to each other because they hadn't been introduced.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 23 Jun 15 - 03:39 PM

Keillor's stories about Scandinavian-Americans routinely poke fun at their politeness and reservedness. No wonder Keillor and Michael Palin like each other.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 23 Jun 15 - 02:26 PM

In a lot of what Keillor does on "Prairie Home Companion" is a joke or a parody--part of a skit. It would appear that Guest Shakes simply isn't getting the jokes....

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,CJ
Date: 23 Jun 15 - 01:16 PM

Guest Shakes - In Joseph Scott's video I think Garrison is singing like that on purpose. He can sing better, but in that instance it's more like a comedy skit and he's playing the part of someone who can't sing very well, and all the other people keep telling him to please stop. They sing it like an opera, but it's funny so it's like a comedy skit opera.

Oftentimes in the skits Garrison plays the sad sack who everyone makes fun of. Sometimes he'll play a young man who's trying to make it in the art world, but his art is just junk, and he just ignores it when people tell him it is. Only then they'll just say the words instead of singing them because it's not about a singer.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Dave
Date: 22 Jun 15 - 04:49 PM

Joseph, never watched Two pints of Lager, but looking it up I see it had Sheridan Smith in it, who was quite superb in Black Work, the first episode of which was on last night.

A better parallel might be the Pub Landlord (Al Murray). He is very funny in a British context but I cannot see that anyone from (say) the USA would see the jokes, as he is poking fun at a distinctly British (maybe even south-east English) stereotype.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Jack Campin
Date: 22 Jun 15 - 02:23 PM

having read up on him I don't see what he has to offer a non-American audience.

His books sell pretty well in the UK, so he's obviously reaching somebody.

There are a lot of radio personalities in the US that it's worth getting angry about. Save the bile for Glenn Beck or somebody.

---

👍---mudelf

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 22 Jun 15 - 12:16 PM

"having read up on him I don't see what he has to offer a non-American audience." He has a dry wit. I hope the country that watched Two Pints Of Lager And A Packet Of Crisps could find something to like in him.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 22 Jun 15 - 01:15 AM

He was quite good in today's program, Guest, Shakes.

As I keep pointing out, there are two knobs on your radio....

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Shakes
Date: 22 Jun 15 - 12:42 AM

The two videos that people have posted links to are very interesting, especially when compared to each other.

The first video shows a young Keillor, who we've been told repeatedly doesn't present himself as a singer, nevertheless singing a solo on a nationally broadcast live auditorium show, with Chet Atkins as his accompanist.

The second video shows an older Keillor not presenting himself as a singer in a duet with a young woman, with back-up singing by the large choir that the woman is a member of.

In the first video, Keillor sounds pretty good. Not great, as everyone here has agreed, but pleasant, and certainly nothing that would make you turn off your radio.

The second video is where we disagree. Some of us think Keillor sounds terrible there. His singing is much worse than in the first video, with breathing problems, clumsy phrasing and articulation, a heavy droning character, and problems staying on key. But the main problem is that it's juxtaposed against some very good singers, whom we'd like to hear without a clown aping their effort. Even if his singing hadn't deteriorated since the time of the first video, using a group like that as a backdrop for Keillor's singing makes him sound worse than if he were to sing alone or with a chorus of winos.

Also, in the first video the hymns themselves are very good, whereas the song in the second video is insipid -- a typical PHC parody, using goofy, hastily-written lyrics roughly set to a time-honored melody. I wouldn't mind if Keillor alone performed something like that, or he along with the radio drama cast members or the house band musicians or random members of the audience; but to use a large choir of talented and trained singers for that nonsense seems inappropriate and insulting. It's taking people who've worked hard on their singing and who excel at it and saying, "See, they're just screw-ups like the rest of us." That could be funny once or twice, but it's a joke that gets very old when repeated every week.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: PHJim
Date: 21 Jun 15 - 04:34 PM

The quality of radio programming has dropped off a lot since the rise of TV. I don't really enjoy listening to the average DJ playing songs that are on a prescribed play-list. It's not easy to find interesting radio programming any more.
Living in Canada, I depended on CBC for interesting programming. The quality of CBC has gone down over the last decade, but it's still miles ahead of whatever's in second place.
Garrison Keillor's PHC is the type of programming that we used to be able to access every day. I'd hate to lose it.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 21 Jun 15 - 02:51 PM

My local NPR station plays Prairie Home Companion on Saturday afternoons, then repeats the same show Sunday morning. I'm listening to it right now, and it's a good, entertaining variety show with a lot of good music and singing, some of which is done by Garrison Keiller.

