Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Schantieman
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 01:25 PM

I like his radio programmes we get over here from time to time!

Steve

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Sam L
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 01:39 PM

No, you've mistaken me. I very much like his humour, it doesn't get past me. And much of his humour is sex-funny. He wasn't talking about that. But you'd have to hear the interview--he was explaining how erotic writing very much affected him as a young reader, imprinted him, even, but he never pursued writing anything like that himself. But he may have been simply trying to guess why he never did, sure. Maybe it just sounded sad because the thing about a woman laughing in bed is a fairly lame joke.
   But I do think a very deep understanding of insecurity and an ability to laugh about it has a lot to do with some veins of his humour. Or else we're talking about different Keillors entirely.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 01:48 PM

I did hear the interview, Fred.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 01:49 PM

Garrison got some hilarious mileage out of Jessie Ventura. I was almost disappointed that he didn't run again, because he was such a great foil for Keillor.

SRS

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 02:09 PM

What was so "hilarious" about his Ventura jokes, STS? I've mentioned this before, but I thought his attacks on Ventura, or more specifically, Ventura's local accent and working-class mannerisms, were cheap and unfunny. Probably about as funny to me as I imagine the "Beverly Hillbillies" were to rural Southerners.

And no, Keillor can't sing.

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 02:11 PM

SRS, even.

---LEpus Rex

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 02:11 PM

The wrestling connection was a pretty good jumping off point, Lepus. And Keillor's ability to let pauses hang just long enough so the audience filled in the punchline. It's all politics.

SRS

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Lepus Rex
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 02:21 PM

Heh, his pretentious "hanging pauses" are the most annoying thing about him. Like Shatner on quaaludes.

And it wasn't the wrestling jokes that got the "big" laughs with his lame, turtleneck-clad audience, it was his Jesse impersonator's "wacky" accent and poor diction.

---Lepus Rex

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Sam L
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 02:39 PM

Well then Don, let me put it this way, I wasn't trying to quibble with Keillor about what's funny, which he seems to have a handle on, but question his point about what's sexy. I think funny IS sexy, and people who might not generally strike one as sexy become sexier when they are funny. I find strictly earnest eroticism a bit creepy.

I wouldn't say there's no comparison between him and Twain as humourists--why am I spelling brit?--ahem, humorists, but if Keillor has written anything like Huckleberry Finn I just haven't read it yet. I'd say Thurber would be a pretty good comparison, and that's no insult.

Still, Keillor is not simply a writer but a gifted performer--in the same interview he explained that the News isn't scripted out, but partly improvised. It's not like mere jokes he reads off, that anyone could take and tell. There's something to it that doesn't compare directly to writing.

I think he would say insecurity has something to do with his humor, in fact, I think he does say so, and did in that interview.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Les from Hull
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 02:58 PM

As a UK person who has never heard the Prairie Home Companion radio show (and can't afford the bandwidth/log on time either) and so isn't qualified to judge Mr Keillor's singing voice, can I say in his favour:

his stories are wonderfully written and the recordings he has done of them are superb (he at least has a superb speaking voice); and

the songbook he produced (Prairie Home Companion Songbook?) was a great idea and carried out really well. The idea that one definition of a 'folk song' was a song you never learnt but seemed to know any way, and asking his listeners to submit their 'folk songs' made a very valid contribution to the sort of thing we've been doing with Mudcat. So we've got children's songs, scout and guide songs, parodies and lots more. I bought the book in the UK (sadly it was remaindered.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 03:16 PM

Yeah, Fred, I see your point. But I do know how he operates on stage. I've seen him a couple of times, and on a lot of the stuff he does, he's just winging it. And brings it off.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: DonD
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 03:23 PM

I deeply respect, admire and enjoy PHC and GK -- BUT when he presumed to sing 'The Band Played Waltzing Matilda' a while back, I cringed.

He probably sings better than I do and certainly stays on key better, but some songs just aren't for him. Someone who had never heard the song before would never want to hear it again.

