Hello, 2026!

Ring in the New Year with PHC

Happy New Year!

Ring in the NEW YEAR with PHC! It’s our New Year’s Eve show from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, Tennessee, on December 31, 2006. Old Crow Medicine Show ask “Are You from Dixie?”; Rhonda Vincent and the Rage play “All American Bluegrass Girl”; Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver turn things up past 11, acoustically, with “Sadie’s Got a New Dress”; Suzy Bogguss sings “What Are You Doing New Year’s Eve?”; Emmylou Harris and Jon Randall perform the classic “If I Could Only Win Your Love”; Cowboy Jack Clement joins the band for his own classic, “Guess Things Happen That Way”; and our friends Robin and Linda Williams drop by for a tune or two, including a slow-burning “Ramblin’ Man.” Plus: a message from the Catchup Advisory Board and a visit to the Café Boeuf courtesy of Tim Russell and Fred Newman; an extra-wide Shoe Band, with Nashville pickers Buddy Emmons, Stuart Duncan, Sam Bush, and Jerry Douglas joining Richard Dworsky and the Guys; and Garrison shares a few notes on how Lake Wobegon is preparing for the New Year. It’s a two-hour show, so hit the listen button at 9 p.m. and sit and enjoy!

Listen to the January 2, 2010, show

Presenting highlights from our 2009 season, including Pat Donohue, Brad Paisley, and Sam Bush performing “Stealin’ from Chet” at the Ryman Auditorium; Elvis Costello as an English author and stuttering son of the Earl of Twickerham in an episode of Guy Noir; and Martin Sheen as a flimflamming, four-flushing, shortchanging, deck-stackin’ yahoo in an episode of The Lives of the Cowboys. Plus, Marvin and Mavis Smiley’s tribute to Bruce Springsteen, Nellie McKay’s tribute to Doris Day, and Patty Loveless sings “The Bramble and the Rose.” Listen to the show.

More about our guest performers:

Brad Paisley has earned his place in country music history as one of the genre’s most talented and decorated male solo artists. His songwriting and unmatched showmanship have won him piles of awards — multiple GRAMMYs, American Music Awards, Academy of Country Music Awards, and Country Music Association Awards, including a highly coveted Entertainer of the Year honor and recognition as the most successful CMA Award cohost in history, alongside Carrie Underwood. A member of the Grand Ole Opry since 2001, Paisley has written most of his No. 1 hits, and in 2008 became the first artist to achieve 10 consecutive Billboard Country Airplay No. 1 singles.

As a youngster in Kentucky, Patty Loveless listened to the Grand Ole Opry, and she wrote songs and sang with various ones of her six siblings. After high school, she headed for Nashville and became a member of the Wilburn Brothers band. She released her first solo recording in 1987 and now has dozens of albums to her credit. These days, Patty and her husband, producer Emery Gordy Jr., make their home in Georgia — in a small town northwest of Atlanta. Read our guest interview with Patty about her album Mountain Soul.

Sam Bush was just 11 when he got his first mandolin. By the time he was 17, he had won the title of National Junior Fiddle Champion for three years running. And he had made his recording debut, Poor Richard's Almanac. Often called the King of Newgrass, the Grammy Award winner was founder of cutting-edge bands like New Grass Revival and Strength in Numbers. He has also been the go-to sideman for Lyle Lovett, the Flecktones, and dozens of others.

“Individually their voices can melt cheese, and in duet they can do all-purpose welding,” Garrison Keillor has said of Robin and Linda Williams. Singing the music they love, be it bluegrass, folk, old-time, or acoustic country, these two have carved out a more than five-decade career that has taken them from Carnegie Hall to the Hollywood Bowl. They first appeared on A Prairie Home Companion in 1975, the same year they recorded their first album. In 2021, they self-released Better Day A-Coming, featuring their newest classic, “Old Lovers Waltz.”

The Writer’s Almanac

It was on January 1, 1993, that the first episode of The Writer’s Almanac debuted on public radio stations across the country. The Writer’s Almanac was created by Garrison Keillor to bring poetry to a larger audience, with each five-minute episode featuring history notes on the given day plus a poem.

The program was first offered to stations that carried A Prairie Home Companion, but it built its own following over these past 30 years. Anniversary episodes are featured daily on our website, social media, and via a daily Substack page. You can support this ongoing celebration of poetry with a contribution to offset our expenses.

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Powdermilk Biscuit Mugs (set of 2)

Heavens, they’re tasty and expeditious! Powdermilk Biscuits are made from the whole wheat that gives shy persons the strength to get up and do what needs to be done. After trying these tasty biscuits, wash them down with your favorite libation in our branded mug. Our logo is displayed prominently on both sides of the white, C-handled ceramic Powdermilk Biscuit mugs. Get the mugs.

Living with Limericks

Limericks are the poems that can be written in the empty spaces between life, and this compact book illustrates the full range of the form’s utility: thank-you notes to doctors, odes to “Prairie Home” performers, postcard greetings from exotic places, succinct biographies of favorite writers, and scribbles in the margins of Sunday church programs.

Here is a limerick Garrison wrote about his mother, Grace:

My mother whom I adored
Is in heaven where, with one accord,
Saints clang their balls
In heavenly halls
As they fall on their knees to the Lord.

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