Garrison Keillor to bring folksy humor to Warner Theatre

TORRINGTON — Three old friends from the earliest days of “A Prairie Home Companion” will join together for an evening of harmony and humor at 8 p.m. Nov. 30 at the Warner Theatre in Torrington

Garrison Keillor, who created and hosted the popular radio show for more than 40 years, will be joined in the appearance by country music performers Robin and Linda Williams.

Keillor was born in 1942 in Anoka, Minn., and began his radio career as a freshman at the University of Minnesota, from which he graduated in 1966. He went to work for Minnesota Public Radio in 1969. From July 6, 1974 through July 1, 2016, he presented his popular variety show “A Prairie Home Companion” for some 3.5 million listeners on 700 public radio stations coast to coast and beyond.

Keillor has been honored with Grammy, ACE, and Peabody awards, the National Humanities Medal and election to the American Academy of Arts and Letters. His many books include “Lake Wobegon Days,” “The Book of Guys,” “Pilgrims: A Wobegon Romance,” “Guy Noir and the Straight Skinny” and “The Keillor Reader” (Viking). He is the host of the daily program “The Writer’s Almanac” and the editor of several anthologies of poetry, most recently “Good Poems: American Places” (Viking). In 2006, Keillor played himself in a movie adaptation of his show directed by Robert Altman.

For more than four decades, Robin and Linda Williams have performed the music that they love, a robust blend of bluegrass, folk, old-time and acoustic country that combines wry lyrics with a wide-ranging melodicism. Artists who have covered their songs include country music greats such as Emmylou Harris, Tom T. Hall, George Hamilton IV, Tim & Mollie O'Brien, Mary Chapin Carpenter, Kathy Mattea and The Seldom Scene.

To purchase tickets, call the Warner box office at 860-489-7180 or visit warnertheatre.org.

Contributed photo Garrison Keillor