I'm also surprised that he has managed to elicit such passion as displayed by GUEST.Sorefingers and Lepus; maybe my turtleneck is coloring my judgment.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Mulligan
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 04:51 PM

Haven't been back in a while....I just remembered why.


Garrison Keillor can sing with my group anytime. I am always amazed at what a really nice job he does with so many different styles of music. And I love his stories. I must be an unsophisticated boor.
I am kinda wondering how well ole "stinkyfingers" sings.
How about if you send us all a cd for some constructive critisism?
Dan Mulligan

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: katlaughing
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 05:06 PM

GUEST 7:22AM is well beyond use date, imo...

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Amos
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 05:11 PM

Welcome back anyway, Mulligan!!

For my part I have always enjoyed Garrison, and I will never forget the parody he did on "The Farmer is the Man", called "The Plumber Is the Man", which starts out:

Back when we were in our youth
Justice, Beauty and The Truth
Is what we thought that Life was all about.

But now that we have aged
We have learned that Life is based
On water coming in, and going out.

Oh the Plumber is the man,
The plumber is the man...

Etc. The way he sang it you could even hear the capital letters!

Still makes me grin.


A

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 05:26 PM

Look, some of us actually live in the place where the program originates from, and have a whole different perspective on Keillor The Celebrity, that I don't expect any of you to know about. I think Lepus Rex would agree that Keillor hasn't had much good press in Minnesota since he ran off with the Danish bimbo, and dissed the entire state, not to mention all of his colleagues at Minnesota Public Radio (the Mom and Pop Radio Empier that owns PHC).

As Lepus Rex said, Keillor's anti-Jesse schtick was obnoxiously classist, and it didn't end on the program. They also feuded through the press here in Minnesota.

That said, he is surrounded by very talented people, and the production staff does a fine job of bringing great talent on the air. But (and I've read his books, New Yorker pieces, Salon pieces, etc.) Twain he ain't. I think he himself invented the Thurber comparison. And for the Minnesotans I know, he is so far beyond the use by date, we haven't listened much to the show for decades. We have much better folk music radio fare on Saturdays--on other much better public radio stations that Keillor's network is doing it's damndest to drive out of business and get off the air, so they can own it all.

This is one of those circumstances where the fan base for the program mostly isn't local. It is instead popular where people know the name brand, but don't know much about the ingredients. Keillor has nothing but contempt for rural Minnesota. In real life, he is Mr. Hyde, not Dr. Jekyl. Some of us know that. Most of you don't want to hear that, of course, because it spoils your illusions about what the man is, and how accurately he depicts the people he chooses to write about.   Out of all the excellent Minnesota writers writing about this state and it's people, I would say that Keillor's writing about us is the most far off the mark. PHC has become nothing more than a contemporary minstrel show, and the buffoons are the little people, the working class (like Jesse Ventura), farmers and farmers families, rural people.

What is so funny about making fun of those people?

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 05:45 PM

Well, I'm a long way from Minnesota, but Garrison Keillor has made me feel that if I ever get to visit the States, Minnesota might be one place I'd want to go. He makes it sound a good place, with the right kind of people.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 05:58 PM

You're delusional then McGrath. Minnesotans are NOTHING like the way they are portrayed on PHC. Try the movie "Fargo" instead.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 06:25 PM

Keillor makes a lot of connections for Scandinavians throughout the US, Guest, that you're probably not registering if you're so close to the epicenter. I don't listen to his stories as ridicule--I share a chuckle with him as he directs his gaze our direction.

I got out of the habit of listening to the program for several years, but two or three years ago started back as a regular listener. Music and laughter echoing through the house for a couple of hours aren't a bad thing.

