Discussion for article #238612
He’s done more farewell tours than Cher. I’ll believe it when I see it.
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20+ years too late
“I can see how I could write a bold account of myself as a passionate man who rose from humble beginnings to cut a wide swath in the world, whose crimes along the way might be written off to extravagance and love and art, and could even almost believe some of it myself on certain days after the sun went down if I’d had a snort or two and was in Los Angeles and it was February and I was twenty-four, but I find a truer account in the Herald-Star, where it says: “Mr. Gary Keillor visited at the home of Al and Florence Crandall on Monday and after lunch returned to St. Paul, where he is currently employed in the radio show business… Lunch was fried chicken with gravy and creamed peas”.”
―
Garrison Keillor,
*Lake Wobegon Days*
I like that he presents music that is not often heard by most of us. Love his humor.
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Now I really feel old! I treasure my tickets to an upcoming APHC roadshow in Burlington even more. Godspeed, Garrison; you made hot dish as American as apple pie.
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Of course he’ll retire now; it’s past time and he knows it. I can’t say I listen often anymore, but A Prairie Home Companion is in national treasure territory. The man is to be applauded for what he has done. Yes, I’m a native (though long-departed) Minnesotan who first heard the program in a dairy barn in LeSueur County in summer 1974 in absolute incredulous wonderment that this guy, whoever he was, was nailing my specific culture with dead-on accuracy and performing the impossible with it: making it funny. So, yes, my fondness has elements of sentimentality and that old bugaboo, state pride. But Mr. Keillor has been nothing if not massively intelligently rooted in the place he came from and immensely and unconventionally creative with that material, and how many such do we get in America in a generation? A handful at best?
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First Colbert, then Stewart and now Keillor. These things always come in threes.
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I was thinking 25. I’ll only listen if Leo Kottke is performing.
I’ll only listen if Mason Jennings is performing but garrison is so grating and insulting I’m sure Mason will find better things to do.
Me personally, I’m gonna miss Keillor, especially during the winter months where his voice soothes the soul and warms the heart over a steaming cup of Joe. Listening to the show on the radio harkens back to a time when you could slow down to listen to a few silly skits, some better than others, but always well-intentioned and striving to create meaningful connections among people.
I love Chris Thile and Nickel Creek but it won’t be the same. I’ll still tune in to listen to the Blue Grass music since that’s usually the best part in my book… but Keillor’s midwestern sensibility and his narrative on the views and attitudes of uptight religious folks in the fictional north country will sadly be no more.