Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 05:26 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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: 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 - 02:11 PM

SRS, even.

---LEpus Rex

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: 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: 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: 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: 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: Don Firth
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 01:24 PM

I can see here that some folks who don't like Garrison Keillor don't understand his brand of humor. Bitterness and insecurity have nothing to do with it. Just the opposite.

Pity. . . .

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: EBarnacle1
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 01:20 PM

There have been times that I have felt that PHC was getting stale for me. Taking a break for several months helped me come back to it with a feeling of freshness. For a while in the 80's, I made sure each show was recorded if I had reason not to be home to listed.

If you have really listened to his voice, you probably have noticed that he seems to have taken voice lessons. In the beginning, his singing was pretty bad but someone seemed to take him in hand about 10 years ago. Now, he's as good as most of us. [give or take]

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 10:46 AM

Seeming serious is the key joke with Garrison Keillor surely. Maybe it's the old irony thing cropping up again. I think people over here might actually find him more on our wavelength than some do back home.

Cheerful melancholy, that's his approach to life, and it's one I find very well-judged.

I often prefer to hear a song sung by someone who isn't so good that you start to listen to the singing rather than the song. Or so bad that the same thing happens. Garrison falls into that middle range where the song, especially the words, are what matters.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Sam L
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 09:46 AM

I like the show, most times. His singing voice seems to me to have an odd self-conscious quality, like an actor whose eyes subtly look out to the audience for reaction after a line. I haven't heard him do much straight singing, mostly comic songs and parodies, and they're all right as that. Comic songs are really hard to be really funny with, they tend to be amusing, and clever.
   I don't know if I'd compare Keillor to Twain, as an artist. But he's good.
   Personally, I don't really care about that stuff. But I did hear him tell Terri Gross in an interview,that the erotic and the comedic don't mix. Pause. Then he explained, if a woman laughs out loud in bed, that's not a good thing. I guess I felt sorry for him, for being still so insecure--as he often describes himself--that he thinks that. He seemed so serious, I felt bad for him. He's missing a really good combination there.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Willie-O
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 08:34 AM

I like Mr Keillor's storytelling and radio show very much. Can't abide his singing, at least when he tries to sing an actual song--i.e. one not written by him, since his own compositions accommodate his limited vocal range and are more like recitations. (Who couldn't like "I am your cat?")

Sorry McGrath, but when I heard the 9-11 song, my reaction was "great song, wish I could hear Tom Paxton (the composer) singing it."

When I was working as a helpdesk agent, a caller once told me I sounded like Garrison Keillor! Made my day, since (a)I wasn't singing, and (b) he's not that well-known in Canada.

What someone's midlife crisis has to do with his performance on his radio show is a complete mystery to me, since he is not a preacher but an entertainer.

Willie-O

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Sandra in Sydney
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 07:50 AM

Jenny, Prairie Home Companion was on the radio years ago - ABC radio naturally, not the commercial stations. Maybe Radio National - on Sunday night??

sandra (dredging the bottom of a very bad memory)

maybe someone with a better memory can say when & here

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Feb 03 - 07:22 AM

The show has been on for almost thirty years. Garrison Keillor had his mid-life crisis, dumped his partner, the show's producer Margaret Moos and their kids, and ran off to Denmark with a younger woman, trashing Minnesota and Minnesotans as parochial on his way out of town.

It was then he became known publicly (those who worked with him and knew him had known for quite awhile already) as a notorious loser, who was nothing without his program because his huge ego had nowhere to go. So in just two short years, it was back to PHC.

The program is well beyond the use by date, IMO and so is the bitter and cynical Mr. Keillor.

Although I will give him this much, he came down on the right side of the Republican manufactured Wellstone memorial "controversy" and shocked the pundits with his remarks. The reason why his remarks were so shocking to Beltway pundits is because he has about as much integrity as they do.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: BH
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 08:37 PM

I suppose the thread has gone on long enough at this point---the bottom line is that the program is not about GK's singing---it is about the content of the entire thing. For creativity---it cannot be beat. It harkens back to the golden age of radio. Thank heaven since most radio is automated "crap" these days--- they are so automated that only the networks and NPR were able to cover the Columbia disaster. Top 40 continued in its automated cocoon. Serving those who like being in such a cocoon.

But--back to GK.   Talent and creativity. Can't say more than that---our guest(sore fingers--I guess the name explains it) seems to be stuck in a nit picking rut for whatever reason that is hard to understand.

Bill Hahn

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,sorefingers
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 07:48 PM

I turned the dial today because another idiot afternoon was in the works and guess what I found? Blues, down home real blues, by a real blues singer who would never ever make it in Embarrasin Sqealor's show ... I wonder why?

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 07:32 PM

The thing that makes it tricky for people in the British Isles is that we are used to seing Keiller's Marmalade on the shelves when we go shopping.

The idea that anyone should be inhibited from singing because they aren't specially talented in that way is one thta should be knocke doing the head. Garrison Keillor isn't on the show as a guest singer, he's there to run it and to tell stories and to communicate generally, and singing is part of that.

And anyone who heard him singing the song Tom Paxton write, right after September 11, about the firemen who died (The Bravest) and who didn't find that powerful - well, I wouldn't have too much respect for their listening abilities.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 07:19 PM

Dexter, thank you for the words! It's on my "must learn" list.

