Blessed Assurance from 2003

featuring VocalEssence, Jearlyn Steele, and Dan Newton

Garrison Keillor Tonight! is an evening of stand-up, storytelling, audience song, and poetry. One man, one microphone. There are sung sonnets, limericks, and musical jokes, and the thread that runs through it is the beauty of growing old. Despite the inconvenience, old age brings the contentment of LESS IS MORE. Your mistakes and big ambitions are behind you, nothing left to prove, and small things give you great pleasure because that's what's left. (“I was unhappy in college because it was a requirement for an intellectual, but then I went into show business and discovered that people won’t pay to be made unhappy; their kids will do it for free.”)

There is the News from Lake Wobegon, a town booming with new entrepreneurs, makers of artisanal firewood and gourmet meatloaf, breeders of composting worms, and dogs trained to do childcare. But some things endure, such as the formation of the Living Flag on Main Street, citizens in tight formation wearing red, white, or blue caps, and Mr. Keillor among them, standing close to old neighbors, Myrtle Krebsbach (“Truckstop”) and Julie Christiansen (“Bruno, The Fishing Dog”) and Clint Bunsen. And an a cappella sing-along with the audience singing from memory an odd medley of patriotic songs, pop standards, hymns, and ending with the national anthem. Ticket information.

Listen to the classic show

Enjoy this classic show originally performed on January 25, 2003, from the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Minnesota, with Philip Brunelle and the VocalEssence Ensemble Singers, Jearlyn Steele, and Dan Newton joins the Shoe Band. Highlights include talk of snow, the Minnesota March and Minnesota Rouser from the University of Minnesota Hockey Rouser Band, a “bombastic” medley from VocalEssence, “Sadie Green” from Dan Newton and the Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band, “Blessed Assurance” from Jearlyn Steele, plus talk of regret, back pain, football casting, a few sound effects, and the latest News from Lake Wobegon. Listen to the show.

THE VOCALESSENCE ENSEMBLE SINGERS, formerly known as the Ensemble Singers of the Plymouth Music Series, first sang together in 1991. The 26-voice Ensemble Singers are chosen for their musicianship, vocal qualities, and flexibility in singing many styles of music. Innovative explorers, the Ensemble Singers embody the adventure and enthusiasm of VocalEssence. They are the professional core of the larger VocalEssence Chorus, which, for more than half a century under the direction of founder and artistic director Philip Brunelle, has grown to become one of the premier music organizations in Minnesota and beyond.

JEARLYN STEELE started singing with her siblings in the aptly named group The Steele Children. The children sang in church and when Jearlyn was only four, she and three siblings opened for gospel legend Mahalia Jackson. They sang in churches, concert halls, and on radio and television across the state of Indiana. Jearlyn left the Hoosier State to attend the University of Minnesota and, one by one, the rest of her brothers and sisters followed. For fun, they started singing together again as The Steele Family. The public wanted more, and so the family turned to singing full-time, which they've been doing ever since. In 1983, the Steeles sang in Gospel at Colonus at the Guthrie Theater. The show toured and ended up on Broadway in 1988. Jearlyn has recorded many local and national commercials, and has been heard on various albums with top acts like George Clinton and Prince. In addition to her music career, Jearlyn hosted her own radio show, called Steele Talking, serves as entertainment correspondent on Twin Cities Public Television’s Almanac, and continues on the lecture circuit.

DAN NEWTON, a.k.a. “Daddy Squeeze,” studied folklore and music at the University of Nebraska, then traveled extensively in the British Isles and across the U.S., learning whatever he could about regional music and food. In 1987, he moved to the Twin Cities. Dan now resides in St. Paul, where he maintains his lifelong fascination with all things spicy: pungent food, French roast coffee, dark beer, jug-band, Cajun, gypsy, and cumbia music, and unbelievable stories. He spends much of his time playing accordion with his “Café Accordion Orchestra,” performing the repertoire of the popular Parisian dance bands of the 1920s and ’30s musette orchestras.

Can you believe it’s been 25 years since the original version of the Pretty Good Joke Book was released? Throughout the year, we will feature jokes and anecdotes about the almost annual EVENT. Fourteen complete shows plus good parts of several others created a fan favorite where Garrison and the cast read jokes, many arriving so fast that you could not slow down to wait for laughter to subside before the next joke was delivered. Many jokes were sent in online via the joke generator after the first couple of shows but the show became an albatross of sorts to the staff since Garrison truly didn’t want to repeat a joke — and many hours were spent making sure that didn’t happen Well, the Joke Book gathers the jokes together, plus many that were submitted but not used on air, and organizes them into easy-to-understand categories for easy enjoyment and sharing. Here is one that Garrison has woven into a song during his solo shows and even on several stops on the 50th Anniversary Celebration Tour.

So Tommy goes into a confessional and says, “Bless me, Father, for I have sinned. I have been with a loose woman.”

The priest says, “Is that you, Tommy?”

“Yes, Father, it is I.”

“Who was the woman you were with, my son?”

“I cannot tell you, Father, for I do not wish to ruin her reputation.”

“Was it Brenda?”

“No, Father.”

“Was it Fiona?”

“No, Father.”

“Was it Ann?”

“No, Father.”

“Very well, Tommy. Go say five Our Fathers and four Hail Marys.”

Tommy goes back to his pew, and his buddy Sean slides over and asks, “What happened?”

And Tommy says, “ I got five Our Fathers, four Hail Marys, and three good leads.”

Grab the Joke Book and entertain yourself or share a few of the jokes with your family or friends! Almost every season, it was a show that most listeners looked forward to. Get the book.

A Year in Lake Wobegon

“It's been cold there but even more than cold, it’s been windy so it’s been rearranging that big snow we got this last week, moving it around.” Old men have been sitting in front of the Chatterbox Café, ice-fishing or shoveling. People come to church for Ash Wednesday and Father Wilmer is ill with the flu. As an aside for Valentine’s Day, the host tells the story about how his parents fell in love during a train robbery. Get A Year in Lake Wobegon, featuring 12 News from Lake Wobegon stories (from 2014 to 2016), including this February classic. Get the three-CD set -