SRS

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Amos
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 07:01 PM

Ah!! GUEST is from Minnesota?? Seems right. Ya know, for my part, as SRS says, I have felt a lot closer to Scandinavian folks throughout the midWest as a result of his humor -- because he never comes across as making fun of them, actually, only of their idiosyncracies and tribulations in living which anyone can relate to. I think his humor is heartwarming sometimes. But hey, you don't have to like him. Nor pretend to.

A

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Deda
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 07:17 PM

I love PHC and GK, have for years. I don't listen as consistently as I once did, often miss the show. but I'm always pleased when I'm able to catch it. I've heard bitter and rather nasty criticism of him before, but it has no effect at all on my enjoyment of his talents -- which I think are prodigious. Picasso was a jerk, and Gauguin deserted his wife and kids to run off and live on a tropical island, take a native wife, etc. And that affects their art... how? I still love Woody Allen movies, too, for the most part.
I actually think GK has made his way into the category of National Treasure -- not because I like him, but because he has a huge national and international following, and he's built up a solid oeuvre over the years, not the least being his books, which I predict will still be in print and on high school required reading lists when we are all history.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Rustic Rebel
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 07:34 PM

I am going to see a live broadcast of the show April 5th. It will be broadcast from Bemidji State University. For the first time in more than a decade Garrison will be here with, Sue Scott and Tim Russel and Tom Keith.
His guest's will be- Ricky Scaggs and Kentucky Thunder, The Guy's All-star Shoe Band with Rich Dworksy on piano.
He will also be doing the News from Lake Wobegon.
I am looking forward to hearing him sing Sorefingers!
Guest, you say he has contempt for rural Minnesota but I'm thinking it's going to be just a fine show.
Peace. Rustic

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Loqui
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 07:56 PM

What an amazing thread. Is it a wind-up?. is it an advert?. Whatever I will have to find this guy on the net and listen so that I can make up my own mind.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 08:15 PM

Well, considering that we are swimming in Minnesota Scandinavians around here, I can tell you also that the Scandinavians, Lutheran or otherwise, that I know don't fit the smarmy Lake Wobegone picture at all. Not at all.

Like I said, PHC functions like a contemporary minstrel show, with all the unsavory cultural baggage that comes with it.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Burke
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 08:19 PM

Garrison Keillor started out on MPR in the days before Morning Edition as the morning personality. He would play the most diverse assortment of music that one could want to hear on the air. For variety, I guess, he started talking on air to his engineer Tom Keith aka Jim Ed Pool. He had a great bunch of 'sponsors;' The Fear Mongers Shop, Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery, Bertha's Kitty Botique in the Dale's.(Mon-Dale, Chip & Dale) The real Dale's in the Twin Cities are Southdale, Brookdale, Rosedale, Ridgedale. It was fun to wake up to.

On PHC back in those days the news from Lake Woebegone lasted just a few minutes. Keillor would report the news, but it was not his home town back then. The acts were a mix of locals and whoever was in town to perform at the Coffeehouse Extempore or other local venues. Performers at a folk festival would leave for a while late Sat. afternoon & say in some quizzical way that they were off to be on some radio show. The only thing Keillor sang was Hello Love. Advance ticket sales meant getting to O'Shaunessy Auditorium an hour early and listening to the sound checks. The house band was the Powdermilk Biscuit Band. There were no mini dramas. Knowing the show & the lore of the show was something different. I could not get my family interested at all.

Things changed gradually. A satellite up link made a national audience possible. The history of Lake Woebegone was retold. Keillor was now a native son. The News got longer, but was wonderfully funny. The budget grew, the show could bring its own acts in. Playlets got added. Advance ticket purchases became essential, no more showing up an hour before showtime.

For my money, the best of the shows were in the early 80's just after the show went national. The worst was just before he quit. I could not stand Buster the Show Dog. Right now, I do like Guy Noir, but it's beginning to get old. If all the dramas were dropped, I don't think I'd miss them. I sure don't listen a religiously as I used to, but more now then I had for a while.

