New York Subway Spectacular from 2000

featuring Ramblin' Jack Elliott and a host of subway musicians

NEW RELEASE: From the Archives: The News from Lake Wobegon

To celebrate the release of the newest News from Lake Wobegon collection, From the Archives: The Best of 1984, which features the Lake Wobegon stories from the 1984 broadcast season, we are compiling a set of 5 releases in the From the Archives series for $50 to celebrate the upcoming 50th Anniversary of the show. That’s a $75 savings! So, if you have missed the News from Lake Wobegon stories, these will all seem brand-new since they have been locked in the vault and unheard since the mid 1980s. Celebrate the season with some great storytelling! Get the CDs.

Listen to the Subway Spectacular from December 2, 2000

This week, we travel back to December 2000 to The Town Hall in New York as A Prairie Home Companion welcomes special guest Ramblin' Jack Elliott, plus a visit from some of New York City's most exciting subway musicians.

Highlights include chat about New York in December, plus Garrison sings “Good to be Here in New York” and an ode to his daughter “Hush, Little Baby,” several sketches including Guy Noir and Tom Keith, a song from each of our excellent subway musicians or bands, plus a Dylan tune from Ramblin’ Jack, and the latest News from Lake Wobegon. Click here to listen now. Links to listen are on our website now and appear on social pages on Saturday evening.

More About our Guests:

Folk music legend has it that RAMBLIN’ JACK ELLIOTT showed up at Woody Guthrie’s house in the early 1950s and stayed for two years. Other stories about him abound, like the time he played for James Dean in a Hollywood parking lot, or the time Jack Kerouac read him the entire then-unpublished manuscript for On The Road, or the time he serenaded a group of young British schoolchildren on a railway platform and years later ran into one of the kids who told him the encounter had prompted him to buy his first guitar (the kid was Mick Jagger). A master storyteller, Elliott first “rambled” around the country with Guthrie in the early ’50s, then was an influence to Bob Dylan in Greenwich Village in the ’60s. After moving to California in 1965, Elliott reconnected with Dylan in the early ’70s and became a member of the Rolling Thunder Revue. Throughout his career, he has traveled the world, gathering inspiration for his stories and songs. In 1996, Elliott won a Grammy for his South Coast album (Red House Records) and was also chosen as the recipient of the Bill Graham Lifetime Achievement Award at San Francisco’s Bay Area Music Awards. For 1998’s Friends of Mine (HighTone), he was joined by a number of artists with whom he had toured over the years, including Guy Clark, Nanci Griffith, Arlo Guthrie, Emmylou Harris, Tom Waits, and Jerry Jeff Walker. A Stranger Here (ANTI-) is among his more recent recordings. Elliott’s daughter Aiyana directed a documentary film about his life, which won the Special Jury Prize for Artistic Achievement at the 2000 Sundance Film Festival.

ERNEST STEIN was born in Munich, Germany, in November 1900. He began studying piano with his mother at about age five and played the cello in the high school orchestra. He immigrated to New York in 1921, where he found a career in the import business. He was able to hear Richard Strauss conduct the New York Philharmonic at the old Madison Square Garden. He found work as an accompanist for the Brahms Singing Club, a women's singing group, with whom he performed at Carnegie Hall, as well as at The Town Hall. Stein also performed publicly with renowned violist Lillian Fuchs, the wife of his identical twin brother, Ludwig, as well as with her brother, violinist Joseph Fuchs. Also a composer, one of his favorites works is the piece “Florival,” which he and Lillian Fuchs played together on the radio. In 1936, he married Doris Blumenthal, and together they raised three sons, the youngest of whom is The Guy’s All-Star Shoe Band’s own Andy Stein. In addition to composing and performing, Stein was also a published poet. Ernest Stein passed away in 2004 at the age of 103.

The Subway Musicians:

CHURCH OF BETTY, CHRIS RAEL AND DEEP SINGH draws heavily from Indian folk, popular, and classical styles. Although they perform in a variety of venues, Sitar player Chris Rael and tabla player Deep Singh recorded a CD called Tunnel Ragas specifically to sell in the subway when they play there.

CURTIS JARDINE is a native of a Trinidad and has been playing the steel pans most of his life.

