A Prairie Home Companion is a national treasure- an important body of work that will have a lasting impact on generations to come. We are committed to providing a free, comprehensive archive of the show and its related brethren. More accurately, this is an archive of Garrison's shows and appearances- reaching beyond a PHC.
The official Prairie Home site and GarrisonKeillor.com are both great references. The official site, however, lacks a few important things: It a) has no detailed, native search engine, b) has very little information on the first 20+ years of the show, and c) does not appear to go beyond the scope of broadcast shows. Garrison's site contains additional shows, but has no search engine and can be quite a challenge (impossible?) to chronologically navigate. Our goal is to fill in the gaps, improve navigation, and make searching easier and more powerful.
Today in history... 1979 World Theater, St Paul MN 1984 Orpheum Theater, St Paul MN 1987 , Washington DC 1989 Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Washington DC 1990 Lamb's Theater, New York NY 2001 Fitzgerald Theater, St Paul MN 2002 Central Lutheran Church, Minneapolis MN 2007 Ovens Auditorium, Charlotte NC 2012 Fitzgerald Theater, St Paul MN 2016 Hudson Performance Hall, Oklahoma City OK 2017 Hult Center for the Performing Arts, Eugene OR 2019 Mabel Tainter Memorial Theater, Menomonie WI 2021 Birchmere, Alexandria VA 2023 Newberry Opera House, Newberry SC
Many (most?) of Garrison's shows were never broadcast and go under names other than PHC - The American Radio Company of the Air, Lake Wobegon Revisited, Lake Wobegon Loyalty Days, Symphony shows, Summer Love Tour, The Story of Guys, The Sweet Corn Show, Annual Pre-Millennium Tour, Rhubarb Tour, book readings, etc. This site documents these shows as well as they are often similar in format to a PHC. We also document PHC rebroadcasts, delayed broadcasts, compilation and studio shows.
With our comprehensive search engine, you can look at the data in many different ways and ask: -How many times was the show in city? state? venue? -How often and when was song/sketch/artist featured on the show? -What songs has artist sung on the show and when? -My favorite resident of Lake Wobegon is this person. Show me all the times she was talked about. and much more...
So far, we've documented: - 2920 show/appearance dates - 1331 participants - 6688 song performances - 1544 newspaper articles - 401 'News' reports- 194 of which are full transcriptions
Find the show you attended, and tell us all about it by adding your comments.
The sheer volume of data associated with these shows is staggering - we've got a lot of archiving yet to do! You can help by listening to shows and documenting them here as you listen. Or by converting existing analog paper into digital gold by helping with data entry. All you need is a login. Send us an email, convince us you're a faithful Wobegonian (it helps to have an existing editor vouch for you), and we'll hook you up with all the details!
Official Prairie Home site. GarrisonKeillor.com. Joe Sliker's Prairie Home Compendium. John Hall's The Unfinished Work. Frank Berto's Episode Guide. PHC Wiki. MusicBrainz's PHC archive. Official 10th Anniversary Booklet. Official 40th Anniversary Booklet.