Still in the Game

Singer-songwriter and fiddle player Sara Watkins - along with her brother Sean and mandolinist Chris Thile - was a founding member of the Grammy-winning progressive bluegrass group Nickel Creek. In 2015, Sara and Sean released their "family-band-of-sorts project," Watkins Family Hour, and then embarked on a tour that included stops at Conan, NPR's Tiny Desk Concert, and the Newport Folk Festival. Sara's latest recording: Young in All the Wrong Ways (New West Records).

When he was 12 years old, Sean Watkins co-founded the California-based bluegrass group Nickel Creek, kick-starting a career that would take the guitarist-singer-songwriter to the top of the charts and the stage of the Grammy Awards. By the time Nickel Creek decided to take an open-ended break, Sean had spent decades being a band frontman or sideman. It was time for him to "step out of supportive roles" and claim his own turf. In 2014, he released his first solo album, All I Do Is Lie (Roaring Girl Records). "This feels like starting over, in a way," he explains. "It's the beginning of the next phase."

Navy Band Southwest's Ceremonial Band has been the hallmark of military tradition and musical excellence in San Diego since the band's establishment in 1923. Under the direction of Lieutenant Mark Corbliss, this impressive, highly polished musical organization provides traditional military musical support for every Navy command in the southwestern United States. Consisting of 18 to 40 instrumentalists, the band performs a myriad of musical styles, from the marches of Henry Fillmore, Kenneth Alford, and John Phillip Sousa to the modern compositions of Aaron Copland and John Williams. In addition to its extensive military schedule, the band performs countless parades, special events, and public concerts in the civilian community, serving as the musical ambassador for Commander, Navy Region Southwest. This fine group has also thrilled audiences at professional sporting events such as Major League Baseball and National Football League games, as well as the Long Beach Grand Prix. Navy Band Southwest's Ceremonial Band imparts an impressive visual and musical presentation that is sure to evoke the strongest feelings of patriotism and pride that today's Navy represents wherever it goes!

Growing up in Indiana, Jearlyn Steele sang with her siblings as The Steele Children. One by one, they moved to Minnesota and started singing together again. Now music is the family business. Jearlyn has recorded and performed with Prince, George Clinton, Mavis Staples, and others. She also hosts Steele Talkin', a Sunday-night radio show that originates on WCCO in Minneapolis. Her most recent solo CD is Jearlyn Steele Sings Songs from A Prairie Home Companion.

Garrison Keillor was born in 1942 in Anoka, Minnesota. He went to work for Minnesota Public Radio in 1969, and on July 6, 1974, he hosted the first broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion in St. Paul. He is the host of The Writer's Almanac and the editor of the Good Poems series of anthologies from Viking.

The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band is led by A Prairie Home Companion music director Richard Dworsky. Keyboard player, composer and improviser in any style, he also writes all the script themes and underscores. His latest CD is So Near and Dear to Me. Chet Atkins called Pat Donohue (guitar) one of the greatest fingerpickers in the world today. And he writes songs too - recorded by Suzy Bogguss, Kenny Rogers and others. Freewayman (Bluesky Records) is the most recent of Pat's nine albums. Gary Raynor (bass) has performed with the Count Basie band, Sammy Davis Jr. - with whom he toured for several years - and the Minnesota Klezmer Band. He teaches jazz bass at the McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul. Richard Kriehn is principal second violin for the Washington/Idaho Symphony. But it's not all classical all the time; he is equally at home playing bluegrass fiddle and mandolin. He was a member of the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble and the bluegrass group 1946.

One minute he's mild-mannered Tim Russell; the next he's George Bush or Julia Child or Barack Obama. We've yet to stump this man of many voices. Says fellow APHC actor Sue Scott, "He does a better Ira Glass than Ira Glass." A well-known Twin Cities radio personality and voice actor, Tim appeared in the Robert Altman film A Prairie Home Companion and the Coen brothers' A Serious Man. Tim has also been reviewing films professionally for over 10 years.

On APHC, Sue Scott plays everything from ditzy teenagers to Guy Noir stunners to leathery crones who've smoked one pack of Camel straights too many. The Tucson, Arizona, native is well known for her extensive commercial and voice-over work on radio and television, as well as stage and movie roles, including the part of "Donna" in Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion.

Sound effects man Fred Newman is an actor, writer, musician, and sound designer for film and TV. Turns out, no one is more surprised than Fred that he's made a career out of doing what he used to do behind the teacher's back -crossing his eyes, making sounds, and doing voices. He readily admits that, growing up, he was unceremoniously removed from several classrooms, "once by my bottom lip."