I originally posted this on Facebook back on Dec 9, 2017, when Garrison Keillor got dropped down the memory hole, allegedly for some sort of “conduct unbecoming.” I thought I should reproduce it here, since it was my first sale of the first book published by Perkunas Press, in the spring of 1993. (And the only book so published for almost 20 years.)
Keillor's show that year was called something else, the title of which escapes me, but he went back to his older title (Prairie Home Companion) later.
I guess my 15 minutes of fame back in 1993 on Garrison Keillor's show has been erased along with every artist who ever performed for him, in the grand auto-da-fé that has consumed all his works.
Seems a bit much… Like the Lord Dunsany character who so offended the gods that they caused him not only not to be, but never to have been.
Back in the 80s and 90s, I wrote out a lot of 2-4 part traditional/collegiate songs which my post-college friends and I sang from. I collected 100 of them and did a nice songbook, then self-published it in 1993 from the newly-founded Perkunas Press. Several hundred of them are still in storage. Info here and here.
(I still have the original sheets — maybe I'll reissue it sometime. But there's no demand for that sort of thing these days.)
I sent out a mailer when the book was available, and Minnesota Public Radio returned with an order, and then invited me to the show in St. Paul, where Garrison & I led his chorus in 3 of the songs.
It was quite a hoot standing around backstage watching all the incredible regular musicians and sound effects professionals doing their jobs.
At the time, I was doing a weekly stint for a traditional folk music show at a public radio station (“WMNR, Fine Arts Radio, 88.1 on your FM dial”) in Monroe, Connecticut, so it wasn't that unusual for people in the local grocery store to recognize my voice. But coming back from the Garrison Keillor show and being asked for a signature in the hotel elevator by someone from the audience was a new first.
I've got arrangements for a couple of hundred more tunes, but alas no audience. Any singers out there?