This week on A Prairie Home Companion — it's Easter weekend and we've got a special springtime rebroadcast featuring a great honky-tonk band out of Austin, Texas — The Flatlanders — along with Sally Dworsky and the great St. Paul Calypso band, The Driftwoods. Prudence Johnson rings in spring with the VocalEssence ensemble, and there's a run on bone-in hams down at Ralph's Pretty Good Grocery.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, we'll wrap up our spring run at the Town Hall with special guests, Cuban charanga orquestra YeraSon. We'll have Brooklyn bluegrass beauty Jen Larson, and we'll announce the winner of our spring poetry contest, a gifted writer soon to be resting comfortably on a bed of roses, compliments of Select Comfort. Also with us, the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, the Royal Academy of Radio Acting, and the News from Lake Wobegon. It's an all-new show for spring coming up this Saturday...

This week on A Prairie Home Companion we welcome a very special guest to the Town Hall in New York City, the elusive and brilliant Ry Cooder and his stellar backing band: The New Cardboard Avenue Jaywalkers, which includes Mike Seeger on Banjo, Paddy Maloney of the Chieftains on whistles/pipes, Roland White on mandolin, and Joachim Cooder on drums. Also with us, critically acclaimed poet and senior nonfiction editor at The New Yorker, Deborah Garrison, The Royal Academy of Radio Acting, and the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, with this week's fifth shoe, Andy Stein. Join us Saturday for an all new installment of A Prairie Home Companion.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion we're live from the Town Hall in New York City. With special guests, jazzman Bob Dorough, bluegrass specialist Jen Larson, and tenor Vern Sutton. Sitting in with the Shoe Band, we've got tubist Dave Bargeron and fiddler John Niemann. And in the spirit of St. Patrick's Day, we'll expect everyone to sing along with some great traditional Irish songs (bring a hanky) and you'll hear the hilarious story of Danny, the tenor whose voice went flatter than week-old green beer. Also with us, the Royal Academy of Radio Acting, the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, and the News from Lake Wobegon. It's all new this week on A Prairie Home Companion, live from West 43rd Street.

Coming up this week on A Prairie Home Companion, we've got another special compilation show drawn from the dusty shelves of our underground tape vault, featuring some of the best opera from our archives. It's the l'atto finale of our spring break with Renée Fleming appearing as the great diva Renata Flambe, and Maria Jette singing the "Jell-O Aria." Susan Graham is with us, as well as Bryn Terfel, Mark Thomsen, and Danny the Opera Dog. It's all coming up this week on A Prairie Home Companion.

Coming up this week on A Prairie Home Companion it's another special re-broadcast: The Best of Broadway. We pulled an overnighter in the tape vault and found some BIG highlights from under the bright lights. Kristin Chenoweth sings Oklahoma!, Walter Bobbie tears into Alexander's Ragtime Band, Vern Sutton and Rob Fisher offer a tribute to the Broadway Chorus, Bonnie Raitt fulfills her dream of singing the part of Eliza Doolittle from My Fair Lady (under the guidance of Guy Noir), and Marvin & Mavis Smiley do Springtime on Broadway. Tune in Saturday for all that plus, The Royal Academy of Radio Acting, The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, and the news from Lake Wobegon.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, we're taking some time off to thaw out and will be airing the best of two shows we did at the Ted Mann Concert Hall on the campus of the University of Minnesota, back in January of last year. Garrison recalls his days at the U of M, including his first job at the campus radio station KUOM. We'll get a lesson in Latin, librarian Ruth Harrison wrestles a former classmate to the ground, and Robin & Linda Williams and Carol Elizabeth Jones join Garrison as The Hopeful Gospel Quartet. Also on the show: Nashville rising star Adrienne Young, Bulgarian violin prodigy Bella Hristova, and U of M vocal student Janine Bremault. Plus Andy Stein sitting in with Rich Dworsky and The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band. Tune in this Saturday for a special re-broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion.

This week on A Prairie Home Companion it's a reunion of the "Neale Diamond Trio", as guitarists Phil Heywood and Dan Neale sidle up next to our own Pat Donohue to compare manicures and guitar licks in a finger-picking free for all. We're also happy to have master vocalists Prudence Johnson and Vern Sutton on board to give Garrison a few tips. We've also nabbed several cast members from the Minnesota Opera's production of The Grapes of Wrath going on just down the street. Guy Noir will be working the stage door and a new case for Presidents' Day, and sitting in with the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, Minnesota Jazzman Butch Thompson and the Manhattan Maestro, Andy Stein. International sound effects superstar Tom Keith joins Sue Scott and Tim Russell as the Royal Academy of Radio Acting, and of course, there's always news from Lake Wobegon as the ice fishing gets interesting over a long holiday weekend. Join us this Saturday for the latest.

Coming up this week on A Prairie Home Companion, we're stoking the home fires with our friends Robin & Linda Williams and the First Lady of St. Paul Soul, Jearyln Steele. And sitting in with the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, the same fantastic horn section we had in St. Louis: Dave Bargeron, Jon-Erik Kellso, and Kathy Jensen. Also with us the Royal Academy of Radio Acting: Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and legendary sound effects man, Tom Keith. Join us this Saturday from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, as we huddle for warmth against the February freeze.

Producing an eighth Joke Show is a lofty goal, our interns have lost weight (and some hair) over the last few weeks, but they actually found some funny jokes we haven't used in the past, so here goes nothing. This week on A Prairie Home Companion, it's jokes, jokes, and more jokes. Jokes read by professional radio actors, willing to sacrifice their dignity for the greater good of giggling, guffawing, and groaning. The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band will be joined by Dan Newton and Andy Stein, with a new batch of humorous songs, plus we'll have a surprise lineup of comic re-enforcements to help deliver the massive payload of punchlines. If you're someone who is easily offended by PG-13 humor, please don't send us complaints, just tune into the "Murder, She Wrote" marathon on the Biography channel instead.