Chris Thile is a singer and virtuoso musician who took on one of the most thankless tasks in broadcasting. Last fall, Thile became the host of A Prairie Home Companion, replacing Garrison Keillor, who hosted the show since he created it in 1974.
A Prairie Home Companion with Chris Thile will be at the Pasadena Civic Auditorium this Saturday afternoon. Thile also has a new album of songs he created for the show called "Thanks for Listening."
Take Two’s A Martinez spoke with Thile about what it's been like to take the host's chair.
You're three shows into the new season. How's it feeling?
I’m having so much fun... Certainly there’s that crackling energy that comes engaging in the pursuit of something brand new. And I love that and will continue to court it during this process – make sure there’s always a new thing to do.
Last week, we had the writer George Saunders on the show and did a big reading from his last novel…. That was something brand new for me, reading a 15-minute excerpt. I kind of music-directed the thing, we had some sound effects– it was so much fun. I think to always be tweaking the format and squeezing in new challenging things is going to be of tantamount importance moving forward.
A great moment is from the show after Tom Petty died, and you led the audience in a singalong. How did that come together?
It was a testament to the power of live radio, I think. It was part of a segment that we call the Instant Song Request. Right before intermission, we let people know, fire up your Twitter account and start requesting songs. Usually it’s quite silly. That week, it ended up being fairly poignant. I started seeing people moving their mouths to the chorus and had the idea that if we split up the floor and the balcony, we could get a little call and response going on.
While Prairie Home still has a lot of radio listeners, the trend hasn't been good. How concerned are you about the numbers?
While yes, it’s down from where it was 15 years ago, it’s up from where it was when I started, even if only slightly. I think all that sounds pretty natural to me. When you lose a presence like Garrison Keillor, you’re talking about one of the most brilliant radio personalities of all time, an incredible storyteller, the foundational makeup of the show has changed in almost all respects. The most unexpected pleasure is that we retained that many people.
You've got Dan Auerbach and Fiona Apple on the show this weekend. What’s your process for working with performers?
That’s a big part of the gig, I think, is making your guests feel comfortable like they’re just in your living room where you’re sitting down to appetizers… just shooting the breeze. Depending on how much collaboration there’s going to be– I think Fiona and I are going to do all of her stuff together. Dan is, I think, more self-contained, which is great. It’s so nice to have those scene shifts where the whole sonic-scape shifts to this other world.
Also Hilary Hahn, one of the greatest concert violinists in the world is going to be on that show. And Nick . It’s loaded.
Do musical guests assume they have to play something mellow for A Prairie Home Companion?
Yeah, I definitely don’t need things to be acoustic and rootsy and all of that. I would really love for the show to be representative of width and breadth of what’s going on with the great music being made in the world right now.
Tickets are still available for A Prairie Home Companion Live from Pasadena for Saturday, October 28th at 2:45 PM.
Or you can listen to the show in a special live broadcast at 3:00 PM.
Prairie Home is distributed by KPCC's parent company, American Public Media.
Quotes edited for clarity and brevity.