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Tishomingo Blues

December 5, 2003 |

Dear Mr. Keillor,
I'm just a kid, so give me some slack here, the introduction song whats it called, Tishomingo Blues or something like that? Well, do you play it every single time you do a show or do you have like a recording for like a season and use it multiple times? By the way, the Sound Effects Man needs more airtime, my family loves him!
—Loren

Dear Loren,
The show is a live show and that means that at every single show, 34 of them a year, I stand quietly on stage with Rich Dworsky and the band behind me and we wait for Mr. Albert Webster, the stage manager, to give us his big swooping cue and we do "Tishomingo." Sometimes there is something almost accusatory about the cue, as if he were saying, "There! That's the man what done it!" But we plunge into it. A sliding piano chord, some guitar chittering, and then "Oh hear that old piano from down the avenue." A few weeks ago, for a non-broadcast show, Rich played the introduction and something in my head clicked to a different channel and I sang the OLD theme song, "Look who's coming through the door, I think we've met somewhere before," and of course the band came chunking right along. They are paid to make my mistakes look good. As for the Sound Effects Man, you're right, so right, and I will strive to do better in the future. And I want to have a sound-effects show, with a contest for people under 12, in the near future.

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