The Singer’s Voice, hosted by Dan Chouinard featuring Prudence Johnson
Conversations about life and music
Ever notice that the ear is shaped like a question mark? – Susan Stamberg, legendary NPR host
Dan Chouinard hosts conversations around the piano with great singers, blending songs and stories about childhood, family record collections, favorite artists, first performances, trials and triumphs and travels and why we keep on singing. The Singer’s Voice series ran for six years on Sunday nights at the old Dakota Jazz Club in St. Paul starting in 1994. The first hour of each show was broadcast live on KBEM-FM Jazz88 radio. More than 250 guests appeared as guests before Dan ended the series in 2000 to pursue other projects. Prudence Johnson was his first guest, on March 6, 1994.
Dan Chouinard, Host, Piano
Prudence Johnson, Vocals
Dan Chouinard is a St. Paul-based all-purpose pianist and accordionist, concert soloist and accompanist, sing-along enabler, bicycling vagabond, Crooners regular and creator/host of live history-and-music shows for Minnesota Public Radio, Twin Cities Public Television and theaters across Minnesota.
Prudence Johnson has been on the musical theatre stage, in two feature films (A River Runs Through It and A Prairie Home Companion), on national radio and at countless jazz clubs and concert venues across North America and Europe, including Carnegie Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.For over three decades, Prudence and Dan have enjoyed a musical friendship, performing and touring the country together and individually with a wide array of projects. Both are veterans of National Public Radio’s A Prairie Home Companion.
Each has appeared on the other’s recordings, and their collection of Gershwin songs features the duo in the pure simplicity of piano and voice. The two traveled across the US with humorist Garrison Keillor in the 2022/23 season.Prudence and Dan share a love of history and have written shows together that highlight the music of an era and a place. They indulge their love for classic country music in the band Lush Country, and appear regularly with Twin Cities storyteller Kevin Kling.