Bed of Roses from 2008
featuring Nellie McKay, Chris Thile, and a poetry contest
Garrison Keillor TONIGHT hits the road again this week for a long series of shows over the next six weeks where Garrison will enthrall audiences with new stories, some poetry, a few songs, and a sing-along. Garrison walks out on stage with no script and simply moves the show where it wants to go. We hope you can join him! Here are his latest thoughts on the upcoming trek:
We live in a silver age of comedy thanks to our national leadership and the rise of the wacko right. I look at The Daily Show, the late-night comics, I read stuff in The Atlantic and the Post that has me laughing so I cannot talk, and it’s all thanks to this president unlike any ever seen. When one man on the basis of resentment and bad math and superstition decides to bring the global economy crashing down on Wednesday afternoon, when Laura Loomer who believes 9/11 was an inside job can walk into the Oval Office with a list of six top National Security officials she wants to have fired and he does it, when the World’s Richest Man takes a sledgehammer to research programs and universities that exhibit wokeness or refer to the Gulf of Mexico instead of the Gulf of America, these are wacko times, and comedy has no leverage at all. So why am I depressed today? Because I'm writing a show to do on the road starting tomorrow and I have to pass up all this rich material and do a cheerful show about ordinary life. Hard work.
Listen to the classic show!
This week, we travel back to April 12, 2008, for a show that was performed from The Town Hall in New York City. Special guests include eclectic singer-songwriter Nellie McKay, sultry alto Prudence Johnson, Metropolitan Opera tenor Raúl Melo, and mandolin maestro Chris Thile. Also , The Royal Academy of Radio Actors (Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Fred Newman), The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band, and The News from Lake Wobegon. Join us and revisit a poetic exploration into the human heart and the power of love. Listen to the show.
About our Guest Performers:
She started out wanting to be a jazz musician. Now when singer, songwriter, actor, and activist Nellie McKay sits down at the piano or picks up the ukulele, you’re likely hear some blend of jazz, pop, hip-hop, cabaret, or vaudeville. The London-born, New York-based performer has amassed quite a following with her quirky musical approach. She’s nothing if not outspoken, and the causes she holds dear — animal rights, for instance — are apt to turn up in her unpredictable song lyrics.
Chris Thile made his first appearance on A Prairie Home Companion in 1996. He was 15 and had already been playing mandolin for a decade. He’d also started Nickel Creek with Sara and Sean Watkins. This Grammy winner and MacArthur “genius” grant recipient now leads acoustic quintet Punch Brothers, among other projects.
Since making his Metropolitan Opera debut during the 2005–2006 season as the Duke in Rigoletto, tenor Raúl Melo has sung principal roles with major opera companies worldwide. Performances include the part of Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly) and Cavaradossi (Tosca) with the New York City Opera, the tenor soloist in the Verdi Requiem with Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, and Alvaro in Verdi’s La Forza del Destino at the Český Krumlov International Music Festival in the Czech Republic. At the piano: John Jensen.
This classic show featured a poetry contest where over 4,000 sonnets were submitted. The contest was to promote the fact that April is National Poetry Month. Garrison provided the definition of a sonnet and listeners provided their answers.
What's a Sonnet? from Wikipedia
The term "sonnet" derives from the Provençal word "sonet" and the Italian word "sonetto," both meaning "little song." By the thirteenth century, it had come to signify a poem of fourteen lines that follows a strict rhyme scheme and specific structure. Traditionally, when writing sonnets, English poets usually employ iambic pentameter. We're not going to be as strict as your High School English teacher, but please do try.
Here is the winning sonnet but several were featured on the LIVE broadcast and you can view them here.
“Love is the glue that makes us stick”
by Marydel Rosenfield
Love is the glue that makes us stick
That holds us together through thin and thick
Love is the yeast that makes us rise
To the occasion and fills with surprise
Love is the power that helps us stay
The course when we enter the fray
Love is the force that keeps us on track
That sends us on missions and brings us back
Love is intangible and also invisible
And sometimes positively risible
Being in love is a human emotion
Entraps like a mud flat, engulfs like the ocean
As fish love the water and birds love the air
Love tugs at our heartstrings and makes us a pair.
About the Author
Marydel Rosenfield (née Coolidge) grew up in Bangor, Maine, the daughter of a forester; she was an only child and bookworm. She always loved playing around with words (learned “The Jabberwocky” in third grade; plays Scrabble not bridge). Her favorite living poet is Billy Collins. She lived in Riverdale (NW Bronx) from 1950 to 2006 with her architect husband; they summered in Maine (east Penobscot Bay region). Her favorite things are sailing, music, three grown children and two grandchildren. Now living permanently on Deer Isle, Maine, she and her husband have been uproariously married for 59 years; he married her for her 1939 Ford convertible with a rumble seat.
Brisk Verse, by Garrison Keillor, is a lively collection of 132 original poems on everything from thongs to Mozart, from plumbing to spring. Illustrated with quirky vintage ads, this witty book is the perfect gift for poetry lovers — or anyone who could use a good laugh!
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