A prairie home at the fair

In the evening of my state fair visit, I was entertained by Garrison Keillor and his Prairie Home Companion show. My father bought tickets for all of us and we had great seats on the infield.
Garrison was at his best that evening. The show was superb. It featured some New Orleans tributes and 2 groups. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band, a stranded New Orleans jazz group that also sang harmony. They were a blast. Then there was a Candian trio of ladies called the Wailing Jennings (a play on the musician, God rest his soul, Waylon Jennings). These ladies were fabulous as well. One played an accordian. The all sang heavenly harmonies reminiscient of the Indigo Girls.
At the break Garrison lead the audience in a sing along. We sang "Oh Beautiful for Spacious Skies", all the verses of "Amazing Grace" and the Elvis tune "I Can't Help Falling in Love." During the sing a long Garrison was about 20 feet from us. I did not ask for his autograph.
The second half of the show was just as good. In is monologue he recounted the time he was asked to recite the Gettysburg address at the State Fair for a re-enactment of the Battle of Gettysburg. This incident was mostly fictional (there was a re-enactment a number of years ago) but real enough to get plenty of laughs.
An especially humorous part of the monologue was when Richard Nixon came to give a speech at the event. On the podium Garrison had put the Gettysburg Address. Nixon finishes and takes the address with him leaving the already nervous Keillor hoping for a miracle since he has not memorized the second half. He ends up reciting the first lines a few times over and then where the second half would be he blurts out in his memory lapse "for the wages of sin is death.."
At the end of show Keillor lead another sing along to the "Star Spangled Banner." A moment after the audience sang the last words, fireworks launch into the sky, bursting with reds an blues and bringin a hush over the entire cast and audience. What an end to a remarkable evening!
Final comment: Lots of the songs on the show were spritual in nature. Hey we evening sang "Amazing Grace." Rather peculiar but pleasant.