ON-AIR

"Welcome to Lake Wobegon, where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average." -opening line of Prairie Home Companion

We were given two tickets (thanks, Dad and Amy!) to see Garrison Keillor perform his radio show, "Prairie Home Companion" live at Blossom Music Theater last Saturday. We declared it an early anniversary date, my mom cheerfully watched the kiddos for us, and we grabbed Chipotle on our way. Blossom is an outdoor theater, with a giant pavillion then a big hill surrounding it all around that you can picnic on. Years ago, before kids, or foster kids, we sat on the hill with friends and watched Garrison Keillor, but we couldn't hear very much. This time we were front and center, just a few rows back. We got a mini-concert before the show went live on the air. It was great!

We decided you can hear the nuances of genius, Fred Newman, better over the radio than live, but it was neat to see him at work. Surprisingly, he uses a lot of hand gestures.

Ricky Scaggs and his band, Kentucky Thunder played some wonderful

blue grass music that we loved.

Here's what he looks like now:

And you have to love a guy who can get away with wearing an ivory suit, with a pink dress shirt, red tie and red sneakers. Really. By the way, it was blazing hot, or at least felt like it here in Ohio in the 80s and yet, Garrison kept that jacket and tie on the whole time.

We were most impressed at the story time which was toward the end of the show. He literally walked around the stage with no notes or anything and just told us a great story of Lake Wobegon. Even if he had written it or outlined it earlier in the week, it was long enough and good enough to wow us with the fact that it was coming right out of him. Something we never appreciated from listening over the radio.

We so enjoy listening to Prairie Home Companion on NPR, it wouldn't be much of a show without Garrison Keillor, so we'll enjoy it while we can.