: "CHURCH ON SATURDAY NIGHT: GARRISON KEILLOR'S A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION
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The program begins with music at five o'clock Central Time on Saturday evenings, and music makes up nearly half the two-hour show. The first words to come out of Garrison Keillor's mouth at the start of his weekly public radio program, A Prairie Home Companion, are song lyrics: 'It's Saturday an'/the band is playin'/Honey, could you ask for more?' Later Keillor and others will sing a few bluegrass and early rock and roll numbers. As part of the comic illusion that he and singer Lynn Peterson are working up a repertoire of duets suitable for baptisms and funerals, they will perform an old gospel song called 'Where Could I Go (But to the Lord)?' Keillor will lead the audience in a sing-along of traditional hymns and patriotic songs. Joined by regular members of the cast, he will perform in several comic skits and commercials. He will tell us, for example, that Powdermilk Biscuits have the power to make shy persons bold. Midway through the show, Keillor will read announcements submitted by members of the audience in St. Paul's Fitzgerald Theatre: 'Congratulations, Brad, from Jay and Disa: You're an uncle now'; 'Tim and Kristen say, 'Don't worry, Mom, we'll be there for your birthday''; 'Happy fifty-fifth anniversary to Mother and Daddy from your children�all eight of us.'
There is, in each week's program, the proverbial moment that everyone has been waiting for. It comes about 90 minutes into the show when Keillor says, 'Well, it's been a quiet week in Lake Wobegon, my home town.' With no script or prompter before him, Keillor simply talks the 20-minute monologue that follows. The seeming ar"
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