Live Purdue broadcast of 'A Prairie Home Companion' to feature guests Old Crow Medicine Show, Varsity Glee Club
October 3, 2012
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Garrison Keillor |
WEST LAFAYETTE, Ind. - "A Prairie Home Companion" with Garrison Keillor will be presented live at Purdue University's Elliott Hall of Music at 5:45 p.m. Oct. 27. Special guests will include Old Crow Medicine Show and the Purdue Varsity Glee Club.
As this performance is part of a live broadcast, all audience members are required to be in their seats by 5:45 p.m., and staff will not be able to seat late-comers.
Humorist, author, and storyteller Garrison Keillor returns to Elliott Hall of Music as part of WBAA's 90th anniversary celebration in a special live recording of Keillor's radio show, "A Prairie Home Companion," that will feature an ensemble cast, comedy sketches, musical interludes, and Keillor's signature monologue, "The News from Lake Wobegon." From humble Minnesota beginnings in 1974, "A Prairie Home Companion" has grown into one of radio's most popular shows, with four million weekly listeners on more than 600 public radio stations. Keillor also hosts "The Writer's Almanac" on public radio, and his books include "Lake Wobegon Days," "The Book of Guys," "Love Me," and "Homegrown Democrat."
Keillor is the author of numerous books, including "Life Among the Lutherans" (Augsburg Books) and "Pilgrims: A Wobegon Romance" (Viking), and the editor of several anthologies of poetry, most recently "Good Poems: American Places" (Viking). He is the founder and host of the acclaimed public radio programs "A Prairie Home Companion" and "The Writer's Almanac."
Old Crow Medicine Show got its start busking on street corners in New York state and up through Canada, winning audiences along the way with their boundless energy and spirit. They eventually found themselves in Boone, North Carolina where they caught the attention of folk icon Doc Watson while playing in front of a pharmacy. He immediately invited the band to play at his MerleFest, helping to launch their career. Shortly thereafter the band relocated to Nashville for a residency at the Grand Ole Opry, where they entertained crowds between shows.
It's been nearly 15 years since these humble beginnings, and the band has gone on to tour the world, sell more than 800,000 albums, become frequent guests on "A Prairie Home Companion," and play renowned festivals like Bonnaroo, Coachella, and the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival. The group's new album "Carry Me Back" was released in July 2012.
With integrity, passion, unparalleled showmanship and attention to every detail, the men of the Purdue Varsity Glee Club has proudly served as ambassadors of the university for more than 115 years. Founded in 1893, this select ensemble has entertained on behalf of Purdue University for campus, community, state, national and international events, averaging between 50-60 appearances each year. Embodying the spirit of service above self, the men of the Purdue Varsity Glee Club represent different backgrounds and hometowns across the country, consistently maintaining a high level of academic excellence with majors ranging from engineering to education to management to biological sciences.
"Whenever I hear the Purdue Varsity Glee Club raise their voices in glorious song, it brings back indelible memories of golden October afternoons and the old gang on the leaf-strewn lawn in front of Elliott Hall and the afternoon I got my grade in organic chemistry and saw that I'd have to change my major to something where information, as such, is not so important as feeling, sheer boundless feeling, such as the Varsity Glee Club inspires in all of us." -Garrison Keillor, "A Prairie Home Companion"
Tickets are $25, $38, $50, $100 for adults and $25, $33, $40, $100 for children 18 years and younger, Purdue students and Ivy Tech Lafayette students. Tickets are available at the Elliott Hall and Stewart Center box offices at 765-494-3933 or 800-914-SHOW. Tickets are also available through Ticketmaster outlets.
Initiated in 1902, Purdue Convocations was one of the first professional performing arts presenters in the United States. Each year, Convocations offers the region 20-30 performances of widely varying genres: Broadway-style shows, theater, dance, children's theater, world music, jazz, and chamber music, along with rock, pop, country and comedy attractions. With a vision for connecting artists and audiences in artistic dialogue and for drawing in academic discourse, Purdue Convocations aims to promote frequent exposure to and familiarity with human cultural expression in a multitude of forms and media.
Contact: Abby Eddy, Purdue Convocations director of marketing, 765-494-9712, aeeddy@purdue.edu
