This is a page devoted to all the happy memories and future smiles that Mr. Keillor brings to us all. This is NOT Mr. Keillor himself though I wish he had his own personal page or take this one. I love his music, wit, humour, and charm. I wanted just a small piece of that for my profile, therefore; I started this page in his honour. Moreover; I wanted to let others enjoy just a small piece of his work. As you can see that his music from this site is NON DOWNLOADABLE as if I can buy his cd's to support this man I reckon the rest of those whom enjoy the shows can do the same................................................................................
Garrison Keillor started his radio career in November 1969 with Minnesota Educational Radio (MER), now Minnesota Public Radio (MPR). He hosted The Morning Program in the weekday drive time-slot, 6 am to 9 am, which the station called "A Prairie Home Entertainment." During this time he also began submitting fiction to The New Yorker, where his first story, "Local Family Keeps Son Happy," appeared September 19, 1970. ****************************************
Keillor resigned from The Morning Program in February 1971 to protest what he considered an attempt to interfere with his musical programming. The show became A Prairie Home Companion when he returned in October.********
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Keillor has attributed the idea for the live Saturday night radio program to his 1973 assignment to write about the Grand Ole Opry for The New Yorker, but he had already begun showcasing local musicians on the morning show, despite limited studio space for them, and in August 1973 The Minneapolis Tribune reported MER's plans for a Saturday night version of A Prairie Home Companion with live musicians. *************************************************
A Prairie Home Companion debuted as an old-style variety show before a live audience on July 6, 1974, featuring guest musicians and a cadre cast doing musical numbers and comic skits replete with elaborate live sound effects. The show was punctuated by spoof commercial spots from such fictitious sponsors as Jack's Auto Repair and Powdermilk Biscuits, "the biscuits that give shy persons the strength to get up and do what needs to be done." Later imaginary sponsors have included Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery ("If you can't find it at Ralph's, you can probably get along without it."), Bertha's Kitty Boutique, the Catchup Advisory Board (which touted "the natural mellowing agents of ketchup"), the American Duct Tape Council, and Bebop-A-Reebop Rhubarb Pie ("sweetening the sour taste of failure through the generations"). The show also contains parodic serial melodramas, such as The Adventures of Guy Noir, Private Eye and The Lives of the Cowboys. After the show's intermission, Keillor reads clever and often humorous greetings to friends and family at home, submitted by members of the theater audience. Also in the second half of the show, the broadcasts showcased a weekly monologue by Keillor entitled News from Lake Wobegon, based in part on Keillor's own hometown of Anoka, Minnesota. Lake Wobegon is a quintessential but fictional Midwestern small town "where all the women are strong, all the men are good looking, and all the children are above average." The first show was in 1974, and the program became successful. It ran until 1987, when Keillor decided to end it; he worked on other projects, including another live radio program, "The American Radio Company"--which was virtually identical in format to "A Prairie Home Companion"--for several years. In 1993 he began producing A Prairie Home Companion again, with nearly identically-formatted programs, and has done so since. On A Prairie Home Companion, Keillor receives no billing or credit (except "written by Sarah Bellum", a joking reference to his own brain); his name is never mentioned, except occasionally by a guest addressing him by his first name or the initials "G. K."***************************************************************
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Keillor is also the host of The Writer's Almanac which, like A Prairie Home Companion, is produced and distributed by American Public Media. The Writer's Almanac is also available online and via daily e-mail installments by subscription.
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Please note, that if you love his music as much as I do, please do buy his cd's. That is why I have not allowed the music to be downloaded. He is at the very top of the list for "nice normal people" should get his due for his work.
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Keillor has written many magazine and newspaper articles, and nearly a dozen books for adults as well as children. In addition to his time as a writer for The New Yorker, he has also written for The Atlantic Monthly, and Salon.com.
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He also authored an advice column on Salon.com, titled "Mr. Blue". Following a heart operation, he resigned on September 4, 2001 in an article entitled "Every dog has his day"***************************************************
Illness offers the chance to think long thoughts about the future (praying that we yet have one, dear God), and so I have, and so this is the last column of Mr. Blue, under my authorship, for Salon. Over the years, Mr. Blue's strongest advice has come down on the side of freedom in our personal lives, freedom from crushing obligation and overwork and family expectations and the freedom to walk our own walk and be who we are. And some of the best letters have been addressed to younger readers trapped in jobs like steel suits, advising them to bust loose and go off and have an adventure. Some of the advisees have written back to inform Mr. Blue that the advice was taken and that the adventure changed their lives. This was gratifying. So now I am simply taking my own advice. Cut back on obligations: Promote a certain elegant looseness in life. Simple as that. Winter and spring, I almost capsized from work, and in the summer I had a week in St. Mary's Hospital to sit and think, and that's the result. Every dog has his day and I've had mine and given whatever advice was mine to give (and a little more). It was exhilarating to get the chance to be useful, which is always an issue for a writer (What good does fiction do?), and Mr. Blue was a way to be useful. Nothing human is beneath a writer's attention; the basic questions about how to attract a lover and what to do with one once you get one and how to deal with disappointment in marriage are the stuff that fiction is made from, so why not try to speak directly? And so I did. And now it's time to move on.***************************************************************
In June 2005, Keillor started a syndicated newspaper column called "The Old Scout." He returned to Salon.com, contributing a weekly essay, in 2005.
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Keillor wrote the screenplay for the 2006 movie version of A Prairie Home Companion, which was directed by Robert Altman. (Keillor also appears in the movie.)
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Keillor also recently published a collection of political essays as Homegrown Democrat.*********************************************************
If spam, hateful comments, and or concert posts that are not associated with The Prairie Home Companion are posted it shall be deleted as will the person whom posted the said message.
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At last The Chihuahuas rockin' version of the classic 'Purple Rain' is available for download! Currently available on Amazon and loads of other stores!
It was sad watching the Walter Cronkite programs on tv last weekend, I sure remember him from when we first got tv way back in the dark ages. I was sure watching his 20th Century program that we would be living on the moon by now and vacationing on asteroids and Mars. At least we would have our own helicopter in the garage and jet pack in the closet. On this day my brother Robert and I were on a trip with Auntie Margie & Uncle Mike in east Texas headed to New Orleans. We heard the landing on the car radio during a tremendous rain storm and watched them climb down the lunar lander at a Holiday Inn in Lake Charles, Lousiana. Now here we are, afraid to go on a airplane for fear of a terrorist, lucky to have a Little Brown Buick, and all the nice places on the earth are being paved by Walmart.
Great live broadcast from Tanglewood! Enjoyed hearing Arlo, and hearing those Steep Canyon Rangers for the first time! They are awesome! Can't wait until they come out to San Francisco, for Warren Hellman's little festival in Golden Gate Park in October. You always find the gems, Garrison.
Just wanted to say hello!!! Ive been really busy lately and havent gotten much done on here~~~ I hope all is well!!! Hugs to you~~have a great rest of the week!! Your friend, Rebecca :)
Having a hot cup of black coffee right now in your honor sir. Thanks so much for the laughter and the entertainment you have provided. Cheers, and God Bless!
