Yeah, we
can't believe it either.
But if you click here, you can hear us!
Wednesday, January 26, 2005.
The Geezers received an e-mail from
someone purporting to be a producer for
Garrison
Keillor's Prairie Home Companion radio show, which is
produced in St. Paul, Minnesota, near where all of us
live. The e-mail said, "Garrison Keillor would like
to you to appear on the show this Saturday." A phone
number and e-mail address were provided to contact him.
Naturally,
the Geezers believed this message was a cruel hoax, perpetrated
by one or more of our knucklehead friends. However, within
less than a day we were almost convinced that the invitation was
for real.
Thursday, January
27, 2005.
Even though
the invitation was on very short notice, since the Geezers are
geezers, we had no plans for the weekend, and we accepted.
It was only then that we were convinced, because all of a sudden
on January 27, we were mentioned on the Prairie Home Companion web site.
Late in the
day on Thursday, the 27th, we got a two page schedule for both
Friday and Saturday. We had been asked to play two shows:
the first is called the Friday Night Preview, which is a live
show at the
Fitzgerald
Theater in St. Paul, and the second show is the from on
Saturday night broadcast. The theater hold about 1000
people, and is a beautiful almost 100 year old structure.
The schedule
was very detailed, and for the first time, we realized that this
is the BIG TIME, and that we would be pretty much occupied for
all of Friday night and most of Saturday. The first time
the band would be together would be when we arrived Friday night
to practice and do a sound check.
Friday, January
28, 2005.
So we show
up Friday at about 5:30 PM, and many of the cast and crew were
already there. The very first impression of those people
was that they were very welcoming and friendly, which went a
long way toward easing our nerves. We met in the Green
Room, and Garrison came in to welcome us and to talk about what
we might be doing.
Pre-show
schedule included practice in the dressing room assigned to us,
a sound check, and a hearty meal, prepared by the show's own
caterer. We had four or five songs to offer, told Garrison
what they were, and about 1/2 hour before show time, we were
handed a schedule with three songs they wanted us to do, showing
down to the minute how the show would be presented.
The Friday
Night Preview show was to a packed house of 1000, and was great
fun for us. The preview show lasts about 2 1/2 hours or
more, so it's a bit longer than the 2 hour Saturday broadcast
show. We were very happy with our own performances, and
left about 11:00 PM to go home, exhausted.
During our
parts of the show, Garrison used the Geezers name as a comic
instrument, and he played it well, suggesting that we should
consider renaming ourselves. (We have resisted this idea.)
Saturday, January
28, 2005.
The Geezers
showed up at the Fitz at about noon, cuz we needed some more
practice. (Ya think?) We played and ate lunch until
about 1:15, then went to the theater and watched Ricky Skaggs
and Kentucky Thunder do their rehearsal/sound check.
For those
who like such details, here's a bit more about Ricky and the
band. First, they are an amazingly tight and terrific band.
Coupla young 'uns play fiddle and lead guitar -- both look like
the kids my 18 year old daughter hangs around with. So young, it
seems like several laws of the universe have been violated for
them to be able to play so well. IT'S JUST NOT FAIR. The fiddler
for the Praire Home house band -- no slouch himself -- was
astonished.
Second, they are all nice Southern gentlemen, very polite (my
wife Mary Rose confirms this -- she chatted with several of them
during the show).
We watched their soundcheck for about 45 minutes during the
afternoon. They were a very loose, funny bunch of guys, having
lots of fun with each other and the sound crew, and they were an
exceptionally professional bunch, able to respond quickly to do
the job. At one point, the sound guys asked if they could cut
the time on "Sally Jo," which apparently was a little long and
was squeezing other time slots. Ricky and the boys started
chattering about how they did that on the IBMA show, or the Opry,
or someplace -- they couldn't agree where -- then they simply
did it -- cut one of the guitar solos and a couple of choruses,
and it was done. Although at the end, Ricky joked that they "mighta
made it longer."
Ricky was an easy guy to chat with, and was very generous with
his time after the show with audience members who wanted
pictures, autographs, or a moment of time.
All in all, a pretty impressive band.
We did our
soundcheck right after Ricky and his band, taking much less time
than they did (maybe because we weren't as much fun for the
staff to watch?) Anyway, sound check went well, and we
even got to play through "The Glory of Love" with The
All Star Guys Shoe Band playing along. That was lots of
fun, even though they didn't play along with us during the radio
broadcast (except for Arnie Kinsella, who brought his own
washboard along).
More
practice during the afternoon, then some of us went back to the
theater to watch Garrison and the voice cast run through skits
-- editing as they went along.
Sometime
around 3:30 PM, a meal was served by the caterer -- great food,
cast, crew and guests mingle for a while and chat over the
meal. Afterwards, more practice for the band.
The Big
Show
Around 4:30,
everyone is expected to be on stage, and at about 4:40, a final
rundown schedule is handed to everyone who's on the show, which
is when we learned which of our tunes we'd be playing and when.
At 4:45,
Garrison and the Shoe Band take the stage to warm up the crowd,
which is streaming in to the Fitzgerald Theater. As usual,
the show has been sold out for months.
At 5:00, the
American Public Radio fanfare song plays, then the band starts
the PHC theme, and the show is off and running. Our
performance comes early, about 21 minutes into the show, and
lasts 10 minutes. We thought the performance went very
well.
People has
asked us if we were nervous, and of course we were.
However, Garrison's patter during our segment, which is
unscripted, was quite soothing, and made it easy to do the
songs.
We did two
tunes on the show. Peter sang lead and played guitar on
"Jug Band Music," and Don sang lead and played guitar
on "Glory of Love." Garrison used the Geezer
name as a vehicle for a comic bit about not liking the
name/concept of Geezers. Since Peter and Don are both
Minnesota District Judges, he managed to use a fair bit of
legalese. "May I approach the bench?"
"Am I out of order?" "May I
appeal?" "May we take this under
advisement?"
After our
segment, all we had to do was sit just off stage and wait for
the closing bows. Spent some time talking with Ricky
Skaggs and his band members -- very nice guys, every one, and
then we just enjoyed the unique perspective of seeing the show
from the backstage.
The show
ends after 2 hours, and then about an hour is spent chatting,
gathering equipment together and leaving for our band after-show
party.
Don:
As I left, I mentioned to Albert Webster, the stage manager, how
much the Geezers appreciated the welcoming, friendly manner of
everyone on the show staff. His reply was that Garrison wouldn't
have it any other way, and that they tried to follow the
philosophy that everyone on the show should have as much fun as
possible.
AND WE DID!!
We spent about 12 hours in rehearsals and sound checks over the course of Friday and Saturday of that weekend, and performed twice before a live audience of 1000 people.
On Saturday night, the live broadcast went out to about 4
million listeners. Peter and I will never again get to
sing a solo in front of that many people!!
