Garrison Keillor – A Prairie Home Companion It s Only A Show

It’s Only A Show is the newest Garrison Keillor CD.

It is a Prairie Home Companion compilation from HighBridge Audio, home of everything Keillor. The idea behind this 2 skit comedy CD set of funny songs, serious tunes, fake comic commercials like Beebopareebop, Rhubarb Pie and Bertha’s Kitty Boutique, the usual humorous skits (Lives Of The Cowboys, English Majors, Guy Noir) from Garrison Keillor’s Public Radio show, and, of course the News From Lake Wobegon, is to give regular listeners of A Prairie Home Companion a home or car version of this very entertaining and by now legendary radio show. It is also ideal for those listeners who gave up on Garrison Keillor’s show because it has become somewhat politically shrill over the last few years.

This is a high quality 2 sketch and funny story comedy CD set of some of the best from Prairie Home Companion over the last eight or so years. Although nine of the tracks here are reprised from previous collections, an interesting decision considering there is more than enough material in a given season to put together a dozen or so solid comedy CDs, there is enough previously unavailable material to make It’s Only A Show something Garrison Keillor fans and something people who like a variety of funny stuff on a CD a solid addition to any collection.

Most fans of Prairie Home Companion will want to know about the News From Lake Wobegon (Woebegone to some) tracks. There is one per CD on It’s Only A Show. The School Forest, on CD 1, could have used a better title. It is really about the Mist County Fair, the story of the Johnson Sisters, perennial runner-ups to the Lennon Sisters, and the importance of being an extremely gracious winner. The News From Lake Wobegon on the second CD is the sad story of Jimmy the bus driver and a rare instance where a Lake Wobegon misfit is not somehow grudgingly accepted. This story is also reminiscence of days of old where children we set free unsupervised to explore life on their own.

There are also many comedy skits on A Prairie Home Companion It’s Only A Show. CD 2 starts off with the story of Ruth Harrison, Reference Librarian in a somewhat messy but funny skit about a spinster librarian, a guy who cuts out pages from rare books, and the skeleton who lives in the library basement. Professional Association of English Majors shows how a degree in English can help your marriage when your wife asks the inevitable, “Notice anything different about me?” The Guy Noir story on this cd has the hard-boiled detective in Santa Monica watching a movie being made. The Lunchtime Jamboree is one of the many versions of the story of Carson Weillor, radio star.

Comedy skits on the first CD in the A Prairie Home Companion It’s Only A Show set features a great Beebopareebop, Rhubarb Pie story about a job interview gone very, very bad, and a fun Bertha’s Kitty Boutique fake commercial (a cd of the best of Bertha’s Kitty Boutique would definitely be a hit with cat lovers everywhere). Of course, there is a Lives of the Cowboys story, this time it is about Dusty taking up poetry writing. Brilliant stx man Tom Keith is featured and asked to show off his talents in Tom Keith, Northern Woodsman. The CD closes with The Ten-Minute MacBeth, a really funny version of Shakespeare’s classic featuring the imitated voices of Mister Rogers, Henry Kissinger, Jack Nicholson, and Julia Childs.

Music is the cornerstone of Garrison Keillor’s Prairie Home Companion and, of course, this 2 comedy CD set features the variety of music the show is known for. The first CD features the honky tonk Oh Sister, Ain’t That Hot by the Guy’s All Star Show Ban; Dr. Wang, a four hand piano duet; Old Yazoo (by the Show Band); the country western sounding Roly Poly, and a love song titled Under the Stars. CD 2 features the Guy’s All Star Shoe Band playing Wolverine Blues and Frisco Town. The Hopeful Gospel Quartet gives its rendition of Walk Over God’s Heaven, while verybody, including Al Franken gets into The Lunchtime Jamboree.  Click here for our Garrison Keillor page

A Prairie Home Companion
It s Only A Show
Garrison Keillor
2 CDs
2 1/2 Hours
HighBridge Audio 2006

Track List

It’s Only a Show, Vol. 1 mp3 album at Amazon
Oh Sister Ain’t That Hot (from A Prairie Home Companion 25th Anniversary Collection)
Beebopareebop, Rhubarb Pie (Nov. 7, 1998)
Bertha’s Kitty Boutique (Dec. 15, 2001 and from Commercial Radio)
Dr. Wang (Jan. 15, 2005)
The Lives Of The Cowboys (Jan. 22, 2005)
Old Yazoo (from Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band: Shake It, Break It and Hang It On The Wall)
Tom Keith, Northern Woodsman
Roly Poly
News From Lake Wobegon: The School Forest (May 18, 2002 and from Home on the Prairie)
Under The Stars (April 17, 1997)
The Ten-Minute Macbeth (Nov. 9, 1996)

It’s Only a Show, Vol. 2 mp3 album at Amazon

Ruth Harrison, Reference Librarian (Oct. 8, 2005)
Wolverine Blues (Guys All Star Shoe Band: Shake It, Break It and Hang It On The Wall)
Professional Association of English Majors (May 5, 2001)
Guy Noir: Movie Shoot (June 7, 2003 and The Adventures of Guy Noir)
Hula Lou (Feb 7, 1998 and A Prairie Home Companion 25th Anniversary Collection)
News From Lake Wobegon: Jimmy, Our Bus Driver (March 1, 2003 and Home On The Prairie)
Walk Over God’s Heaven (Jan. 30, 1999 and A Prairie Home Companion 25th Anniversary Collection)
Frisco Town (Oct 20, 2001)
The Lunchtime Jamboree (April 16, 2005)

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