"Prairie Home Companion" Soundtrack Lyrics

“A Prairie Home Companion (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)” – Album Guide to Tracks and Key Scenes

Overview

How do you film the last night of a live radio show and make it feel like a memory that’s still happening? You let the music lead. A Prairie Home Companion (2006) sets its entire story backstage and on-mic at St. Paul’s Fitzgerald Theater — so the soundtrack isn’t wallpaper, it is the movie. The album captures that, stitching stage numbers, mic-break ditties, and house-band instrumentals into one front-porch listen.

The conceit is simple and tender: it’s the show’s farewell broadcast. Onstage, Garrison Keillor emcees as regulars and guests trade songs. Between numbers, friendships flicker, secrets surface, an angel wanders, and a corporate “Axeman” hovers. Musically, it’s fiddle tunes, parlor harmonies, hymn fragments, cowboy yodels, and little comic jingles — the kind of repertoire that sounds older than your bones but lands like a hug.

Distinctiveness? This isn’t a music-supervision mixtape so much as a live-show capture shaped for a film album. The house band — The Guys All-Star Shoe Band — rolls through rags and swing; Dusty & Lefty (Woody Harrelson and John C. Reilly) crash the party with bawdy cowboy charm; the Johnson Sisters (Meryl Streep and Lily Tomlin) blend like siblings who’ve sung in kitchens all their lives; and Lindsay Lohan leans into a standards moment. Release-wise, the album arrived May 23, 2006 on New Line Records, recorded at the Fitzgerald itself — very much “what you hear is where we were.”

Genres & themes in phases. Porch folk & country gospel — community, ritual. Cowboy swing — jokes, bravado. Tin Pan Alley & rags — showmanship, memory. Hymn/parting songs — goodbye without saying goodbye.

How It Was Made

Music direction & band. Longtime show pianist/MD Richard Dworsky led the pit as music director, arranger, and keyboardist, steering The Guys All-Star Shoe Band through underscoring, ragtime bumpers, and danceable segues while accompanying the stars on their features.

Recording & release. The performances were captured in July 2005 inside the Fitzgerald Theater, then compiled as A Prairie Home Companion (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack) for New Line Records, streeting May 23, 2006. The album runs about 64 minutes and plays like a broadcast you can hold.

Tracks & Scenes

“Tishomingo Blues” — Garrison Keillor
Where it plays: The radio theme as doors open and applause swells; Keillor eases the room into that Saturday-night cadence.
Why it matters: It’s the show’s handshake — a century-old melody, homespun in present tense.

“Gold Watch and Chain” — Garrison Keillor & Meryl Streep
Where it plays: Early in the broadcast set, a Carter Family chestnut on one mic. Streep blends like a seasoned duet partner while Keillor holds the line steady.
Why it matters: Telegraphed intimacy — the film lets the song do the character work.

“Whoop-I-Ti-Yi-Yo” — Woody Harrelson & John C. Reilly (Dusty & Lefty)
Where it plays: The singing cowboys clown between jokes, hats tipped and boots tapping. The crowd eats it up as stagehands sprint behind curtains.
Why it matters: Pure vaudeville relief — the soundtrack’s grin that you can hear.

“My Minnesota Home” — Meryl Streep & Lily Tomlin (The Johnson Sisters)
Where it plays: A sisters’ harmony framed by fiddle and brushed snare; the lyric becomes a coded love letter to the theater itself.
Why it matters: The most “home” the album gets — sweet, precise, unsentimental.

“Frankie and Johnny” — Lindsay Lohan
Where it plays: A nervy torch turn, the band laying back as she leans into the story-song; cutaways clock the family dynamic at the wings.
Why it matters: A modern pop figure stepping into a folk standard — that’s this show in miniature.

“Red River Valley / In the Sweet By-and-By” — Company
Where it plays: The not-quite-finale, voices layered with audience hum. You can almost hear hands being held off-camera.
Why it matters: Farewell without saying “farewell” — exactly the movie’s heart.

“Goodbye to My Mama” — Meryl Streep & Lily Tomlin
Where it plays: A kitchen-table memory dressed up for radio, with tears hidden under harmony.
Why it matters: The soundtrack’s quiet gut punch.

