Kate MacKenzie

Kate MacKenzie is probably best known for her regular performances on Garrison Keillor's Prairie Home Companion radio broadcasts as a member of the Hopeful Gospel Quartet, which also features Keillor and Robin and Linda Williams. MacKenzie's duties on the program have required her to sing in numerous genres of music, and her listening tastes range from the Elvis Presley and Patsy Cline records she grew up with to Motown, Irish folk, classical, pop, bluegrass, blues, and country. The latter three styles are most prevalent on her solo debut album, Let Them Talk, which was released in 1994. She became interested in folk and bluegrass music while at the University of Minnesota and taught herself to play the guitar, but it took awhile to overcome her shyness about singing — until she was 28, in fact. Her first singing gig was with the bluegrass band Stoney Lonesome, and from there, MacKenzie went on to A Prairie Home Companion and finally recorded her first album, Age of Innocence, 15 years later.