Since it's Father's Day today, one of the songs that Keillor sings is a sentimental song about remembering his father. I'm sorry for the hyper-critics out there, but anyone who could listen to him sing that song without getting a bit choked up is ready for the coroner to put a tag on his toe and close the drawer.

Nothing wrong with Keillor's singing. As I've said before, he'll never replace Leonard Warren or Robert Merrill, but he does a pretty good job of putting a song across.

I feel sorry for those who are so prejudiced against Keillor that they can't hear it….

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: PHJim
Date: 20 Jun 15 - 11:57 PM

Donuel, What about hate inspired troll who are professionals or celebrities of some status. They are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 20 Jun 15 - 08:18 PM

Guest, Shakes must be new to internet forums because if he responds so vociferously to the fact that I disagree with his evaluation of Garrison Keillor's singing and general skill as an entertainer as an egregious "personal insult" to him, then he's going to find internet forums in general a rough row to hoe. At no point have I tried to limit his freedom of speech as he claims, and other than the fact that I have disagreed with his expressed opinions, I have no power to do so.

On the basis of how vigorously he attacks me for disagreeing with him, I can quite justifiably claim that HE is trying to limit MY freedom of speech.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Donuel
Date: 20 Jun 15 - 07:09 PM

ot

a hate inspired troll should not be allowed the privilege of privacy.
A professional or celebrity of any status should be afforded the privilege

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: PHJim
Date: 20 Jun 15 - 06:10 PM

Off topic - After Rick Fielding turned me onto this site some years ago, I posted as GUEST,Jim for a few years, till it was pointed out that I was not the only GUEST,Jim posting, so, in order to avoid taking credit/blame for someone else's posts, I became a mudcat member.
Sorry GUEST,Shakes, I had assumed that you and GUEST,sorefingers were one and the same, since you seemed to have very similar views about Mr. Keillor's vocal abilities.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,henryp
Date: 20 Jun 15 - 03:34 PM

Nothing - apart from words and music.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Shakes
Date: 20 Jun 15 - 03:32 PM

I've taken the identity "Shakes" in response to two posts about confusion due to my anonymous posting. My first post began "I'm no great shakes as a singer." I've made 11 posts since then, generally in reply to Don Firth's insults and instructions on what to do with my opinions. This is my twelfth post. The brief post made 25 minutes ago is not mine.

Haruo: You've raised an interesting point about anonymous guest posting. It's off topic, but if you don't mind I'd like to pursue it anyway. There hasn't been much progress in the original topic, probably because Don Firth's courageous role as annoying curmudgeon/bridge troll has scared off people who would otherwise like to cross the bridge and finish the OP's title sentence.

In pointing out that I could be mistaken for other anonymous guests, I assume you were giving me a heads up, like saying my fly is open. If so, thanks for the consideration. But although I wouldn't want to go around in public with my fly open, I really don't have any misgivings about being mistaken for other anonymous guests. So now I'm curious as to whether most people do have misgivings about that, and if so, why they do. And I pose this question not just to Haruo, but also to anyone else; if indeed anyone else is reading this long and tedious thread.

When I read an internet forum, I'm only interested in the ideas presented. I read each post to see if it has any ideas I'm interested in, but usually without being aware of who made the post. If I post, I think of it as just adding another idea to the discussion. I don't see why it matters whose idea it is. Can anyone explain that?

I also believe that internet forums would be more productive if everyone took the same approach. I think the need to protect the virtual ego of a user ID leads to a lot of ridiculous bickering. The same would be true with real-world identities and egos, except that in the real world I think people are more careful about what they say and don't as often get into a position of needing to defend an ego. Just as some very polite and considerate people turn into homicidal maniacs when they get behind the wheel of a car, it seems to me that many people who would not reply to an opinion expressed in a normal conversation with an ad hominem attack or insult directed against the speaker will nevertheless respond in exactly that way on an internet forum. And I suspect that many forum users react viscerally to each new user ID that appears on the forum in the same way that the males in a wolf pack or chimpanzee community react to a new lone male that appears near their circle, i.e. as another potential challenge to their authority.

Also, Haruo: Your description of listening to PHC sounds just like my experience with the show in the past, beginning in the late 70's (I also share your feelings about church services; in my church we sing the entire service, and in theory at least everyone joins in). So I'm curious as to how long you've been listening to it and how often or how many shows you've heard.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,dave
Date: 20 Jun 15 - 03:28 PM

Astonishingly, I find that this guy's radio programme is broadcast in Britain! By the BBC! Why? I had never heard of him before, but having read up on him I don't see what he has to offer a non-American audience.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 20 Jun 15 - 03:11 PM

What is the advantage to joining mudcat?

