January 25, 2014 rebroadcast with Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, Mike Compton and Joe Newberry, and The Nightingale Trio

Rhonda Vincent was barely five years old when she began performing with her family band, the Sally Mountain Show. She's been in the spotlight ever since. Named Female Vocalist of the Year seven times by the International Bluegrass Music Association, this ace mandolinist has dozens of albums to her credit, including her latest, Only Me, brand-new on the Upper Management label. The Rage is: Hunter Berry (fiddle), Brent Burke (Dobro), Mickey Harris (bass), Aaron McDaris (banjo), and Josh Williams (guitar).

As a reviewer in Bluegrass Today magazine put it: "There are powerful people in every walk of life. Mike Compton is the General George Patton of the mandolin." Joe Newberry is known for his powerful banjo work, in addition to being a prizewinning guitarist, fiddler, and singer. Together, these two effortlessly move from traditional songs to contemporary instrumentals, from classic "mother" ballads to original compositions. Live, the duo's debut recording, mines the brother duet music of the 1930s and '40s.

The Nightingale Trio is Nila Bala, Rachel LaViola, and Sarah Larsson, who met as university students performing with the Yale Women's Slavic Chorus. After finishing their degrees -- in law, film, and anthropology -- the three reunited to sing folk songs that have spanned centuries of Slavic culture, music rich in stunning dissonances, asymmetric rhythms, and intricate ornamentation. Letya is the trio's first album.

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, arranger, and longtime Prairie Home Companion music director Richard Dworsky has collaborated with such diverse musicians 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.
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.
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 a bunch of dazzling albums, including his latest, Reservoir (Acoustic Music Records), a collaboration with Sandor Szabo.

Mild-mannered Tim Russell one minute -- Obama, Trump, or myriad others the next. It's almost impossible to stump this man of many voices. Says fellow Prairie Home Companion 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."