Standin' On The Corner

For some 50 years, singer, songwriter, film composer, and multi-instrumentalist Taj Mahal has taken his global brand of the blues to music lovers worldwide. "Live communication through music - oh yeah, it's right up there with oxygen!" says Taj. A two-time Grammy-winner and Blues Hall of Fame inductee, he is also the recipient of the Americana Music Association's Lifetime Achievement for Performance award. Since his first album in 1968, he has released dozens of recordings, including 2015's double CD titled Taj Mahal and the Hula Blues Band: Live From Kauai.

From possums to pico de gallo, Western swing to Whataburger, singer-songwriter Stephanie Davis finds much to love about her new home in the Texas Hill Country. After happily donating her snow shovel to Goodwill, the former Montanan now spends her days in shorts and flip-flops, often strumming a guitar and scribbling song ideas beneath her very own fig tree. Her recordings include Crocus in the Snow and Western Bling, both on Recluse Records.

Marni Nixon was dubbed by Time magazine as the 'Ghostess with the Mostest,' a compliment to the famous invisible voice. Actresses who don't sing are as common in musicals as actors who don't fight are in action films, and the female singing voice you hear in West Side Story, My Fair Lady, An Affair to Remember, Mulan, and The King and I is her voice. She has dubbed for Deborah Kerr, Natalie Wood, Audrey Hepburn, Rita Moreno; she did a voice in Secret Garden for child actress Margaret O'Brien, and she did the angel voices heard by Ingrid Bergman in Joan of Arc. It's been an interesting career so far. She has released albums on her own, including Marni Nixon Sings Gershwin and Marni Nixon Sings Classic Kern, and she appears as a musical comedy and cabaret performer, opera diva, stage actress, symphony guest artist in both classical and pops repertoire, recitalist and recording artist; and she teaches voice master classes.

Garrison Keillor was born in 1942 in Anoka, Minnesota. He went to work for Minnesota Public Radio in 1969, and on July 6, 1974, he hosted the first broadcast of A Prairie Home Companion in St. Paul. He is the host of The Writer's Almanac and the editor of the Good Poems series of anthologies from Viking.

Richard Dworsky Keyboardist, composer, and arranger Richard Dworsky is APHC's music director. He leads the band, composes themes, improvises script underscores, and collaborates with such diverse guests as Yo-Yo Ma, James Taylor, Brad Paisley, Kristin Chenoweth, and Sheryl Crow. He has released many recordings of original material and has provided music for documentaries on HBO and PBS. Pat Donohue Chet Atkins called Pat Donohue (guitar) one of the greatest fingerpickers in the world today. And he writes songs too - recorded by Suzy Bogguss, Kenny Rogers, and others. Nobody's Fault and Vicksburg Blues (a collaboration with Butch Thompson) are the most recent of Pat's albums. Arnie Kinsella Staten Island's favorite son, Arnie Kinsella (percussion), has played and recorded with The Manhattan Rhythm Kings, Leon Redbone, Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks, and more. Greg Leisz k. d. lang said about Greg Leisz, who has played on most of her albums since 1989: "He has single-handedly liberated pedal steel from the bondage of country." When not on the the road he's one of L.A.'s busiest session players; his credits include Joni Mitchell, Fiona Apple, the Wallflowers, Matthew Sweet, Beck, Melissa Etheridge, Shawn Colvin, Dave Alvin, Paula Cole, Bill Frisell, Lucinda Williams and Joe Cocker. Best known for daredevil lap-and pedal-steel playing, he is equally skilled at acoustic and electric guitar, mandolin and Dobro. After a tour with Emmylou Harris and Linda Ronstadt he said, "I think I played ten different instruments onstage." Peter Ostroushko Peter Ostroushko is a much-sought-after mandolinist and fiddler whose own works include pieces of serious beauty and others with titles like "Rumba de los Holsteins" and "Unknowingly She Walked With Grace Among Tall Men." Asked how many albums besides his own nine that he had played on, he said: "Played on... well... Hard to say, exactly... five hundred is the number that comes to mind. It would be right around that..." He's currently working on a project of old live tracks of the Mando Boys, and he's also transcribing music of the great Irish fiddler John Dougherty to put in book form. His latest album is Meeting on Southern Soil, with guitarist Norman Blake. Gary Raynor Bassist Gary Raynor has performed with the Count Basie Band, Clark Terry, and Sammy Davis Jr., with whom he toured for several years. He has been first call for dozens of touring Broadway shows, including West Side Story, Phantom of the Opera, A Chorus Line, and Victor, Victoria. Gary teaches at the McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul. Andy Stein Andy Stein (violin, saxophone, Guy's All-Star Shoe Band) definitely has far-flung musical leanings. He collaborated with Garrison Keillor to create the opera Mr. and Mrs. Olson, and he's performed with artists such as Itzhak Perlman, Eric Clapton, Smashing Pumpkins, Billy Joel, Tony Bennett, Ray Charles and Bob Dylan.

One minute he's mild-mannered Tim Russell; the next he's George Bush or Julia Child or Barack Obama. We've yet to stump this man of many voices. Says fellow APHC actor Sue Scott, "He does a better Ira Glass than Ira Glass." A well-known Twin Cities radio personality and voice actor, Tim appeared in the Robert Altman film A Prairie Home Companion and the Coen brothers' A Serious Man. Tim has also been reviewing films professionally for over 10 years.

On APHC, Sue Scott plays everything from ditzy teenagers to Guy Noir stunners to leathery crones who've smoked one pack of Camel straights too many. The Tucson, Arizona, native is well known for her extensive commercial and voice-over work on radio and television, as well as stage and movie roles, including the part of "Donna" in Robert Altman's A Prairie Home Companion.

Sound effects man Fred Newman is an actor, writer, musician, and sound designer for film and TV. Turns out, no one is more surprised than Fred that he's made a career out of doing what he used to do behind the teacher's back -crossing his eyes, making sounds, and doing voices. He readily admits that, growing up, he was unceremoniously removed from several classrooms, "once by my bottom lip."