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Pianist Butch Thompson looks back on 40 years of Prairie Home

Butch Thompson on A Prairie Home Companion
The Butch Thompson Trio with Butch at the piano and host Garrison Keillor,left,on the A Prairie Home Companion show in 1975.
Courtesy Butch Thompson

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A Prairie Home Companion has been on the radio since 1974 and this week we're marking that anniversary.

Thousands are expected to attend a "40 Years, 40 Songs" concert Friday at Macalaster College where it began.

One of the show's regular guests, pianist Butch Thompson, has been there since the second broadcast. He joined The Daily Circuit to talk about how an old-style variety show has thrived for so long.

Thompson remembered the "loose and casual" style of the show those first years and how the team pulled it off: