The Colors of Fall from 2006

featuring Bonnie Raitt, The Wailin' Jennys, and Andy Stein

Listen to the October 28, 2006 show

This week on A Prairie Home Companion, we're carving blue-ribbon pumpkins and drinking hot spiced cider with assurances that the blues music from this classic show recorded at the Fitzgerald Theater will keep us warm. Very special guests: the queen of the blues renaissance Bonnie Raitt and firecrackers of the Canadian prairie The Wailin' Jennys. Also with us, the Royal Academy of Radio Acting: Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Tom Keith. And sitting in with the Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, the Manhattan maestro Andy Stein. Listen to the show.

More about our guests:

Minnesota has a claim to fame in music legend Bonnie Raitt's extraordinary career: Her first album was recorded in the Twin Cities suburb of Minnetonka and produced by Minneapolis blues stalwart Willie Murphy. Born to a musical family (she's the daughter of celebrated Broadway singer John Raitt and pianist/singer Marge Goddard), Raitt grew up in Los Angeles. Her creative journey began the Christmas she was eight, when she got her first guitar. In her teens, she heard the album Blues at Newport 1963. "That one record changed my life," she says. By the late '60s, as a Harvard/Radcliffe student majoring in African studies, she was making the rounds of Cambridge coffeehouses. After three years of college, she quit school to commit herself to music full-time. Soon she was opening for the likes of Mississippi Fred McDowell, Son House, Muddy Waters, and John Lee Hooker. These days, Raitt can claim legions of fans, stacks of recordings, and a host of awards, including thirteen Grammys. She continues to perform live and record new music. Her latest album is titled Just Like That . . .

When three solo performers with powerful voices joined forces for a one-time gig in 2002, everything changed. The collaboration was a huge success, surprising everyone, including The Wailin' Jennys. Soon the ad hoc trio was on tour, and within a few weeks the word was out: People were calling them "a bona fide Canadian sensation." Their fame quickly spread. Writing in the Sydney [Australia] Morning Herald, one music critic said, "This is about as good as contemporary folk gets." Closer to home, a Winnipeg Free Press reporter proclaimed that the group's harmony singing has "the ability to send shivers up your spine." The group continues to tour together and promises new music soon.

Fair season is upon us. It’s time to celebrate the harvest season, gather with friends, people-watch, visit some animals, take a few rides, play some games, enjoy live music, and eat more than one should. It is one of our host’s favorite seasons of the year but . . . sometimes, you get the State Fair Blues.

State Fair Blues

It’s gettin’ on toward Labor Day
Summer’s come and goin’ on its way
Got a little time left to play
But no time to lose

I took my baby on the merry-go-round
Just before the Fair closed down
Now she’s gone back home and left this town
Oh, those State Fair blues

French fries and a corn dog might
Help me lose these blues tonight
Autumn winds are on the way
And I can feel ’em blowin’ down the midway

But I’m not a gonna get upset
Summer ain’t quite over yet
But when it is I know I’ll get …

The milkshake, soda pop
Double chocolate on the top
Large-size, deep-fried — nothin’ here I won’t try
Yes I got ’em, the State Fair blues

The Tom Thumb Pronto Pup
Goin’ down, comin’ up
Tilt-a-whirl, game of skill
Take her on the Old Mill
Cheap trick, take your pick
Anything that’s on a stick
Big slide, Sky Ride
Cheese curds on the side
Roast corn, summer’s gone
Have another foot-long
Roller coaster, Ferris wheel
Don’t you know the way I feel
Whoa I got ’em
The State Fair blues

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