GARRISON KEILLOR ANNOUNCES 26-CITY COAST-TO-COAST A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION "RADIO ROMANCE TOUR"
Contact: David O'Neill
Prairie Home Productions
Phone: 651-999-1095
Email: davido@prairiehome.us
April 8, 2013
GARRISON KEILLOR ANNOUNCES 26-CITY COAST-TO-COAST A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION "RADIO ROMANCE TOUR"
Duet singing, improv, poetry, foolishness, and the News from Lake Wobegon.
(SAINT PAUL, Minn.) — On Monday, July 8, A Prairie Home Companion's kicks off the Radio Romance Tour 2013, a 26-city, 27-concert, 30-day, coast-to-coast bus tour that will run from Washington to Maine. Starring host and writer Garrison Keillor, comedian Fred Newman, Richard Dworsky and the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band with guitarist Pat Donohue and violinist/mandolinist Richard Kriehn, these nonbroadcast shows offer more than two hours of duet singing (with either singer Aoife O'Donovan or singer/fiddle player Sara Watkins, depending on the particular date), plus absurd improv with sound effects, Guy Noir Private Eye, poetry, outright foolishness, and the latest News from Lake Wobegon.
Garrison Keillor was born in 1942 in Anoka, Minnesota, and began his radio career as a freshman at the University of 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. Today, some 4 million listeners on more than 600 public radio stations tune in to the show each week. His many books include Lake Wobegon Days, The Book of Guys, and Guy Noir and the Straight Skinny (Viking). He is the host of the daily program The Writer's Almanac and the editor of several anthologies of poetry, most recently, Good Poems: American Places (Viking). In 2006, Keillor played himself in the movie adaptation of his show, a film directed by Robert Altman. In 2007, he opened an independent bookstore, Common Good Books, in St. Paul.
Aoife O'Donovan, of Boston and Brooklyn, is lead singer of Crooked Still and Sometimes Why. She sang on The Goat Rodeo Sessions with Yo-Yo Ma and Chris Thile and collaborated with the Dave Douglas Quintet on Be Still, listed by many jazz critics as one of the best albums of 2012. (Aoife will join the Radio Romance Tour on the July 8th - July 24th dates.)
Sara Watkins was a mainstay of the Grammy Award-winning trio Nickel Creek. An accomplished fiddler and singer/songwriter, she has established her identity as a solo artist with her albums Sara Watkins and Sun Midnight Sun. (Sara will join the tour on the July 27th - August 6th dates.)
Sound-effects man Fred Newman is an actor, writer, musician, and sound designer for film and TV. He is author of the book (and CD/CD-ROM) MouthSounds. Fred admits that, growing up, he was unceremoniously removed from several classrooms, "once by my bottom lip."
The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band is an all-purpose roots quintet covering blues, jug band, primitive jazz, good timey, R&B, swing, and hillbilly, with occasional ventures into classical, romantic, French café, music hall, surfer, spa, and Scandihoovian. The band is: Richard Dworsky (leader, keyboards), Pat Donohue (guitar), Gary Raynor (bass), Peter Johnson (percussion), and Richard Kriehn (fiddle, mandolin).
WHAT: Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion Radio Romance Tour 2013
WHO: Garrison Keillor, the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, sound-effects wizard Fred Newman, singers Aoife O'Donovan or Sara Watkins (see list)
WHEN/WHERE:
July 8, Spokane, WA - INB Performing Arts Center (with Aoife O'Donovan)
July 9, Boise, ID - Botanical Gardens (with Aoife O'Donovan)
July 10, Portland, OR - Edgefield (with Aoife O'Donovan)
July 11, Sacramento, CA - Community Center Theater (with Aoife O'Donovan)
July 12, Saratoga, CA - Mountain Winery (with Aoife O'Donovan)
July 13, Saratoga, CA - Mountain Winery (with Aoife O'Donovan)
July 14, Paso Robles, CA - Vina Robles Amphitheatre (with Aoife O'Donovan)
July 15, San Diego, CA - Humphreys Concerts by the Bay (with Aoife O'Donovan)
July 17, Salt Lake City, UT - Red Butte Garden (with Aoife O'Donovan)
July 18, Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheatre (with Aoife O'Donovan)
July 19, Kansas City, MO - Starlight Theatre (with Aoife O'Donovan)
July 20, Louisville, KY - Iroquois Amphitheater (with Aoife O'Donovan)
July 21, Cincinnati, OH - PNC Pavilion (duet partner TBA)
July 23, Brevard, NC - Brevard Music Center (with Aoife O'Donovan)
July 24, Richmond, VA - Maymont (with Aoife O'Donovan)
July 25, Danbury, CT - Ives Concert Park (with Aoife O'Donovan)
July 26, Cohasset, MA - South Shore Music Circus (with Aoife O'Donovan)
July 27, Bangor, ME - Bangor Waterfront (with Sara Watkins)
July 28, Hampton, NH - Hampton Beach Casino Ballroom (with Sara Watkins)
July 29, Lancaster, PA - American Music Theatre (with Sara Watkins)
July 31, Shelburne, VT - The Green at Shelburne Museum (with Sara Watkins)
Aug. 1, Canandaigua, NY - CMAC (with Sara Watkins)
Aug. 2, Chautauqua, NY - Chautauqua Institution Amphitheater (with Sara Watkins)
Aug. 3, Williamsport, PA - Community Arts Center (with Sara Watkins)
Aug. 4, East Lansing, MI - Venue TBA (with Sara Watkins)
Aug. 5, Grand Rapids, MI - Meijer Gardens (with Sara Watkins)
Aug. 6, Interlochen, MI - Interlochen Center for the Arts (with Sara Watkins)
TICKET INFO: See links at www.prairiehome.org.
FOR MORE INFORMATION: Go to www.prairiehome.org, or contact David O'Neill at davido@prairiehome.us.