Some of his humor is too much laughing at rather than laughing with. A sketch he did on Sacred Harp singing a few years ago is one that comes to my mind most especially. The News tends to avoid this & still sounds like it has affection for the people. He went through a stage of lots of toilet jokes, but I haven't noticed them in a while.

One of the gradual changes is that somehow the show became to more & more about Keillor. In the early years we knew almost nothing about his personal life. He did the Lutherans and the Bible so well we thought maybe he was a Preacher's Kid. Then he got big enough that bios were in the newspaper, but he brought more of his personal life into the show as well. He goes through stages of going on about things he should keep to himself. His marriage advice was obviously off the mark or something he failed to listen to. I did not like hearing about the wonders of his new baby & chid rearing.

I understand the Danish woman he married had been an exchange student in High School & they re-met at a reunion. Whatever else crappy was involved there she was not a much younger woman.

I don't entirely mind his singing, but that's not his forte & I think he does it too much. It seemed to me a couple of weeks ago, he managed to intrude himself into almost every act. I wish he still had some of the inexpensive up & coming acts instead of so many already established ones.

Just some observation by a former Minnesotan.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Amos
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 08:21 PM

Ya know, Guest, ya, yer night want ta try toning down the condescending superiority some -- I think it discourages folks, ya know? Just a little, you know.


A

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 08:33 PM

Apparently one out of four Minnesotans on Mudcat are still thrilled enough by Keillor to actually go to one of his shows, much less listen to one.

Now there is a recommendation for you.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,sorefingers
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 08:59 PM

So E S Took voice lessons, dumped his kids ran off with a bimbo, now it is all hangin out.

I mighta guessed from listening to that false smarmy outatune squak ... next time I will not pause ... simply squish squish squish..

Reminds me o that flousy Dr Laura and her advice , haw haw.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 09:08 PM

Isn't Fargo in North Dakota?

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Lucy Goosy
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 09:27 PM

Fargo/Moorhead are twin towns, one in No Dak one in Minn. Same diff.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: WFDU - Ron Olesko
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 09:32 PM

According to most maps it is!

That reminds me of the classic line in Animal House. Belushi was trying to inspire the frat and said "Did we give up when the Germans bombed Pearl Harbor?"    One of the frat members looked confused and another said "Don't stop him, he's on a roll".

Guest seems to have a personal ax to grind. When you look at it, it really is no big deal. It is a radio show, it is entertaining, and MANY people listen to Keillor. I tend to agree with Burke's summary. However, even though the show may have slipped a few (or perhaps several)notches from it's heydey, it really doesn't matter.   There are NO other shows that can do what Keillor can do. He offers a stage to a diverse group of musicians, many who would not have the opportunity to reach so many.

Yes, he may have some "issues" with his life, but that really isn't our business. He has done a LIVE RADIO VARIETY show for the last several decades. Tell me one other person that can claim that.   Guest, of course he is not the producer. You must be nuts to think that one person could write/perform AND produce that program.   So the people in Minnesota don't appreciate him? I can live with that. Please tell me why that should sway my opinion of him.

Guest, I hope you are able to work through your issues.   Garrision Keillor is an important figure in the worlds of literature, music, and popular culture. At least there are many that can recognize this.

Best of luck to you guest!

Ron

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Lucy Goosy
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 09:53 PM

"There are NO other shows that can do what Keillor can do."

Thank God for that.

Ronnie me boy, can ye take out yer map and look up Moorhead, then? There's a good lad.

Why is it that when someone expresses an opinion that disagrees with your own, so many of you dismiss that opinion out of hand by making the lame claim that the person who's opinion differs from yours must have an ax to grind, or that they must be jealous, etc. Whazzup wit dat?

This thread is starting to read like a hagiography. Saint Garrison must be beloved by all, or off with their heads!

