A Prairie Home Companion!

 On Saturday I got what was probably one of the best (and honestly only) Memorial Day presents of my life... I got to go to a live taping of A Prairie Home Companion!

I got to see Garrison Keillor, Guy's All Star Shoe Band, Sue Scott, Tim Russell, Mr. Fred Newman, and all the rest of the Prairie Home crew. It was kind of awesome. And it was all thanks to my friend Elspeth and her parents, who gave me their extra ticket to the Memorial Day show at Wolf Trap.

One of my favorite parts of the show happened before the show even started. About 15 minutes before the live taping began, Garrison and Sara Watkins, one of his guest singers, walked all through the lawn at Wolf Trap singing song after song and signing autographs and taking pictures with the audience. It was so cool that he did that. Even cooler, Garrison was somehow able to sing and sign autographs and take pictures at the same time... he barely even hesitated when someone shoved a book and pen into his face or wrapped their arm around him for a picture. It was nuts.

Also nuts was Sara Watkins' outfit. I so wish I could pull that off. (She's the one in the hat with hipster glasses and a microphone.) Elspeth and I both decided that she is quite possibly our new favorite singer.

Once the show started it was pretty much like listening to the radio, only instead of watching the road wiz by (cause we usually listen to it in the car) you actually got to watch them on stage. 

Guy's All Star Shoe Band

And while it was pretty uneventful on stage (the pictures below were taken during the Guy Noire story) it was very cool to be able to see Mr. Fred Newman doing the sound effects.

From left to right: Mr. Fred Newman, Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Garrison

Elspeth and I also tried this "great" technique of taking pictures through binoculars in an attempt to get a better close up picture... it kind of worked, but it was hard to take a picture that wasn't blurry. It's hard to stabilize a camera and binoculars and take a picture all at the same time.

When they started the power milk biscuits song a sign lit up on the side of the stage, which was cool. There was also a sign that said "on air" that lit up when the show was live on air.

During the break we went up to the balcony area of Wolf Trap to see what it looked like from up there... it was cool to see the stage from a different perspective (aka way closer and from above).

After the show was over and it was time to leave, the parking lot was literally a parking lot, since the traffic flow at Wolf Trap isn't exactly spectacular. We saw lots of people hanging out in the parking lot (rather than hanging out in their cars, in the parking lot, while burning lots of gas... that's what we were doing. And blasting some Sara Watkins music). People were throwing frisbees and nerf thingys, drinking wine, and doing what I would generally think of as lite tailgating, since they didn't have cooking implements and stuff. However, the best was definitely these people, who actually went so far as to spread their blanket out on the pavement and have a full blown picnic.

If you feel like listening to the show, you can get to it here. Just choose the 5/26 show. 

Or, you can just listen to clips... my favorites had to be "You and Me" (one of Sara Watkins' songs) and Guy Noir