{"id":6005,"date":"2000-07-02T10:18:07","date_gmt":"2000-07-02T15:18:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newberkshire.com\/?p=114"},"modified":"2000-07-02T10:18:07","modified_gmt":"2000-07-02T15:18:07","slug":"a-prairie-home-companion-at-tanglewood-2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/a-prairie-home-companion-at-tanglewood-2-2\/","title":{"rendered":"A Prairie Home Companion at Tanglewood, July 2, 2000"},"content":{"rendered":"<h4>July 2, 2000 Tanglewood concert review by <a href=\"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/contact-berkshirelinks\/\" rel=\"author\">Dave Read<\/a><\/h4>\n<p>The <strong>2000 Tanglewood season<\/strong> got underway Saturday with the live broadcast of <strong>A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor<\/strong> and special guests <strong>Emanuel Ax<\/strong>, <strong>Norumbega Harmony<\/strong>, and the <strong>Berkshire Highlanders<\/strong>. It was a pretty good show, mostly &#8211; except for the parts that were brilliant.<\/p>\n<p>It seems silly to use superlatives to describe a show that had as casual and relaxed a feel to it as this one did, but Keillor used some himself when he introduced Tanglewood and the Berkshires to his vast radio audience, so it&#8217;s OK for us to wax laudatory.<\/p>\n<p>The selection of special guests was perfect and they all gave great performances. The show&#8217;s regulars, <strong>The Guy&#8217;s All-Star Shoe Band<\/strong>, piano player <strong>Richard Dworsky<\/strong>, <strong>Tim Russell, Sue Scott,<\/strong> and sound effects master <strong>Tom Keith<\/strong>, all turned in their usual excellent performances.<\/p>\n<p>A few highlights:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Russell&#8217;s uncanny impersonation of President Clinton reciting <strong>Bob Dylan&#8217;s<\/strong> <em>&#8220;Like A Rolling Stone&#8221;<\/em> in response to Keillor&#8217;s query, &#8220;How does it feel to be leaving the White House?&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>Keith&#8217;s oral fireworks display to the accompaniment of &#8220;Stars and Stripes Forever&#8221; played by Ax and Dworsky;<\/li>\n<li>Keillor&#8217;s monologue, about one of the last of the dying breed of Norwegian bachelor farmers and his struggle to maintain his independence and dignity in the midst of a town full of Pumpkin Heads.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>Berkshire Highlanders at Tanglewood<\/h2>\n<p><figure id=\"attachment_22137\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-22137\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/berkshires-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/aphc-2000.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/berkshires-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/aphc-2000-300x209.jpg\" alt=\"Berkshire Highlanders perform on the first broadcast of A Prairie Home Compabion at Tanglewood, July 2, 2000. photo: Dave Read.\" width=\"300\" height=\"209\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-22137\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-22137\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Berkshire Highlanders perform on the first broadcast of A Prairie Home Compabion at Tanglewood, July 2, 2000. photo: Dave Read.<\/figcaption><\/figure>It was wonderful to see and hear The Berkshire Highlanders in the Shed. Their <strong>Greylock Tartan<\/strong> kilts are perfect representations of the subtly beautiful Berkshire hills, and their repertoire is unusually engaging, as indicated by the Shaker hymn, <em>Simple Gifts<\/em> they played on stage.<\/p>\n<p>In addition to providing the show&#8217;s classical music interlude with <em>&#8220;Estampes&#8221;<\/em> by <strong>Claude Debussy<\/strong>, <strong>Emanuel Ax<\/strong> also made his acting debut, starring in an episode of the very funny radio drama, <em>&#8220;Guy Noir: Radio Private Eye.&#8221;<\/em> Ax was sharp in both roles.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Norumbega Harmony<\/strong>, one of New England&#8217;s largest and most active groups of <em>Sacred Harp and shape-note singers<\/em>, gave beautiful performances of the Shaker hymn &#8220;<em>The Good Samaritan,&#8221;<\/em> and a 19th centruy anthem, <em>&#8220;Millennial Praise.&#8221;<\/em><\/p>\n<h2>Garrison Keillor&#8217;s Tanglewood connection<\/h2>\n<p>Garrison Keillor&#8217;s wife was a student at the <strong>Boston University Tanglewood Institute<\/strong> when she was sixteen, and their second date was at Tanglewood eight years ago, which he memorialized in a song that displayed his poetic acuity (e.g.: &#8220;I couldn&#8217;t see how a redneck&#8217;s gonna judge Seiji Qzawa.&#8221; Another <em>bon mot<\/em> was his rhyming admonition, &#8220;Music is a gift from God &#8211; please shut up, and at the end, applaud.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Somehow it seems especially fitting that this Tanglewood season, which celebrates the 100th anniversary of the birth of <strong>Aaron Copland<\/strong>, the quintessential American composer, was opened with <em>A Prairie Home Companion<\/em>, which celebrates everything that&#8217;s pretty good about America.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Review of July 1, 2000 performance of A Prairie Home Companion, with Garrison Keillor, at Tanglewood, .featuring special guests Emanuel Ax, Norumbega Harmony, and the Berkshire Highlanders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22136,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7,18],"tags":[23,43],"class_list":["post-6005","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-aphc","category-tanglewood-3","tag-2000-tanglewood-reviews","tag-a-prairie-home-companion","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6005","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/idealpoetry.com\/rwc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}