Don Firth

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: mandomad
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 05:46 PM

It's very strange that this thread should crop up on Mudcat just now, I usually have music all the time in the car, but this week dug out "We Are Still Married" a double tape by Garrison Kiellor and have played it over several times, (I've had the tape for years at the back of a drawer, never bothering to play it), (bought it in a sale for pennies way back)> Thoroughly enjoying it.   As I have done the Prairie Home Companion shows since I joined the web. Great guests, great humour, and a Buddy Holly fan to boot. His voice,well, my voice is shit but I've got away with singing in public for 35 years.

I hope Mr/Ms sorefingers, you are really effin' good to be so critical>




                         mandomad

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Jim Dixon
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 05:36 PM

Give this guest credit for more intelligence than most trolls. At least he spells Garrison Keillor's name right.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: sadidlady
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 05:19 PM

to blue jay,
the best way to find out who wrote the parody is to visit www.prairiehome.org . It helps if you know the day and month of the show, but even if you only know the month you will be able to find it with a bit of diligent searching.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: sadidlady
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 05:12 PM

A Prairie Home Companion is a great show that continues a disappearing tradition. Perhaps Garrison Keillor is not the best singer in the world but neither is his voice by any means tortuous.
And what is this about rare guest singers? A guest singer or musician is featured in every show, and I can think of very few that are not wonderful. Keillor has the kind of voice that is made more interesting by its imperfections and which works well in duets.
He is sympathetic and his stories are ones which hit upon the experiences which all of us share but which we made have felt that only we have had. (maybe that sentence was a little confusing:) )
anyway as many others have already suggested, if you really can't stand it, then turn off your radio, stupid.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Walking Eagle
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 05:08 PM

Wow Spaw! Lucky you!

I too am a fan of PHC. However, I think the show of late has been a bit stale. Just like before when he decided to quit doing the show. Do you all remember that?

One of my favorite parts is when Garrison and Sue do their one of their'he said she said' sketches.

Some of the musicians are a bit funky at times, but I've been introduced to a lot of new musical styles by the show. I had never heard of Hawaiian Slack Key guitar before PHC.

Don't for get Pat Donohue's Icky Yucky Sushi.

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 03:42 PM

Dexter -- did you see this thread about Pat Donahue's 'Mr Soundman'? I'm learning this one for the soundcheck!

BJ

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: GUEST,Russ
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 03:39 PM

I love PHC.

But...

I find Garrison's singing annoying when he sings with his guests.

To my ears (with the emphasis on "my ears") he does not bring enough to the table vocally to justify the airtime spent . I almost always think afterwards that I would much rather have heard the guest do what s/he usually does rather than a lame duet with Garrison.

I love GK.

But...

I have always thought that Garrison's duets with his guest artists were TOO self indulgent. I can handle a certain level of self-indulgence from GK, but the singing exceeds my tolerance parameters.

Russ (Still a GUEST after all these years)

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: DougR
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 03:30 PM

I enjoy PHC. Garrison is not the greatest vocalist I have heard, but he's certainly not the worst. Anybody ever heard Florence Foster Jenkins?

Interesting story Spaw. Thanks for sharing.

DougR

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Stilly River Sage
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 03:25 PM

Prairie Home Companion is one of those programs that, if I'm listening to it in the truck, I sit in the parking lot and listen to the end of the story before going about my business. Keillor's stories are tops. Guy Noir has some pretty funny adventures, and while I didn't think Keillor had a great singing voice when I started listening to the program years ago, I'm used to it and don't mind it. He also scores a "10" week after week as he identifies idiosyncracies in Norwegian-American life. He brings self observation and humor to his stories in the same way that Jean Shepherd did.

SRS

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Bullfrog Jones
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 03:03 PM

I enjoy listening to PHC -- I wish we had something like it on British radio. Thank God for online programmes!

BJ

Subject: Lyr Add: WOULD YOU LIKE TO PLAY THE GUITAR?
From: Dexter
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 02:48 PM

Here's that Pat Donahue parody.

Would you like to play the guitar
And bring your money home in a jar
From a coffee house or a bar
Or would you rather get a job

A job is the thing that makes you get out of bed
And work every day until you're dead
Your feet are aching and your brain is numb
And you just can't wait until the weekends come
But if you don't want to starve or beg or rob
You'll probobly have to get a job

Or would you like to play the guitar
And drive for miles and miles in your car
You can pretend that you're a big star
Or would you rather book the gigs

An agent's the guy that gets his twenty percent
What he says ain't exactly what he meant
He'll clean you out in ways you never thought
'Cause he's good at business and he knows you're not
And he'll sue if you ever make it big
'Cause he's the guy that booked the gig

Or would you like to play the guitar
For a living (hardy-har-har)
I admit it's kind of bizarre
But would you rather be the wife

The wife is the one who's got to rescue our butts
She's either a saint or else she's nuts
She gets impatient and she gets annoyed
Becuase she's the one who must remain employed
By the way if you want to wreck your life
Become a guitar player's wife

Cause the monkey's aren't all in the zoo
They can be trained to play the guitar too
Some of them a whole lot better than you
But even if you don't go far
You could be worse of than you are
At least your playing your guitar.


          "Swingin' on a Star" has always been on my, "songs
            I need to learn" list. Hearing these lyrics moved it
            to the top slot. They love it at open mics.

dex

Subject: RE: Garrison Keillor the bad singer who ..
From: Don Firth
Date: 09 Feb 03 - 12:49 PM

We cross-posted, Dexter. Yes, now I remember that! Fantastic! Could you post the rest of it? Please, please, please?

Don Firth