A Musical Fantasy Fulfilled..

OK, so basically I have two musical fantasies.

The first would be for Mark Lowry and Michael McDonald to hook up (even if it's a picture of the two of them together on Mark's site,that would be good enough for me.)

The second happened last night at the Minnesota State Fair. It was the coming together of what played a big part in bringing me to Minnesota – "A Prairie Home Companion"- and what has kept me here the last 17 years: the local musician scene, and two guys who opened the door to it for me, Tommy Mischke and Michael Loonan.

Tommy was a guest on the PHC Minnesota State Fair show and invited Mike to play guitar in the band. What an incredible opportunity for them (and the other excellent members of Tommy's band). Most folks know of Tommy's success in talk radio, of course, but I've been a big believer in his musical gifts since that solo evening at the old Music City Café many years ago. I still think to this day he is one of the best singer/songwriter/pianists this Twin Cities scene has ever had…I would say he's our own Greg Brown. Now Garrison Keillor has taken serious notice of his talents.

Michael, my dear friend, has worked hard over these past dozen years perfecting his craft and gradually having many great opportunities come his way. No overnight success, rather steadily staying the course, Mike now lives his dream of working from home as a freelance musician, with a full plate of gigs and jobs and uncompromisingly balancing all that with family responsibilities.

No one I know of deserved the break of last night more than these two guys, in my opinion.

Tom and the band did four songs off his superb "Whistle Stop" CD: Land of Lakes (Back to the Water), Thoughts of You, What You Do, and the ultimate highlight for me, Grandpa, a song I've been in love with for 15 years, back when it was called "Nicholas". The band was tight and Tom's voice was rich and full of character. Although I missed his piano playing (a role well filled by CD producer Jared Rush), he made a strong front vocalist. It was way cool to see Mike on the big side screens during a featured guitar solo.

A couple of weeks ago I got a ticket up in the boonies section of the grandstand, and I figured then I'd have to do with that. But, when checking a couple of days ago, Ticketmaster showed a seat in the center ground section, so I went for it. It turned out to be a great seat, closer than I thought I would be. There were signs all over the Fair warning you not to resell tickets, so I chickened on trying to sell the grandstand one. Oh well, I've blown off more money than that on more foolhardy things.

Mike and I had a few moments to talk about all this when we ran into each other before the show. He nailed the whole thing well, as he usually does: we had all come full circle with this evening.

Watch the Prairie Home Companion website for a show archive and perhaps pictures to be posted.