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: richlmo
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 09:56 PM

Guest,Sorefingers,
Having aquired a father in law some 25 years ago (lost him lastyear)who was a local radio legend, I have listened to many PHC shows and heard from an old radio man what Keillor was doing, what he wasn't doing right and what he should be doing. Bottom line was , that was what the old radio man looked foward to, every Saturday night. I think Garrison Keillor is a national treasure. Of course, I'm not from Minnesota.
I'm not real crazy about his solos, but I enjoy the Hopeful Gospel Quartet.
Someone earlier pointed out, if you are in your truck and get where you are going, it's hard to turn the radio off until the skit is finished. Been there many times.
By the way,Sorefingers,I don't remember anyone responding as many times as you have to a thread they started.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Lucy Goosy
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 10:09 PM

Maybe y'all can get a campaign going to get Garry Boy knighted by Queen Lizzy.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Allan Dennehy
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 10:57 PM

Sorefingers,

Don't know who Keillor is so I don't have an opinion myself. Mind you I'm curious now. However I'm very surprised at how agressive some of the replies you recieved were. Its a forum and you expressed your opinion. I, for example think that Ewan Mc Coll murdered a lot of the fine songs he wrote. Now I will respect any man who will disagree with me but not someone who accuses me of being a whinger or a troll just because my opinions differ with his/hers.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 11:22 PM

BTW, PHC isn't even an original idea. Keillor ripped off Grand Ole Opry to make himself the star.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 11:59 PM

Well THAT'S never been done before! An idea was borrowed to create another program? What is the world coming to?

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 12:19 AM

Lucy Goosey, it looks to me like the fans of PHC and Garrison Keillor have a clear understanding of his feet of clay, and like in him spite of it. This doesn't sound like the life of a saint to me. Sounds like a talented man who isn't perfect and is in fact rather odd looking by just about everyone's standards. Probably the reason he sticks with radio!

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 12:20 AM

I've fired my typist.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Sam L
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 09:30 AM

Kids, kids. The movie is called F A R G O, with the letters spaced wide like that. It begins and ends in N. Dakota but most of the events take place in Brainerd, Minneapolis, and up around White Bear Lake (Go bears!. Somehow coming from Fargo the two killers enter from the south, though, with that view of the skyline, on--what is it 94?. (Remenber the root beer thread? Going into Wisconsin on, I think, 90, there's an A&W at exit 19 that makes their root beer fresh daily. Don't try to travel with it, it goes flat.)
Many people were displeased with the presentation of Minnesotans in the movie. It may be a bad idea to form a view of people you don't know from the particular visions of particular artists. Many people used Dead Souls for an idea of Russia, though Gogol knew very little of it. When he tried to work from knowledge of Russia, details of actual lived lives, sent to him by fans, he couldn't write anymore.
Thanks Don, I just didn't mean to sound hostile. I like the show, can think of a few humorous observations from it that are worthy of anyone. It's very difficult to be funny all the time, and sometimes you miss. I don't quite get all the fuss. But I don't know anything about the Jesse Ventura thing.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 09:40 AM

You come from the south into Minneapolis on 35W South. I'm guessing the A & W in question is the one that (used to be?) in Black River Falls.

The fuss is that there are many in Minnesota who can't stand Keillor the Minnesota Celebrity. And I do mean can't stand, not just mildly dislike. We see a very different Keillor here locally than people see nationally, because of the MPR propaganda machine--it comes without all the local controversy. So people are seeing strong opinions of him expressed here by some locals.

OTOH, you have a Keillor cult, or a PHC cult nationally. Not huge numbers by any means, but certainly huge numbers for nostalgic radio show programming that mocks the local yokels, more than for the folk music, if MPR's marketing info is to be believed.

So, that is what the fuss is about. It is the wholly different perceptions of Keillor locally and nationally. And like so many other cases like this, the national fans of Keillor don't like having their icons criticized.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: JedMarum
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 09:44 AM

People with character voices have always done better then one might expect, Rod Stewart, Joe Cocker, Mellisa Etheridge, Maryanne Faithful - these are people with appeal at a mass market level, and people who don't have truly great singig voices. BUT they offer us a window to their soul, when they sing, and we respond.

