November 5, 2016 rebroadcast with The California Honeydrops, Sarah Krueger, and Lynn Peterson

The California Honeydrops don't just play music -- they throw parties. Led by dynamic vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Lech Wierzynski, and drawing on diverse musical influences from Bay Area R&B, funk, Southern soul, Delta blues, and New Orleans second-line, the Honeydrops bring vibrant energy and infectious dance-party vibes to their shows. They've taken the party all over the world: European tours, featured slots at festivals, venues large and small. Their latest album is A River's Invitation (Tubtone Records). Ben Malament (percussion), Johnny Bones (tenor sax, clarinet), Lorenzo Loera (keys), Beau Bradbury (bass, percussion).

Singer and songsmith Sarah Krueger may have been born and raised in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, but she credits Duluth, Minnesota, as the place that "serves as a breathing foundation" for her earnest and straightforward songwriting. Between stretches of teaching jobs, waiting tables, and holing up in a cold Duluth hillside apartment, she has crafted a lustrous folk sound. In fact, Lustrous is the title of her brand-new recording, scheduled for release next month on Chaperone Records.

Singer-songwriter-science geek Lynn Peterson is a native Minnesotan whose career took her to New York City, where she spent eight years as a performer, composer, and studio vocalist, before returning to the Twin Cities. And the science geek part? She studied chemistry as an undergrad and now continues graduate work focused on chemistry and sustainability. Her Norwegian roots and love of Norway are inspiration for an upcoming recording project: Songs of the Sognefjord.

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.

Keyboardist, composer, and arranger Richard Dworsky is music director for A Prairie Home Companion, where he is often called upon to improvise on the spot -- in styles ranging from classical to bluegrass and everything in between. He has accompanied Garrison Keillor on U.S. and European concert tours and has collaborated with numerous other performers, including Al Jarreau and Kristin Chenoweth.
JT Bates started playing drums when he was seven. By the time he was 15, he was sitting in with his dad's big band. Since then, he has backed up countless musicians, as well as working with a number of Twin Cities-based bands, including Fat Kid Wednesdays and Poor Line Condition.
Bassist Jeff Carney is always in demand -- in Broadway orchestras, on jingles and film soundtracks, and as accompanist for jazz giants and popular music stars. A professor of bass and at the New School for Jazz and Contemporary Music, he is principal bassist with the New York Pops Orchestra at Carnegie Hall.
When Richard Kriehn turned 10, his mom bought him a mandolin; at 19, he'd won the Buck White International Mandolin Contest. He went on to play with the Nashville Mandolin Ensemble and bluegrass group 1946. On the classical side, he has performed with numerous orchestras and was principal second violin for the Washington/Idaho Symphony.
Guitarist Dean Magraw studied at the University of Minnesota and the Berklee School of Music in Boston. His first recording, 1994's Broken Silence, won the NAIRD award for Best Acoustic Instrumental Album of the Year. Dean has since turned out an array of dazzling albums. For his latest, he joined forces with drummer Erik Kamau Gravatt to produce Fire on the Nile (Red House Records).
Pedal steel ace Joe Savage may think of himself as a Perennial Sideman (title of one of his albums), and it is true that he has performed with a long list of artists in addition to being a go-to studio musician. But solo or sideman, Joe has been a welcome fixture on the Twin Cities music scene since moving from Cloquet, Minnesota, to Minneapolis in the 1980s.

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.

Since 1992, Prairie Home fans have heard Sue Scott play everything from well-intentioned moms and ditzy teenagers to Guy Noir stunners and leathery crones who've smoked one pack of Camel straights too many. She recently climbed back on stage in a variety of theater roles. She is well known for her commercial and voice-over work on radio and television, as well as 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."