This week on A Prairie Home Companion This week, the wolf pack travels to Vienna, Virginia, for a show from one of our favorite locales, Wolf Trap, with special guests the grandfather of the singer-songwriter era, Tom Rush, brilliant acoustic artists Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings Machine, and eclectic jazz vocalist Inga Swearingen. Also with us, The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band, The Royal Academy of Radio Actors (Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Fred Newman), and the latest News from Lake Wobegon. Highlights include the performance of a sonnet for the summer season by Garrison and Inga, Gillian and Dave dazzle with “Someone Like You,” Tom kicks things into high gear on “River Song,” Andy and Gabe have a twin fiddle medley, and a few words from Mel’s and the Professional Organization of English Majors (POEM). The link is posted on Saturdays at 5 p.m. CT each week on our Facebook page. Listen to the Show >>>
Like our Facebook page >>> More about this week’s guests
For every show, we will start on Tuesday of each week to promote Saturday’s classic broadcast. But as a primer, we will publish links to teasers, bios, and videos of the week’s musical guests to whet your appetite to tune in for the show. And who knows, we may even pop in for some live commentary and profiles via the Facebook page.
Gillian Welch grew up in Los Angeles, where her musical parents wrote for The Carol Burnett Show. In the early ’90s, she met Dave Rawlings at the Berklee College of music in Boston, while the two were students waiting to audition for the country-band class. As a duo, they have carved out a highly successful career. “I Hear Them All” >>>
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Inga Swearingen always loved singing, whether it was with her elementary school choir in San Luis Obispo, California, or performing her own songs in high school, or during her years of voice lessons. But it may have been joining a jazz choir while pursuing her education at Cuesta College that sealed her decision to be a jazz singer. In 2003, after studying with Swiss artist Susanne Abbuehl, she won the Shure Jazz Voice competition at the world-renowned Montreux Jazz Festival. She earned a master’s degree in choral conducting from Florida State University, then returned to California, where she now performs, works on recording projects, and teaches at Cuesta College — her old alma mater. “Whatever” >>>
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James Taylor once told a reporter that Tom Rush “was not only one of my early heroes, but also one of my main influences.” Lots of artists could say the same. Rush has had a profound impact on American music ever since his early days on the 1960s Boston/Cambridge coffeehouse scene, where he began performing while he was an English lit student at Harvard. He made his first record, Tom Rush at the Unicorn, in 1962. He has since released dozens of albums. “Child’s Song” >>>
View available music >>> A Sonnet for Summer
Garrison and Inga croon a sonnet for summer on this show. Here it is in printed form. The sonnet appears in the liner notes on the A Year in Lake Wobegon story collection.
Summer Sonnet
O summer here you are sh-bop sh-bop yeah yeah whoa whoa
And we are driving around town tonight hey hey hey
The windows wide open and the Beach Boys on the radio
And we’ll have fun fun fun till Daddy takes the T-bird away
Which Daddy will do and then we must Make Something of our lives
And climb the steep slope like good little Sherpas
And become daddies ourselves and our good wives
Will frown if we drive anywhere without a clear purpose
But tonight I am cruising for no reason around St. Paul
And I remember those innocent girls I used to hang
Around with when we had no place to go at all
Except around and around, the radio playing shang shang a lang
Driving University Avenue, 19 and wild and free
O baby baby shoop shoop it’s so beautiful you here with me Get “A Year in Lake Wobegon” >>>
More from Inga Swearingen How has appearing on A Prairie Home Companion affected you or your audience? Have you noticed a new breed of fans showing up at your concerts? The opportunity to perform on A Prairie Home Companion has not only provided me with lifetime musical memories, it has also expanded my audience to places that I have not yet been able to tour. I’m an independent artist who books my own shows and plans my own tours, so to receive an email from a PHC listener inviting me to their town is an incredible offer. I’m touched that people take the time to email, and I try to write everyone back. You have appeared on A Prairie Home Companion as a featured guest many times over the past years. We have been taking a quick look back in honor of the 35th Anniversary of the program. Do you have any favorite memories from your guest performances or of the show? Are there any favorite guest performances that you recall hearing that stand out? I remember singing a song by Rich Dworsky at Tanglewood a few years ago and the poem mentioned birds, just then birds began to chirp in the rafters and we all heard it. Even the radio listeners heard them! It was magical. And yes, every time Jearlyn Steele is on the show, I am moved by her passion and joyous spirit. She sings from her heart.
Read our full interview with Inga and learn about how her album First Rain came about. Read our guest interview>>> | 