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Haruo
Date: 20 Jun 15 - 02:23 AM

I am a churchgoing type, and I don't feel I've been to church unless it had a lot of participatory music to it.

If for some reason I am stuck at home and unable to make it to a service of a Sunday morning, PHC (including GK's singing) makes a pretty darn good substitute.

On another note, anyone who posts as an anonymous GUEST should be aware that this sets them up to be mistaken by everyone else (even the other anonymous GUESTs!) for any and all of the other anonymous GUESTs.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 19 Jun 15 - 07:34 PM

Anonymous Guest, I did NOT order you not to express your opinion! Don't add lying to you're inability to judge the quality of singers.

I did not intend to continue this conversation, but if you're going to start telling lies about what I've written, I'm sure going to point them out.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jun 15 - 06:08 PM

Don: Of course you're free to stop posting here if you wish. You've already done a great deal to keep this thread alive, which is surprising given your feeling about it. I would have thought you'd prefer to see it go away. I'm not going to urge you to keep posting, any more than I urged you not to post or not to give your opinion. I won't particularly miss our conversation. As you say, it's been largely a waste of time; but defending free speech is important to me.

PHJim: I've made 10 posts to this thread before this one, and all of them as an anonymous guest. My first post was on June 16 at 3:23pm. I didn't expect to make a second post, but when Don called me a princess I felt obliged to insult him back, and each time he ordered me not to express my opinion I felt obliged to express my opinion again. In so doing I added a great deal more information; I'm sorry you didn't see that. Perhaps you didn't read my posts carefully, but there's no reason why you should.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: PHJim
Date: 19 Jun 15 - 03:18 PM

GUEST, You started out using a distinguishable name in this thread, but have now gone to posting with no name. In order to avoid confusion between you and any other GUEST, please go back to using a unique name.

It seems a little hypocritical for you to be criticising Don Firth for repeating the same arguments. I haven't heard much new information from your last 10 or 15 comments.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 19 Jun 15 - 01:15 PM

When it comes to "numerous and highly repetitive posts," Guest, before you criticize me, you might count your own. And I'm not accusing you of mental incapacity, nor am I attempting to suppress free expression.

Guest, this exchange is obviously fruitless. I'm not going to waste any more time on it. I have other, more productive matters to attend to. Goodbye.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Joseph Scott
Date: 19 Jun 15 - 01:05 PM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-MJ12VZaz8

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 19 Jun 15 - 12:42 PM

Don, I understand that you're exasperated. For myself, I don't mind; but your exasperation does seem a little excessive and maybe a cause for concern.

After all, it's common for people on Mudcat and other internet forums to use a dedicated thread to commiserate about what they feel is a lamentable fact of life in the world at large. All I'm trying to do is participate in one such thread and discuss the issue with other people who share my feelings.

It's less common for someone else to join that thread and tell the people involved in discussing the theme of the thread that they're not allowed to discuss it or to feel the way they do. For someone to do that 24 times, with vehemence and extra-large fonts, is something you'd normally only find on the Free Republic forum.

The theme of this thread is one that does no harm to anyone. Not being a good singer is not a sin, nor anything to be ashamed of, especially for someone who's as skilled as Keillor is at so many other things. His audience is large, and that won't be affected by anything we say here.

Moreover, you kept saying, and are still saying, that the reason for your numerous and highly repetitive posts is that I'm too dense to understand your very simple point. But I think there's evidence in all my posts that I'm not particularly dense and have given a great deal of thought to the subject. I'm sure you're not so extremely dense as you've made me out to be, because if you were you probably wouldn't be able to operate a computer. That makes it hard to understand why you would accuse me of mental incapacity, and why you would be so intolerant and so vociferous in your attempts to suppress free expression.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: EBarnacle
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 10:34 PM

And, yes, the previous post was meant to be missing an essential element.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: EBarnacle
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 10:26 PM

This "discussion" reminds me of the man who, when asked why he was hitting himself on the head with a hammer replied, I would, but it feels so good when I stop."

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 10:22 PM

No, I don't agree that he's a bad singer. Not great, but not bad.

Pardon me for getting exasperated with you, Guest, but you have some issues yourself.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 10:05 PM

In the video that another guest linked to Keillor sounds pretty good. But he also looks pretty young. That might explain why I used to be able to listen to the show. I listened to it nearly every week, for many years. Perhaps back then he sang better, or less often, or maybe he let other people sing without him more often. I still try to listen to it, but as others have pointed out, it quickly becomes intolerable because of his ubiquitous singing, especially on top of the better singers that I'd like to hear.