“Guy Noir” — The Guys All-Star Shoe Band
Where it plays: Sax-and-piano noir pastiche for the spoof detective sketch; snare brushes and knowing horns.
Why it matters: Proof the band can turn on a nickel stylistically — it’s radio theater set to swing.

“Bad Jokes” — Woody Harrelson & John C. Reilly
Where it plays: A rapid-fire routine over vamping chords; groans and laughter become part of the rhythm section.
Why it matters: Comedy as music — timing, cadence, payoff.

Instrumental rags & segues — Richard Dworsky & The Guys All-Star Shoe Band
Where it plays: “Summit Avenue Rag,” “Atlanta Twilight,” and other bumpers usher sketches, mic breaks, and resets.
Why it matters: The underscoring gives Altman his flow; the album preserves it.

Notes & Trivia

• Recorded in the show’s real home — the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul — during the film shoot.
• Released by New Line Records; the album peaked on multiple U.S. charts including Top Soundtracks.
• MD/arranger Richard Dworsky threads rags, hymns, and swing, then backs the stars like a dance partner.
• Several tracks are stage banter-as-tracks (“Bad Jokes,” jingles), reflecting the radio format.

Music–Story Links

The film’s plot happens in the seams between songs, so music is the plot glue. “Gold Watch and Chain” frames old friends saying everything indirectly. Dusty & Lefty’s cowboy set flips the room from melancholy to mischief so the show never wallows. “My Minnesota Home” turns local pride into a lullaby for a building. And the communal hymns ease the story toward acceptance: endings as sing-alongs, not speeches.

Reception & Quotes

Critics praised the film’s gentleness and ensemble ease; the album preserves exactly that tone — unforced, humane, funny. It plays like a Saturday night you can visit again.

“What a lovely film… gentle and whimsical, simple and profound.” — Roger Ebert

“Altman’s last is a hangout movie that sings.” — festival roundups

Interesting Facts

• Chart note: The soundtrack reached the U.S. Top Soundtracks and appeared on the Billboard 200.
• Real room, real reverb: Recording at the Fitzgerald gives the album its intimate slap and wood warmth.
• House style: The band pivots from ragtime to noir to cowboy two-step without breaking a sweat.
• Jingle DNA: Tiny ad-style ditties (“Coffee Jingle”) are part of the show’s comic grammar.
• Ensemble closer: The hymn medley finale works onscreen and on disc as the gentlest curtain.

Technical Info

• Title: A Prairie Home Companion (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
• Year: 2006 (album release May 23)
• Type: Film soundtrack — cast performances, house-band instrumentals, stage banter
• Music Direction/Arranging: Richard Dworsky (with The Guys All-Star Shoe Band)
• Primary performers: Garrison Keillor; Meryl Streep; Lily Tomlin; Lindsay Lohan; Woody Harrelson; John C. Reilly; Jearlyn Steele; Robin & Linda Williams; The Guys All-Star Shoe Band
• Recorded at: Fitzgerald Theater, St. Paul, Minnesota (July 2005)
• Label: New Line Records
• Length: ~64 minutes; formats: CD/digital
• Notable placements on album: “Tishomingo Blues”; “Gold Watch and Chain”; “Whoop-I-Ti-Yi-Yo”; “My Minnesota Home”; “Frankie and Johnny”; “Goodbye to My Mama”; “Red River Valley / In the Sweet By-and-By”; “Guy Noir”; rag/segue instrumentals by the house band.

Questions & Answers

Is this a live album or a studio reconstruction?

It’s built from performances recorded in the Fitzgerald Theater during the film’s shoot — essentially live in the room, then compiled for album.

Who led the music on set?

Richard Dworsky — longtime music director for the radio show — led the band, arranged, and played keys.

Do the actors really sing?

Yes. Streep/Tomlin duet, Harrelson/Reilly do the Dusty & Lefty numbers, and Lindsay Lohan sings a standards turn.

What label released the soundtrack?

New Line Records issued the album on May 23, 2006.

Does the album include the show’s theme?

Yes — “Tishomingo Blues” opens the sequence like a proper broadcast.

Canonical Entities & Relations

Sources: AllMusic album entry; Spotify listing; film/album page with track details; IMDb/credits; official PHC pages on Dworsky and band; show/film trailer.

November, 19th 2025