Coming to you this week live from The Fitzgerald Theater in downtown Saint Paul, Minnesota, it's A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor. With special guests, legendary Swedish jazz orchestra Kustbandet, three-girl choir Mountain Man, fiddle champion Catie Jo Pidel, and singer Molly Dean. Also with us, the Royal Academy of Radio Actors; Tim Russell, Sue Scott, and Steve Kramer, The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band, and the latest News from Lake Wobegon.
  • Kustbandet

    Kustbandet (in English, "The Coast Band") is a 12-piece jazz ensemble from Stockholm, Sweden, whose renditions of hot tunes from the 1920s and '30s have enthralled fans for more than 40 years. They formed in the early 1960s, inspired by the music of Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, and other greats. With their performance at the 1973 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, they earned an international reputation and have toured regularly ever since - from Lapland to Sydney, Tokyo to the Crescent City. Their most recent CD is Blue Rhythm Fantasy (Sittel Records). It is said that in one of his last letters, Satchmo himself wrote that he wanted to sit in with Kustbandet. Enough said.
  • Mountain Man

    Contrary to the group's name, Mountain Man is Molly Erin Sarle, Alexandra Sauser-Monnig, and Amelia Randall Meath, three women who first met at Bennington College and went on to create a vocal trio that's garnering fans nationwide. Their stripped-down sound has been described as "a study in the simple, unsullied power of the human voice," evident on Made the Harbor, the group's 2010 release on Partisan Records.
  • Catie Jo Pidel

    Catie Jo Pidel began violin lessons at school when she was in the third grade. But her mom thought it might be a good idea to add bluegrass and old-time fiddling to her skills. Now those styles have become her main focus. A Minnesota State Fair Teen Fiddle Champion, she has played with a number of Twin Cities bands. Catie Jo is a full-time student at the University of Minnesota, pursuing a career as a design engineer.