BEMIDJI -- Dressed in an all-white suit, Garrison Keillor sang “You Are My Sunshine” with the audience as an introduction to what was more than likely his final Bemidji performance of “A Prairie Home Companion” on Saturday at the Sanford Center.
Keillor plans on stepping down from the program after the 2015-16 season.
“When I passed 72, it occurred to me that nobody had yet said, ‘What are your retirement plans?’ - not even my wife, whose duty it is to tell me when I can’t sing anymore,” Keillor wrote in an email to the Pioneer last month. “I love doing ‘A Prairie Home Companion’ and want to step away while I still feel that way, and before people start dropping hints.”
Fans came from all over the region to see Saturday night’s show, overflowing the Sanford Center’s parking lot, forcing some to a grass field near Central Avenue Northeast.
A spry Keillor joked with the audience. After a wave of “whoos” from the audience, Keillor said more younger women were attending his shows these days.
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“I like that. When we started this, we were performing to mainly elderly, stone sober Lutherans,” Keillor told the audience, who responded with a boom of laughter.
The show was geared with a Bemidji-infused script, as well as the weekend’s deer hunting opener in Minnesota. Keillor wrote and performed a song about the hunting season.
“I‘ve never been deer hunting before, but that didn't prevent me from writing a song about it,” he told the audience.
The show included Elvin Bishop and his Big Fun Trio (featuring Bob Welsh and Willy Jordan) that brought some blues music to the show. Early show regular Dakota Dave Hull, originally from Fargo, was also part of the show.
Saturday’s performance was also broadcasted live and will air again at 11a.m. today on Minnesota Public Radio’s KNBJ 91.3 FM .
