Artist Garrison Keillor

The down-home cheer of Garrison Keillor’s name-making radio show, A Prairie Home Companion, may strike members of The Simpsons generation as a little corny—The Simpsons even lampooned the host on one memorable episode. But 4 million weekly APHC listeners can’t be wrong, and there is something to be said for Keillor’s mild-mannered persona and low-key wit. His slowly woven stories from the fictional Minnesota hamlet of Lake Wobegon often take a backseat to the musical performances, fake advertisements, and old-timey radio antics of A Prairie Home Companion, but at solo performances, the audience is left alone with Keillor and his slowly rolling Midwestern cadence. It might not be hip, but it is funny.

Updated 02/16/2011