Folk singer/guitar player JORGE LUZURIAGA is originally from Ecuador.

In addition to the musical saw, NATALIA PARUZ plays a number of other novelty instruments. Among many other performances, she appeared on Regis & Kathie Lee, at the Rainbow Room, and with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, under the direction of Zubin Mehta.

SPANK is an a cappella doo-wop trio made up of Reggie Rowson, Herman Seay, and Harvey “Raisin” Cain.

When Garrison’s daughter was very young, Garrison did a series of songs about raising children and used her as inspiration for songs about Bananas etc. Tonight’s classic show features “Hush, Little Baby.” Here are the lyrics:

Hush, little baby, don't say a word

Papa's gonna take you to West 43rd

And the intellectual temple, Town Hall,

On a street that serves a lot of alcohol

And the home of The New Yorker magazine

And the Algonquin Round Table literary scene

But if literary history is not an inspiration,

Papa will take you to Grand Central Station

And if the Oyster Bar is out of Tabasco

Papa will take you to the Belasco

And if you’re not impressed by Mark Rylance

And there’s too much talking, not enough violence,

And if you feel the urge to laugh

Papa will take you to see Falstaff

And if you tire of the opera speedily

Papa will take you down to Eataly

And if the pasta’s too wet and the wine’s too dry

I’ll take you to the 92nd Street Y

And if the poetry reading’s a bore

And the metaphors you’ve heard before

And the poets’' muse is a much too solemn muse

Papa’s gonna take you to St. Bartholomew’s

And if Papa thinks that the sermon is dull he

Will take you over to Alice Tully

And if you don’t like the concerto by Corelli

Papa will take you to Katz’s Deli

And if the pickles are low on dill

Papa will take you to Murray Hill

And if there’s too much honk honk and too much zoom

We’ll head west and visit Grant’s Tomb,

And if his tomb fills you with gloom

I’ll take you to the Met and the Impressionists Room

And if those paintings don’t ring your chimes

Papa’s gonna take you to the New York Times

And if they won’t buy your story and give you a byline

Papa’s gonna take you down to the High Line

And if the boardwalk feels like you’re on a luge

Papa’s going to take you to Poisson Rouge

And if the music is ordinary

We’ll go to Woodlawn Cemetery

Where you will find on the same hill

Duke Ellington and Herman Melville,

Elizabeth Cady Stanton in the same earth

As George Cohan and F.W. Woolworth,

And if dead people aren’t what you had in mind,

We’ll head for Ninth Avenue and see what we find.

A New York Street where the sidewalks are lined

With joints where one can be wined and dined

And there Papa’s credit card will be declined.

He’ll be deVisaed and unMastered,

All because of you, you beautiful child.

Then we’ll pack our bags and head for home

Out on the range where the buffalo roam,

We'll live on Cheez Whiz and Creamettes

So we can pay our credit card debts.

Drive a school bus, shovel the walks,

Clean the johns, and darn the socks,

And eventually when the money’s made,

And the pigs are sold and the bills are paid,

We’ll put down the shovel and the pitchfork,

And get dressed up and come back to New York

Return to Lake Wobegon and discover that not everything is the same. A series of funerals bring Garrison back home to Lake Wobegon and he discovers that while some of the town has changed, much stays the same. It’s probably the only comic novel featuring five funerals, including one eulogy he delivers for someone he didn’t like. A charming tale about the “little town that time forgot and decades could not improve.” Get the book. Get the CDs read by Garrison himself.

Lake Wobegon Water Tower Hat

The Lake Wobegon water tower stands for everything tall, proud, and useful. When you wear it, you’re saying something. Embroidered cap is blue washed cotton twill. One size; adjustable strap. Get the hat.

A Prairie Home Companion Socks

Peter Rosen once produced a documentary about Garrison Keillor titled “The Man on the Radio in the Red Shoes.” What the title failed to realize is that Garrison not only wore red shoes onstage for the APHC shows, he also wore a red tie and red socks to match. Now, you can wear a pair of Prairie Home socks and keep your feet warm on those cool winter nights. Knit jacquard socks are made with a woven imprint combining both the original logo and the microphone from the more recent logo. One size fits all. Get the socks.