Meant To Be Blue

2000: Since making their debut in 1985, The Nashville Bluegrass Band has become one of the most popular and widely respected bluegrass bands working today. They have appeared in a variety of U.S. venues, including a sold-out concert at Carnegie Hall and a series of performances from Nashville's Grand Ole Opry. The group was the first of its genre to play in mainland China, and they continue to appear before international audiences in Europe, the Middle East, South America, and Asia. They have performed with Lyle Lovett and Mary Chapin Carpenter, recently recorded with both Bernadette Peters and Clint Black, provided the entertainment at Wynonna's wedding reception, and sang back-up for Johnny Cash on the Dead Man Walking soundtrack. The group was also involved in the making of the Coen brothers' new movie, Oh, Brother, Where Art Thou? They have appeared on NBC's The Today Show and TNN's Music City Tonight. Their latest CD, American Beauty (Sugar Hill), is the long-awaited follow-up to their 1995 Grammy Award-winning recording, Unleashed (Sugar Hill) and features Bob Dylan's "Livin' the Blues" and Gillian Welch and David Rawlings' "Red Clay Halo." The band's other albums include Waitin' for the Hard Times To Go, The Boys Are Back In Town, and Home Of The Blues (all on Sugar Hill). Members of the band are: Alan O'Bryant (banjo), Pat Enright (guitar), Roland White (mandolin), Stuart Duncan (fiddle), Gene Libbea (acoustic bass). 2010: Since 1984, the Nashville Bluegrass Band has garnered fans worldwide - from China to Carnegie Hall, Bangladesh to the White House. And disguised as the Soggy Bottom Boys, they appeared on the soundtrack of the film O Brother, Where Art Thou? Their recordings include NBB: The Best of the Sugar Hill Years (Sugar Hill). The band: Mike Compton, mandolin; Stuart Duncan, fiddle; Pat Enright, guitar; Alan O'Bryant, banjo; Andy Todd, bass.

JJ Grey makes music that one reviewer described as "a world-beating blend of rock, blues, and Florida swamp soul." Based in Jacksonville, he grew up in the swamplands of northern Florida, a place that remains at the heart of his songs. His latest CD is Georgian Warhorse (Alligator Records), named for the resilient Southern lubber grasshopper. "Yellow and black, and tough like an old-school Tonka toy," says JJ.

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.

The Guy's All-Star Shoe Band is led by A Prairie Home Companion music director Richard Dworsky. Keyboard player, composer and improviser in any style, he also writes all the script themes and underscores. His latest CD is So Near and Dear to Me. 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. Freewayman (Bluesky Records) is the most recent of Pat's nine albums. Gary Raynor (bass) has performed with the Count Basie band, Sammy Davis Jr. - with whom he toured for several years - and the Minnesota Klezmer Band. He teaches jazz bass at the McNally Smith College of Music in St. Paul. Peter Johnson (percussion) has played klezmer music with Doc Severinsen and jazz with Dave Brubeck. He was a drummer for The Manhattan Transfer and for Gene Pitney. He has toured the world, but he always comes back to home base: Saint Paul.

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."