Garrison Keillor at PLNU Brown Chapel: 2010
Garrison Keillor, the iconic public radio host of "A Prairie Home Companion," performed at Point Loma Nazarene University's Brown Chapel. Keillor's evening of storytelling, music, and gentle humor brought a piece of American radio history to San Diego.
The Voice of Prairie Home Companion
For decades, Garrison Keillor's voice was synonymous with Saturday evenings on public radio. "A Prairie Home Companion" - the variety show featuring live music, comedy sketches, and Keillor's "News from Lake Wobegon" monologues - was a cultural institution.
Keillor represents a particular American tradition: the storyteller as folk artist, the humorist as social observer, the writer as radio personality. His Lake Wobegon stories - about the fictional Minnesota town "where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average" - captured something essential about small-town American life.
The Performance
Keillor's live show was structured like a radio broadcast - musical performances, comedy bits, storytelling, and that distinctive voice tying it all together. He sang folk songs, recited poems, told Lake Wobegon stories, and invited guest musicians to perform.
His singing voice is pleasant but unremarkable. That's part of his charm - he's not a great singer or instrumentalist, but he knows great songs and presents them with affection and respect. He sang traditional folk songs, hymns, and songs by writers like Woody Guthrie and Hank Williams.
The Lake Wobegon monologue was the centerpiece. Keillor stood at the microphone and spoke for 20-30 minutes without notes, spinning a story about the fictional town's characters. His storytelling is gentle, observant, and funny without being mean. He finds humor in human foibles without mocking anyone.
The stories are nostalgic but not saccharine. Keillor knows that small-town life has limitations and that American culture has problems. But his stories celebrate community, decency, and the small moments that make life meaningful.
The Brown Chapel Setting
Point Loma Nazarene University is a Christian liberal arts college overlooking the Pacific Ocean. Brown Chapel, with its traditional architecture and good acoustics, was the perfect setting for Keillor's show. The audience skewed older - people who'd been listening to Prairie Home Companion for decades.
There was something appropriate about seeing Keillor at a Christian university. His work has always had a gentle spiritual quality - not preachy or dogmatic, but rooted in midwestern Protestant values of community, humility, and service. His Lake Wobegon stories often feature Lutheran ministers and Catholic priests, and his humor acknowledges religion as a shaping force in American life.
The Folk Tradition
Keillor is part of the American folk tradition that includes Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Studs Terkel, and Jean Shepherd. These are artists who believed in the value of ordinary lives, who found poetry in everyday speech, who celebrated working people and small communities.
His commitment to live radio in an age of recorded media, his dedication to acoustic music in the age of electronic production, his faith in storytelling when television and movies dominated - these choices positioned him as a guardian of older traditions.
American Nostalgia
Keillor's work is often criticized as nostalgic - romanticizing a small-town American past that maybe never existed. Fair point. Lake Wobegon is a fantasy, and Keillor's gentle humor can seem out of touch with contemporary America's complexities and conflicts.
But nostalgia isn't inherently bad. Remembering and honoring traditions, finding value in community and decency, celebrating ordinary lives - these have worth. Keillor's nostalgia isn't reactionary or exclusive; it's inclusive and gentle.
The Verdict
Garrison Keillor at Brown Chapel was a reminder of what public radio has meant to American culture. His storytelling, his celebration of folk music, his gentle humor, and his distinctive voice represented a particular kind of cultural work - preserving traditions while making them accessible to new generations.
Not everyone will love Keillor's style. If you want edgy comedy or challenging art, look elsewhere. But if you appreciate storytelling, folk music, and humor that's kind without being toothless, Keillor delivers.
A Prairie Home Companion is off the air now (and Keillor's departure was controversial), but the show's legacy endures. For decades, it brought live music, storytelling, and community to millions of listeners. Seeing Keillor perform live was experiencing a piece of American cultural history.
Thank you, Garrison, for decades of Saturday evenings well spent.