Nashvillians have two ways to get to Lake Wobegon this December 31. Those not in attendance when Prairie Home Companion host Garrison Keillor rings in the New Year at the Ryman Auditorium can catch the show live on Nashville Public Television. GREAT PERFORMANCES’ “Garrison Keillor’s New Year’s Eve Special,” broadcasts live from the historic Ryman Auditorium on NPT-Channel 8, Sunday, December 31, 2006 from 10:00 p.m.-1:00 a.m. The show will be rebroadcast on January 1, 2007 at 11:00 p.m.
Keillor will hold court at the original home of the legendary Grand Ole Opry with special guests Rhonda Vincent and the Rage, Doyle Lawson & Quicksilver, and bluegrass and country music legends Stuart Duncan and Buddy Emmons. Also on hand for the fun will be “Prairie Home Companion” regulars Fred Newman, Rich Dworsky and, of course, Guy’s All Star Shoe Band.
“Our New Year’s Eve show is a live party for some great musicians to play the classic tunes on the Ryman stage,” Keillor says. “We’ll lift up the old songs and carry them proudly into the New Year.”
Nashville and the Ryman hold a special place in Keillor’s heart. It was the Opry that provided Keillor with his original inspiration for Prairie Home Companion – an eclectic radio show combining musical guests, skits and commercials for imaginary products – that has gone on to become a favorite of public radio listeners.
“Nashville is a great old music colony,” he says, “where, despite all the traveling they do and the career pressures, musicians really do know and like each other. Here at the Ryman Auditorium, while the stars were onstage doing the Opry, the bands mingled and sat and picked in dressing rooms and in the alley between the back door and Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge,” he fondly recalls.
“It’s a perfect celebration of Nashville to have Keillor on the stage at the Ryman, with the eyes of the nation watching,” adds NPT president and CEO Beth Curley. “The show is a hot ticket, and we’re thrilled to bring it to you.”
One of America’s most beloved humorists, Keillor started work at Minnesota Public Radio in 1969 on a 6:00-9:00 a.m. morning show called “A Prairie Home Companion,” named after the Prairie Home cemetery in Moorhead, Minnesota. Five years later he hosted the first live broadcast of the program as it is known today. Now, more than four million listeners tune in each week to hear the program over American Public Media’s 580-station network, the BBC, Armed Forces Network and other international outlets.
Keillor’s film adaptation of A Prairie Home Companion, directed by the late Robert Altman and featuring the celebrated ensemble cast of Kevin Kline, Lindsay Lohan, John C. Reilly, Meryl Streep, Lily Tomlin, Tommy Lee Jones and himself, proved an audience and critics’ delight this summer. For more information and photos, please contact Joe Pagetta at 615-259-9325, jpagetta@wnpt.net.