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January 3, 2007 | 6 Comments

Post to the Host
This is to thank you for one of the best New Year's Eve's I've ever had, and I've had a lot! My plan was to watch your show on PBS, probably after my father, who is 96 and lost the love of his life on New Year's morning four years ago, had, with the cat riding on the seat of his walker as she does every night at 10, gone to bed with his book. But my father watched in fascination as you walked around Nashville and then he stayed for the rest of the show smiling and marveling at the stories, the sound effects, and the musicians and reading the lyrics of the love songs that so applied to him and my mother, the little Swedish girl who at age 5 started school in my father's living room where he, 3 years her senior, and 15 or so of the other children in Hot Springs VA were taught by his aunt. (I know that's a run-on sentence, but I like it).

When the show was over, we looked at each other and laughed as we agreed that we had experienced something very special on this New Year's Eve that surely is one of the last that we will spend together. Blessings, thanks, and Happy New Year!

Anne B.P.

That's a run-on sentence that would've made William Faulkner envious, Anne. If you'd put some dolphins and a crazed pterodactyl in it, Fred Newman could do it on the radio. Glad you enjoyed the show. Doing TV is more or less like being tied naked in the stocks as people throw dead fish and offal at you, but if onlookers find it amusing, then I guess that lends some purpose to the exercise.

6 Comments

Gene Garland | January 3, 2007 4:21 PM | Reply

We have seen two of PHC's performances at the Ryman (after a 420 mile drive each time)and they were total pleasures. We wanted to make it three times but all the tickets were sold out. The PBS program was a perfect way to spend NY'sE. Is there any chance that it will come out as a DVD? Great stuff --- and this is from a conservative Republican.

D. Fields | January 3, 2007 8:58 PM | Reply

I agree. Listening/watching the New Year's Eve Prairie Home Companion Show was one the best I have ever had. Three days later and I am still smiling. Thank you, thank you, thank you. I didn't know about the broadcast. (I missed Saturday's radio broadcast. Perhaps it was mentioned). I just happened upon the show and was so pleased with the stellar blue grass musicians. I am a blue grass music fan. I've been a PHC fan for a long time. And, I catch the show at Wolf Trap whenever I can snag the very hard to get tickets. Garrison and cast, thank you for the joy.

Happy New Year!

Linda B | January 5, 2007 11:07 AM | Reply

I too enjoyed the New Year's Eve show, which I also found accidentally. It's hilarious to watch the sound effects--that's one of the things I enjoyed most about the movie and was overjoyed to do again. And hearing/seeing the whole auditorium singing "Auld Lang Syne" was a joy.

Dare we hope that this becomes an annual tradition?

Larry Miller | January 7, 2007 11:21 AM | Reply

Sorry, I disagree. We watched the New Year's eve show, expecting an even better than usual version of PHC. Instead we got 45 mintues of aimlessly wandering around Nashville before we got to the actual show, which then dragged on for far too long. Emmy Lou seemed to have missed rehearsal and didn't seem real sure of herself. There were some good bits, but the overall effect was a disappointment.

Next time, we suggest that you do a nice tight, well-planned two hour live concert show, and cut the unnedessary stuff.

John Le Pouvoir | January 11, 2007 3:08 PM | Reply

Thanks for a fun New Year's Eve! The wife and I were hol'ed up in a motel in Tonapah, Nevada, half way home from a hiking trip at Grand Canyon. We had dined in the town's pretty good Mexican joint, had a drink with the local miners and muckers, and retired to our room. I surfed the cable TV channels and happened upon the Las Vegas PBS station. We were delighted to find the New Year's show and it gave us the strength (along with our bottle of Asti) to last until midnight!

Marilyn Vickers | January 14, 2007 12:26 PM | Reply

That was the best TV my husband and I have seen on New Year's Eve in many, many years! Thanks. I hope you will be doing the show every year. Marilyn V.