Don, I'm glad to see you writing like the sane and intelligent person that I knew all along you must be. But I note that you still told me to "just shut up about it" and yet in the same paragraph said that you're "not trying to issue orders." That's worrisome, as is the fact that you've posted 24 times to a forum thread entitled "Garrison Keillor the bad singer who .." when you apparently don't even agree that he's a bad singer.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 09:26 PM

Sorry, Guest, but the sound card in my computer is on the fritz. Most frustrating.

But I have heard them both and what I said still stands.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 08:52 PM

Garrison & Chet

Judge for yourself.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 06:59 PM

Jayzuz, look who's talking!!!

Guest, I'm not trying to issue orders. If you want to listen to Prairie Home Companion and writhe in abject agony when Garrison Keillor raises his voice in song, go right ahead. Just shut up about it or expect to get flak.

Whether one likes or dislikes a particular singer is a matter of taste, made up of various factors. I am not stranger to singing—and a whole variety of voices, some of which I like very much, some of which I don't particularly care for, and some of which I dislike enough to avoid if at all possible.

I studied singing with three different voice teachers over a period of several years (one of whom was retired from the Metropolitan Opera), so I am no stranger to good vocal technique.   My own voice is good enough so that I've had a fairly successful career locally as a singer of folk songs and ballads, singing in coffeehouses, doing concerts, and singing a number of times on television (including my own series, "Ballads and Books," sponsored by the Seattle Public Library). People have compared my singing voice to that of Ed McCurdy, and a few people have told me I sound like Gordon Bok (I like that!!).

I grew up listening to the usual run of pop singers on the radio (Bing Crosby, Frank Sinatra, Andy Williams), and my wife and I are subscribers (season ticket holders) to Seattle Opera, which is the fourth largest opera company in the country, featuring internationally known singers, so I've been privileged to hear some of the world's best. I was very familiar with folk singers who populated the so-called "folk revival" in the Fifties and Sixties and beyond, many of whom I have heard in person. As to recent pop and rock singers, I rarely, if ever, listen to them. I don't even know what Miley Cyrus sounds like.

Of the vast number of singers I am familiar with, I can say with confidence that Garrison Keillor sings with reasonably good vocal technique (breath support, placement) and his voice is a fairly mellifluous baritone. Although he is no Dmitri Hvorostovsky, Keillor's singing voice is better than average. Especially for someone who doesn't bill himself as a singer.

Guest, the problem is yours, not Keillor's. Once again—if you don't like him, don't listen to him. If you want to listen to him and lie there twitching in pain in front of your radio, that's your choice.

But because YOU don't like Garrison Keillor does not mean that he has a "bad voice." It's not great, but it's reasonably pleasant, and most people find it that way.

There is one well-known folk singer that a lot of people seem to like who just about makes me want to throw up. But I don't go around bad-mouthing him, I just don't listen to him.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 06:50 PM

I think Garrison has a great sense of humour and his singing is above average. He sings in tune, and has a good sense of harmony even though the quality of his voice may not be fantastic.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 06:16 PM

Yes, that may very well be what the wild-eyed evangelist is thinking as he shouts in people's faces, i.e. that they're so thick that only shouting will get through to them. Thanks for sharing that perspective.

I'm glad to see that you've calmed down and gone back to issuing your orders to me in a normal font. But it makes me no more inclined to obey your orders. You're still comporting yourself like a crazy person, albeit now a droning rather than a screaming crazy person -- without the bulging eyes, and possibly not drooling.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 03:07 PM

Guest, you seem sufficiently thick that only shouting will get through to you. I've given you the simple solution to your problem, which few other people seem to share. Whether or not I like Keillor's singing is not the issue here. YOU are the one with the problem and apparently don't know how to solve it.

Let me repeat the solution for you: If you don't like Garrison Keillor, don't listen to him.

Simple as that. Now stop wasting band width and pestering other people.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 02:47 PM

Don, when I suggested that you might clarify your point rather than just repeating it with the same words you used in posts 1 through 20, I didn't mean to use larger typeface. In fact, post 21 is a turn for the worse. Now, instead of resembling the type of street-corner evangelist who stands on the same corner day after day repeating the same message in the same monotone, you seem like the wild-eyed type who runs up to people and shouts in their faces.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 01:38 PM

Guest, the solution to your traumatic situation is idiot simple:

If you don't like Garrison Keillor,
DON'T LISTEN TO HIM!!!

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: EBarnacle
Date: 18 Jun 15 - 12:53 PM

I dislike all whiney voiced singers, most of whom seem to be in the current pop genre.