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On Saturday, 11/2/97, we went to watch A Prairie Home Companion, because the Fairfield Four were on. The Fairfield Four are a black male gospel quintet that dates back to the 1920's. They broke up in the 60s, (some of them going on to form the Famous Skylarks) but got back together in 1980 or so, and put out a fantastic album in 1992. Our group does a bunch of the songs off this album.
Anyway, after the show, we tried to get backstage, but couldn't get in. The stage door guard said though, that the dressing rooms were right over us in this stairwell. So we sang Standing In The Safety Zone, a FF4 song, in the stairwell, and some backstage people liked it, (I gave our card to some managerial-looking woman who complemented us) but no sign of the Four. Then we saw them sitting on the side of the stage, waiting for their ride to the airport. So we rushed down to the apron, and quick picked another song. Greg asked Kate McKenzie ( a folk, bluegrass star and member of the Hopeful Gospel Quartet) who was standing around on stage to give us an E-flat, and we sang Last Month Of The Year, another of their songs. The security guards all raised their eyebrows, but didn't kick us out. Wilson Waters and Joe Rice (the new kid) came over and listened. Waters said it was like listening to himself (just being nice of course) and Rice said we sounded great, and took our card and said he'd hand it to their agent. Issac Freeman, the bass, didn't get up, but we could see him mouthing the words as we sang. Garrison Keillor, signing autographs in what was left of the audience, led the applause after we were done. So we went and talked with him and handed him a card, and got his autograph; "To the Cedar Lake Seven, fondly, even admiringly, Garrison Keillor".
So, that was a huge rush, singing for our heroes. I still get nervous thinking about it, but it all happened so fast that we didn't give ourselves enough time to chicken out. We enjoyed it for what is was, and thought that was the end of it.
Then, the next Friday, 11/7/97, I picked up a message at home at about 4:15 in the afternoon, from A Prairie Home Companion's associate producer, asking if we could be on the next day's show for a 'cameo appearance' - one song. First, I analysed the voice to see if it was anyone I knew. Then I fainted. Then I called her back and told her, being mister cool, that I thought it sounded like a fine idea, and I just needed to make some phone calls to put it all together. Three panic-filled hours of phone-calls later I had confirmations from all the guys; I called her back and confirmed it.
We sound-checked at 3:30, which I think was really an audition, because Garrison Keillor could reject us at the last minute since we weren't in the program. Then the two-hour wait for us to get called to go on began - that was a looong two hours. We went on and sang 'Walk 'Dem Golden Stairs', and afterwards, told Garrison that we'd love to do it again sometime, and he said "You tore 'em up. Let's do that".
All in all, a typical weekend around here.
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