A Sonnet for Spring from 1997

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Listen to this week’s classic show

This week, we revisit a show from March 22, 1997, which was a tribute to the father of bluegrass, Bill Monroe, featuring bluegrass performers: Kate MacKenzie, Peter Rowan, and the Nashville Bluegrass Band. It’s a bluegrass bonanza that will have your feet tapping. Listen.

Highlights include talk of St. Patrick’s Day and the spring weather. The band plays a few polkas, including “Don’t Pick on Lutherans” and “Kentucky Waltz.” And Garrison talks about Bill Monroe’s early life and career before turning the show over to the music, where your ears are treated to “Blue Moon of Kentucky,” “Rawhide,” and “Muleskinner Blues.” Plus, a few sketches and the latest News from Lake Wobegon.

Kate MacKenzie was a favorite guest of A Prairie Home Companion starting in 1981. For many years, she was lead singer of Stoney Lonesome, with whom she recorded six bluegrass albums, toured Japan and North America, and was featured in the public television series Showcase. With the Hopeful Gospel Quartet, Kate recorded a live album from Carnegie Hall, performed at folk festivals in Scotland and Denmark, and performed on PBS’s Austin City Limits. Her work with A Prairie Home Companion included coast-to-coast tours, 20 Disney Channel television broadcasts, and a recurring dramatic role as Sheila, the Christian Jungle girl (wild, yet pure). After a 20-year recording hiatus, Kate returned with the new album called MacKenzie-Adkins, featuring the Bob Dylan tune below and Kate’s stunning vocals. Read our guest interview with Kate here »

With its debut in 1984, The Nashville Bluegrass Band became one of the most popular and widely respected bluegrass outfits around. In the United States, the band appeared in a variety of venues, including a sold-out 1991 concert at Carnegie Hall and a series of performances from Nashville’s Grand Ole Opry. The Nashville Bluegrass Band was the first of its genre to play in mainland China, and the group appeared before international audiences in Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Asia. The band's first music video, “Blue Train,” was frequently seen on the Country Music Television cable network, and they have also appeared on several of that network's most popular programs, including Crook & Chase, New Country, and Fire on the Mountain.

Here is Sonnet to Spring, which is featured as part of a sketch on this week’s classic show:

When in Minnesota we arrive at the vernal equinox,
We know that grass and flowers are not quite here,
That more snow will fall on our driveway and sidewalks,
And that spring, as always, will be late this year.

I am not complaining, though if I did, I could go on all day,
I am tired, I am full of sadness, I am deeply depressed,
But I am not going to talk about it because I am okay.
We have always been okay, here in the Midwest.

If it snows in April, we don’t curse, except to say, “Uff-da.”
If it snows in May, we say, “Oh, for pity’s sake.”
God in your mercy, please do not allow the ice on our roofta
Crush us in our sleep. Anything short of that, we can take.

And when the crocuses do come up, and the tulips, and the purple gentian,
We feel tremendous joy, though it is not anything we would ever mention.

Old Man Winter has another few weeks to go, and while he’s here, he is trying to tell us something, and you know he is a realist. Winter tells you no lies. Winter tells you the cold hard truth.

Serenity at 70, Gaiety at 80
by Garrison Keillor

Catch up on Serenity at 70, Gaiety at 80, Garrison’s humorous take on aging and why we should all want to keep getting older. It is available on Amazon and in some bookstores — in both print and digital versions.

In Serenity at 70, Gaiety at 80, GK leans into the beauty of getting old. “My life is so good at 79 I wonder why I waited this long to get here,” he writes. You learn that Less Is More, the great lesson of Jesus and also Buddha. Each day becomes important after you pass the point of life expectancy. Big problems vanish, small things make you happy. And the worst is behind you because you lack the energy to be as foolish as you might otherwise be. Includes 23 rules for aging, among them “Enumerate your benefits,” “Enjoy inertia,” “Get out of the way,” “Don’t fight with younger people; they will be writing your obituary,” and finally, “Ignore rules you read in a book. Do what you were going to do anyway.” Readers are sure to chuckle at the wisdom and humor contained in this short, full-color volume (there are photos from Garrison’s life as well as reproductions of fine art).

Read the preview chapter>>>
Get the book>>>
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Get the audiobook (via Audible)>>>

Beautiful Dreamer (Heather Masse and Garrison Keillor)

Click below to hear Heather and Garrison perform a duet version of “Wild Horses.” Written by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards — and ranked 334 on Billboard’s list of the 500 best songs of all time — “Wild Horses” first appeared on the Rolling Stones’ album Sticky Fingers.

Listen to “Wild Horses”>>>
Get Beautiful Dreamer>>>

Giving Thanks Shirt

Our limited-edition Garrison quotation product selection continues with this classic shirt highlighting a simple life mantra: “Giving thanks is the key to happiness.” That’s exactly where it’s at — being happy and appreciative for everything you have in your life. Lightweight cotton/poly blend shirt is available in sizes S–XXL

Get the shirt>>>