Ace in the Hole
hosted by Garrison Keillor
Show #1560July 23, 2016
From Fitzgerald Theater | Saint Paul, MN
0:00 | 01:58:59
Dave Van Ronk
Gillian Welch
Geoff Muldaur
This week: our summer rebroadcasts roll along, with another October broadcast from the Fitzgerald Theater, this one originally aired during the fall of 1999. Quintessential New York folksinger Dave Van Ronk brought his guitar and his immediately recognizable voice for "Jelly, Jelly, Jelly" and "Where Were You Last Night?"; Gillian Welch and David Rawlings sang their soon-to-be classic "Time (The Revelator)" and delivered a one-time-only performance of Lefty Frizzell's "That's the Way Love Goes"; and bluesman Geoff Muldaur stopped by with "Drop Down Mama" and "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good to You?" Plus: Rainbow Motor Oil and the Rainbow Family of Automotive Products presented our Royal Academy of Radio Actors in "The Story of Bob, a Young Artist," a look at why men go deer hunting, and The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band played the "Garbage Man Blues" featuring Andy Stein's ferocious fiddle. In Lake Wobegon, Darryl and Marilyn Tollerud reminisced about the early years of their courtship.
Read notes from Gillian Welch about this week's rebroadcast
Gillian Welch:
I remember this show very well. It was the first time I'd ever met Dave Van Ronk, and he was as advertised ... tweed coat devoid of any shape, paperback protruding from hip pocket, voice simultaneously graveled and gilded by uncountable packs of cigarettes. We hit it off immediately. My partner, David Rawlings, and I were generously allowed to play our new song, "Revelator," which had not been recorded yet. Then, we dedicated a Lefty Frizzell love song to our A&R man, Paul Kremen, whose wedding we were supposed to be singing at but were missing at his insistence that we must put "show business first." I believe it's the only time we ever performed that song.
Dave Van Ronk
Dave Van Ronk is a musician whose versatility defies pigeon-holing. As a teenager in Brooklyn, he played tenor banjo in a group called the Brute Force Jazz Band before switching to guitar and developing a style that combined blues, jazz and folk music. After moving to Greenwich Village, he was encouraged by Odetta to pursue music as a profession. From his start in the folk boom of the 1960s, to jug band music and cabaret theater, from ragtime guitar arrangements of Jelly Roll Morton, to covers of Tom Waits and Paul Simon tunes, he's done it all. Now, after nearly 40 years, he is doing the best work of his career, as his Grammy nomination for his latest CD, From ... Another Time and Place, and his 1997 ASCAP Lifetime Achievement Award confirm. With two dozen albums to his credit, the gravelly-voiced guitarist has a vast repertoire of over 300 songs from which to choose. Still a resident of Greenwich Village, Van Ronk teaches guitar and tours steadily, playing everywhere from intimate clubs to international festivals.Gillian Welch
In the early 1990s, Gillian Welch met Dave Rawlings at the Berklee College of Music in Boston while the two were students waiting to audition for the country-band class. Over the past two decades, they have carved out a highly successful career, with a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Americana Music Association and recordings that include Welch's Grammy-nominated The Harrow & The Harvest and the Dave Rawlings Machine release Nashville Obsolete (Acony Records).Geoff Muldaur
"There are only three white blues singers," Richard Thompson once said, "and Geoff Muldaur is at least two of them." Once you hear Muldaur's otherworldly voice, you know what he meant. He was a founding member of the Jim Kweskin Jug Band and Paul Butterfield's Better Days group, and he has collaborated with Bonnie Raitt, Maria Muldaur, Jerry Garcia and many other notables. An Emmy-winning composer of scores for television and film, Muldaur's solo recordings include Beautiful Isle of Somewhere (HighTone Records).Garrison Keillor
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 - October 9, 1999
Richard Dworsky Keyboardist, composer, and arranger Richard Dworsky is APHC's music director. He leads the band, composes themes, improvises script underscores, and collaborates with such diverse guests as Yo-Yo Ma, James Taylor, Brad Paisley, Kristin Chenoweth, and Sheryl Crow. He has provided music for documentaries on HBO and PBS, and has released many recordings of original material, including his latest, All In Due Time. Pat Donohue 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. Blue Yonder (Bluesky Records) is the most recent of Pat's 11 albums. Greg Hippen, bass Arnie Kinsella Arnie Kinsella hails from Staten Island, and holds a B.A. in percussion performance from Brooklyn College. In addition to his tenure on A Prairie Home Companion, he has performed with Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, and has recorded and performed with The Manhattan Rhythm Kings, and Leon Redbone. Andy Stein Andy Stein (violin, saxophone) definitely has far-flung musical leanings. He collaborated with Garrison Keillor to create the opera Mr. and Mrs. Olson, and he has performed with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Eric Clapton, Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Joel, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles, and Bob Dylan.Tim Russell
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.Sue Scott
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.Tom Keith
Is that water dripping? Footsteps coming this way? Car tires spinning on an icy driveway? Nope - it's sound effects wizard Tom Keith. With vocal gymnastics and a variety of props, Tom worked his magic on A Prairie Home Companion from the mid-1970s until his passing in 2011.