moriarty@fluke.UUCP (Jeff Meyer) (11/11/85)
A little over a month ago, I heard through the Norwegian Grapevine in
Seattle that A Prairie Home Companion was going to have a show in Seattle on
Nov. 10th, 1985. Afterwards, I discovered that there were indeed two shows
-- on on the Friday night preceeding the radio show, and then the one that
would be broadcast. I decided to make the financial leap (shy people are
like that), and ordered three tickets for myself (two for my parents, as we
are all Good Iowans at heart and have always wanted to attend a show).
Well, about two weeks later I heard they had sold out, and that my order had
not been placed. Gloom. Depression. Meatloaf. But, one week later, three
tickets appeared in mailbox! Joy! Ectasy! It turned out that the demand
had been great enough to warrant a third non-broadcast show, and so a
Saturday 8:00 performance had been scheduled. And while my order form had
been just a little too late for the other shows, it was just in the right
place for second-row seats to the Saturday night shows.
Well, this was going to be a night to remember, so a few local Norwegian
Non-Bachelor statisticians who were also going (Hi, Steve & Susan!) kindly
invited my folks and I to a Potluck before the show; of course, a Hot Dish
was required by everyone, and the Jello Salad Desserts were very conspicous.
Heard the show, and a lot of Garrison Gossip was passed around (not to
mention the comparison of family trees -- "You used to live in Lake
Okobojii? West or East shore? In the Methodist Camp?"). Anyway, a very
nice time was had by all, and the whole lot of us headed to the Fifth Avenue
Theatre en masse.
We found on arriving that luck was indeed with us. Our seats were right in
front of the stage, and had an up-close view of the goings-on. Since this
was a non-broadcast show, the format was a lot looser, and we had been told
to expect more music than was normally heard, and that a News from Lake
Wobegon was not scheduled. I don't think you can imagine a nicer audience;
lots of "'Scuze me" and "You bet!" exclamations were heard. The show
consisted of Garrison, Chet Atkins, Johnny Gimble, Butch Thompson, Peter
Ostroushko, Howard Mohr, and Seattle's own Stan Boreson (the fellow with the
accordian on the broadcast).
Well, I don't want to take up your time with a play-by-play; I saw some of
the best fiddle-playing I've ever seen in my life (Peter Ostroushko is
amazing...), heard Chet Atkins play Don McLean's "Vincent", heard some very
good ad-libbing for music lyrics, heard Garrison do some story-telling
(mostly about Luthern Churches -- NOW I understand), learned that if enough
people sing anything, it sounds pretty good, and generally had about the
best concert experience of my life. My only disappointment was not being
able to hear Butch Thomspon speak (he just played very well). And there
were a few general observations I wanted to make, that might be of interest:
1) They look like they really enjoy being up there. After doing two
other shows in the last 24 hours, I could understand a certain lack of
enthusiasm in the performances of the musicians. But no. They were
smiling, seemed to be having a very good time, and if I've EVER seen
more energetic fiddling anyplace, I can't remember it. It seemed all
very -- amateurish; not in the sense of not being professional or
expert, because they were both, but in the way the word "amateur" was
used in it's original Latin form: "for love". They seemed to be up
there because they were having a good time and because they enjoyed
playing and singing and talking. Maybe I've become too cynical these
days; read too many news headlines, seen too many talk shows with show
business people plugging things, attended too many movies
pre-programmed by "viewer breakdown". Maybe, just maybe, I thought
that part of PHC was a little too homespun or that maybe there was
some artificiallity in the nature of the show (those of you who have
gone to The Grand Ole Opry may know what I mean). Well, I'm happy to
tell you that if I had such malignant suspicions, that I was dead
wrong. Those people looked like they were having as good a time as
we were, which is saying one heck of a lot. My general advice is if
the show comes to your town, don't miss it.
2) A few notes on Keillor -- I'm sure that through a great deal of the
show he was winging it (no pre-rehearsed lines, etc.), and it's
amazing to me that anyone can come up with the stories and
observations and characters he can on the fly -- it's bloody
marvelous. Makes me want to believe in heavenly inspiration, or the
Muse, or public education, or something. Secondly, he would appear to
be, well, "head-over-heels" in love, talking about looking at Seattle
as a city for lovers in the radio show, talking about the wedding and
Luthern churches in general (and one very funny story I'd heard before
about a trained religous bird act). And thirdly, I think he *loves*
to hear lots of people sing at once; it's not something he gets to do
often, as there isn't time for it in the show, but since nothing was
being broadcast and/or recorded that evening, he was free to do it as
much as he wanted. And he seemed genuinely delighted to hear everyone
sing, with him leading us.
Anyway, it was three excellent hours, and I just wanted to tell you (after
much gushing and fussing) that, by George, those guys up on stage really ARE
the pleasant MidWesterners they appear to be in our imaginations, when we
listen to the radios each week... I've waited four years for this, and I
think I can safely say that it was worth the wait.
And that's the news from Lake Washington, where all the women are upwardly
mobile, all the men are jogging, and all the children, bless 'em, are
rust-resistant...
"Nobody here but us folk heroes."
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
ARPA: fluke!moriarty@uw-beaver.ARPA
UUCP: {uw-beaver, sun, allegra, sb6, lbl-csam}!fluke!moriarty
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