Garrison Keillor, the 84-year-old creator of A Prairie Home Companion, is bringing his decades-spanning acoustic variety show format to a room that seats just over 300 people. He'll take the stage at Rams Head On Stage in downtown Annapolis on Saturday, September 5, joined by longtime musical collaborators Robin & Linda Williams, with doors opening at 1 pm and the show running from 2 to 4 pm.
The booking, first detailed by Eye On Annapolis, places one of American radio's most recognizable voices inside an intimate cabaret-style club at 33 West Street rather than a concert hall. According to the Arts Council of Anne Arundel County, Rams Head On Stage has hosted more than 400 live shows a year across genres since opening in 1997, offering table-side food and drink service in a setting built for close-up performances. Tickets and questions can be directed to the venue's box office at 410-268-4545 or by email at [email protected].
A Half-Century Musical Partnership
Keillor's pairing with Robin & Linda Williams is not a one-off booking but the continuation of a musical relationship that stretches back five decades. The Virginia-based duo first performed on A Prairie Home Companion in 1975, beginning what became a four-decade run of live radio appearances and joint national tours alongside Keillor, per an account documented on Focal Point Presents. The duo has performed music blending bluegrass, folk, old-time, and acoustic country for more than four decades, according to the seed listing from Eye On Annapolis.
Their connection to Keillor runs deeper than host-and-guest billing. The two acts previously recorded and toured together as members of The Hopeful Gospel Quartet, a vocal ensemble that also featured singer Kate MacKenzie, as noted on the duo's Wikipedia page. That shared history helps explain why Robin & Linda Williams remain fixtures on Keillor's bill even years after the original broadcast ended.
The Williamses have kept recording well beyond their public radio years. In June 2021 they released the album A Better Day A-Coming, extending a catalog that includes songs later recorded by artists such as Emmylou Harris and Mary Chapin Carpenter, according to ShopGarrisonKeillor.com. In 2007, Red House Records had already compiled two decades of the duo's live bluegrass, gospel, and folk performances from the radio show into a 19-track album called Radio Songs, featuring recordings made between 1993 and 2007, per the duo's own website.
From Public Radio Icon to Independent Touring
Keillor, born Gary Edward Keillor on August 7, 1942, in Anoka, Minnesota, adopted the pen name Garrison at age 13 before launching his radio career at the University of Minnesota, according to Encyclopædia Britannica. He hosted A Prairie Home Companion for 40 years and authored bestsellers including Lake Wobegon Days, inventing the fictional town of Lake Wobegon and writing fiction and comedy that became central to the show's identity, per Eye On Annapolis's listing.
Keillor retired from hosting the weekly broadcast in 2016, and Minnesota Public Radio cut all business ties with him in November 2017 following workplace conduct allegations. The parties reached a settlement in April 2019 that restored public access to the show's historical archives, according to a statement from Minnesota Public Radio. That shift away from institutional broadcasting pushed Keillor toward independent touring and self-published work, a path that has now led him to stages like the one in Annapolis.
The show's origins trace back to 1974, when Keillor was inspired to create A Prairie Home Companion after writing an article for The New Yorker about the Grand Ole Opry's final broadcast at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville, according to Keillor's own website. The program's first broadcast took place that July at Macalester College in St. Paul, where admission cost just $1. Keillor launched a national 50th-anniversary tour in 2024 to mark that debut, a tour that has since carried him to intimate venues across the country, including a stop at the Ryman itself.
Part of Annapolis' Live Music Scene
The Keillor show adds to a busy stretch for downtown Annapolis' West Street entertainment district. Rams Head On Stage has recently served as a focal-point venue for acts ranging from folk and bluegrass to national touring names, a role Hoodline's coverage of the Songwriters Fest highlighted in July when Young the Giant played the area. The venue's mix of acoustic, roots, and comedy bookings has made it an anchor for the walkable historic district surrounding it.
Keillor's September matinee also fits into a broader pattern of the humorist's 2026 touring schedule, which has taken him to regional performing arts venues alongside his longtime musical guests, as Hoodline reported in its coverage of the Folsom Harris Center's 15th anniversary season announcement. For Annapolis audiences, the September 5 show offers a rare chance to see Keillor and the Williamses perform the kind of close-quarters, story-driven set that first defined public radio's most enduring variety show, now delivered without a broadcast booth in between.
