Last Updated: Friday, January 18, 2008 10:43 AM CST
Singer Prudence Johnson to hit Nicolet stage
by Michael Skubal - Daily News Staff - mskubal@rhinelanderdailynews.com
Prudence Johnson doesn't live in Lake Wobegon. But if you're a fan of A Prairie Home Companion, you certainly have heard her music. She is a regular guest on the show and will be performing in Rhinelander on Saturday at Nicolet College.
Johnson is here as part of the 15th Annual Concert Series sponsored by Nicolet College and WXPR Public Radio.
WXPR Development Director Jessie Dick oversees the concert series.
“I try to work a year ahead,” Dick said. “We get a lot of suggestions from our staff and volunteer hosts. They'll drop off CDs or e-mail us.”
According to the WXPR Concert Series brochure, “Prudence Johnson's career has taken her from the theater stage to the silver screen, from the Midwest to the Middle East. As well as a regular on the Prairie Home Companion show, she appeared as one of the regulars in Robert Altman's 2006 A Prairie Home Companion movie. Johnson also appeared as a singer, of all things, in Robert Redford's A River Runs Through It.
Station manager Mick Fiocchi remembers when he first saw Prudence Johnson, “There was a jazz group called Rio Nido she was in that played at Holiday Acres. We met her there. We had her come with her husband Gary Rue for the White Pine Jamboree, which used to be a two day event. Then we had her by herself for the Jamboree. She is part of the Twin Cities music scene. This time she's here with pianist Dan Chouinard.”
The Concert Series brochure talks about the combination.
“With a renewed appreciation for the Great American Songbook, she found an ideal collaborator in pianist Chouinard. They released Gershwin in 2004 and appear together on concert stages across the country, performing the music of Carmichael, Gershwin and other greats, and taking side trips to the cafe music of France and Italy with Dan on accordion.”
The biography of Johnson on her Web site, www.prudencejohnson.com, provides some insight into her music.
“With her roots in folk and country music, Prudence developed a passion for jazz and the work of the 20th century's great songwriters when she met guitarist Tim Sparks, with whom she co-founded the vocal jazz group Rio Nido. A decade and three albums later, she ventured out on her own and turned again to the music of her roots, making three records for the folk label Red House including Songs of Greg Brown and Little Dreamer, a collection of international lullabies.
In the 90s she could be found on the concert circuit, in the jazz clubs, on the theater stage and in the classroom-she graduated summa cum laude from Hamline University in St. Paul, Minn., in 1998. If the collision of her artistic and academic interests left her looking a bit dazed, it all came into focus when she turned her attention to the music of Hoagy Carmichael and was awarded a McNight Fellowship for Performing Musicians, enabling her to record Moon Country, a collection of Hoagy's songs.”
Along with Gershwin, Johnson and Chouinard co-wrote and performed together Another Song About Paris, a loving look at the City of Light through stories and song. Her biography goes on, “In 2005, Johnson gathered together an all-star ensemble for Gales of November, producing the CD release, and directing and co-starring in the theatrical concert production along with Claudia Schmidt, Ruth MacKenzie, Kevin Kling, Peter Ostroushko and others.
Johnson lives in Minneapolis and is working on a play and a few new recording projects, enjoying her work with A Prairie Home Companion, and having a wonderful time bringing the music she loves to new audiences.”
Prudence Johnson performs with pianist Dan Chouinard Saturday, Jan. 19. All concerts are held at Nicolet College's LRC Theater in Rhinelander and begin at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $20 and are still available. For more information, call WXPR at 362-6000 or the Nicolet Theater box office at 365-4646.
Bob Protzman of the St. Paul Pioneer Press said this about Johnson:
“It is difficult to think of any singer who can pull off such a diverse program, but Prudence does it with panache. She shows her versatility at its most astonishing level.”
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