Garrison has a similar appeal, as a singer. We love his homey approach to the radio. We respond to his love for the people in his town, a town we've all seen, people we all know, or at least people we canall undertsand. And his singing, well - that is just an extension of his story telling - that is just an extension of his character.

And besides, he does OK.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 09:46 AM

Or the fans don't give full credence to a critic who remains a nameless guest? Potshots from the anonymous peanut gallery are always suspect.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 09:53 AM

I can't imagine actually starting a thread about someone I didn't like. There are too many people I do like - including, as I've indicated Garrison Keillor.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 09:57 AM

Fine, have it your way SRS. But it isn't just me doing the criticizing in this case. As to Keillor showing his love for his small town, he is from one of the largest Minneapolis suburbs, Anoka. He ain't a small town country boy at all. It is just a schtick.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Loki
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 11:37 AM

Sorry, I don't know how to use this system.

I am trying to reach "Mousethief" who posted something in 01 about having a book of Jodys or Jodie calls at home. (They usually go, "I've got a girl lives on a hill..." and the chorus goes "Honey o baby mine" or "Hey lodi lodi lo" or "to your left, your right, your left). I am looking for some and if Mousethief (or anyone else) would be willing to email me he or she can at [e-mail]

I would really appreciate it.

Thank you very much,

India

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Sam L
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 02:48 PM

That's right, 35n. Well, I don't know. My Dad was violently attacked for holding Appalachian people and family members up to ridicule in his writing. Being one of those family members I didn't and don't think that was the intent or the right reading. I once expressly gave him permission to write anything he wanted to about anything having to do with me. I had no illusions about how that might've gone, either, but was saved from disgrace by not being a very interesting subject.
   On the contrary, I think my father's seriousness about representing a particular heritage actually weakened his writing in some places, bogged it down in not wanting to be misunderstood by anyone, in that way. So, I still think Keillor's world is his own mythology, nothing anyone has to necesarily feel reflects on them well or poorly.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 02:56 PM

It is his own mythology Fred, but it is still a mythology about someone else's people. Therein lies the rub, IMO, and in the opinion of others who have strong feelings about that aspect of his Lake Wobegone act. No make that one man Lake Wobegone INDUSTRY!

Hey, this isn't anything I think the guy ought to be lynched for or anything. I said at the beginning of this thread that we all are free to express an opinion. I'm not saying mine is right. But it is mine, and it is one shared by some other Minnesotans too, the majority of whom have never even heard his show. It's not like PHC is competing with the radio programs with the biggest audiences, after all. So a lot of Minnesotans with strong negative opinions about Keillor have never heard the program.

OTOH, Mudcat is a forum of folkies, people who will listen to PHC religiously, because they get to hear folk music on a national broadcast in the US. That is rare, but not unprecedented. There are national broadcasts of other folk, blues, Celtic music too. Grand Ole Opry still has a radio show. Fiona Ritchie does a fine program. So I guess it just depends on what you listen to, and whether you have been exposed to Keillor the (not very) folk musician, or Keillor the Minnesota Celebrity.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: BuckMulligan
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 02:59 PM

Someone really needs to point out here (to one of the participants in this thread), I think, that Keillor writes FICTION and his radio show is music & humor and FICTION. And grownups realize this. As to whether he sings well, whether his stuff is funny, whether it's worth listening to or reading, those are all matters of taste, and nothing more or less. I don't understand a mentality that feels it needs to come back and poke at a disagreement over such a subjective thing, over & over again.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 11 Feb 03 - 03:05 PM

Loki --- shhh! Keep your head down --- you've stumbled into a battle that's gonna make Dubya's dustup with Saddam look like handbags at twenty paces. I just did a search and I think this is the thread you're looking for. Just scroll down to mousethief's name, click on PM and you can send a Personal Message. Good luck. Now get out quick!

BJ