Kristi and I attended the live broadcast of NPR’s “A Prairie Home Companion” (PHC) radio show, which was performed last Saturday, Nov. 5, 2011, at the CFSB center, the basketball arena at Murray State University, not far from here in Murray, Kentucky.

We had attended one other live PHC about 5 years ago at the Minnesota State Fair. We planned it during a three week trip to the Boundary Waters in northern Minnesota. On the way home we went through Minneapolis-St. Paul and went to the Minnesota State Fair and saw the PHC there. We figured that would be just about the consummate PHC to experience live, and I think we were right. We also saw Garrison do a one man stand up at Shryock auditorium at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale, a couple years after that. That too was an amazing performance.

But this show was being held at Murray State University, the home of the NPR station, WKMS-FM that we listen to when we listen to NPR. It was only a little more than a hour drive to the center, and it wasn’t that expensive. So we thought we couldn’t miss it.

There was a good crowd, I’ve heard the station say around 4 thousand. At this point, I don’t think the size of a crowd on a given performance really impacts the PHC cast that much. But, the crowd was appreciative, and how couldn’t you be, given the quality of the music?

The theme of the show was a tribute to the Bill Monroe in honor of the hundredth anniversary of his birth, which had occurred this year. Monroe, the “father of bluegrass” music, was born in Rosine, Kentucky, which Garrison Keilor described generously as “not far from here” although it is a couple hours drive from Murray. I guess compared to how far it is from Minneapolis-St. Paul, it is “not far.” But they aren’t next door neighbors either.

The way that Garrison and PHC decided to honor Murray was to have a number of musicians that actually played with Bill Monroe and the Bluegrass Boys come to the show and play tunes that they had performed with Monroe. The show, smartly, featured the music. I’d say at least ½ of the entire show was music. There was only one skit - “Guy Noir,” a concise “News from Lake Wobegon” and a Ketchup commercial.

When we saw Garrison at the Minnesota State Fair, and at Shryock, he was lively, seemed to be happy. But last Saturday, in Murray, he seemed kinda down in the dumps, depressed, distracted. Not that this affected his performance - it didn’t. He handled the show with perfection. But it was obvious that he just wasn’t happy - that his mind was elsewhere.

Kristi and I think that he was down about the recent death of his friend, fellow radio dude, radio noise guru, Tom Keith. Keith had died just a few days before the show. Keith was one of the original Prairie Home Companion cast. To show how much they were impacted by his death, each of the PHC staff took turns in a short eulogy of Mr. Keith. It was obvious from the statements that he was well loved and that his passing had hit the cast hard.

It makes sad sense to me that Garrison would be extraordinarily sad about the death of Mr. Keith. He had been with Garrison since the beginning, and let’s face it, Garrison is a sound effects type of guy. He loves weird sounds. But still, it was hard seeing Garrison down in the dumps.

And while you can only say that Garrison was most generous in his portrayal of Murray by linking Murray to Bill Monroe’s birthplace, and furthermore linking it to the incredible music that was played on the show, the show’s other statements about the Murray region were, well, not quite on the same pinnacle as linking the area to Bill Monroe. In fact, one might conclude that they were, may I say, “controversial,” although I think it will sail over the heads of the Western Kentucky media, and hey, maybe I’m wrong about this. And to be honest, I think it was more a comment on the stereotype of "Kentucky" more than aimed specifically at Murray. All one has to do is listen to the lecture of Kentucky poet laureate Judy Vance Gentry or Gentry Vance about the difference between the myth of "Kentucky" and the reality to know that this is a real issue.

Let’s start with Garrison’s description of the university. He usually does this when he broadcasts from a university campus. He gives a bit of a rap about the university, and most of the time, he’ll mention what their most well known programs are, and mention some of the famous people that have graduated from that facility. For Murray State, he mentioned their basketball team and the equine science program. No outstanding individuals were mentioned. It was short shrift really - I don’t know how else you could describe it. I mean, if the basketball team is the best that Murray can come up, then you would expect that it would be a national champion or near so team regularly. No doubt, Murray has a good team consistently for the size of the school, but it isn’t a serious national contender year after year. So the reference to the basketball team was either the best he could come up with or something else. If it was the best he could up with, then Murray State has some soul searching to do. I do think he missed out by not mentioning the Crutchfield brothers and their contribution to the country/pop music industry in Nashville - a more than minor contribution.

But that’s not all. Let’s look at the Guy Noir plot. Besides Guy, the main character was the father of a great basketball player from Murray, who had just graduated from high school. The father, however, was terrified that the son was plotting to go to college and play basketball at Western Kentucky University, a couple hours to the east in Bowling Green. He hired Guy to stop that from happening after he noticed that the odometer reading on his car had over 300 miles when his son had the car for the weekend. That was just about the right mileage for a trip to Bowling Green and back.

So Guy went to Murray and decided he needed to follow the kid. He goes to a car rental place, and finds that the only rental he can get is a pickup truck . His truck comes with a dog in the front - Guy chose a coon hound - and a choice of shotgun or rifle for the gun rack in the back window. These were necessary, according to the rental guy, to keep from being to0 obvious as an outsider - something it was implied that wasn't a good thing.

Then Guy went to a café in Murray. He asked for a salad, and the guy acted like he didn’t know what he was talking about. Guy tried to explain that all he wanted was some fresh greens, but he couldn’t get through to the proprietor.

So Guy took his pickup truck rental with his coon hound and followed the son and found him in the “Transcendental Banjo” club in Nashville. Without going into details about what went on in that club, Guy brought the kid home. But when he got him home, the father knocked out the son with ether and tattooed on his forehead, “RACERS,” the nickname of the Murray State basketball team. This was supposed to insure that he would never play for Western Kentucky University. Garrison ended the skit by saying, “Kentucky, where there are strong loyalties…” But what did he mean by that, and was this really a compliment? These were not “progressive” views of our region. I hope that someone is listening.

And then there was his aside about deer hunting in his News from Lake Wobegon report. Garrison knew darn well that it was just getting into the prime deer hunting seasons in the region, and he referred more than once to deer “harvest” as “killing” and his statements had an animal rights flavor to them. Nevertheless, this isn't the first time that he has commented on deer hunting.

But there is no doubt that the good bestowed on Murray by linking Murray to Bill Monroe and that wonderful music far outweighed any digs he may have given to the area. It took Murray a long time to land the Prairie Home Companion, but it was a great show, and Kristi and I were both really glad that we went. But I do hope that people were looking beyond the spectacle of the show to the real message, and will think carefully about how it is that our region is perceived by progressive and creative thinkers.