GaryOsberg.com

Dad passed away on January 2nd 13 years ago. Dad had a tough life. He didn’t decide to quit drinking brandy until he was 63 years old. His “bottom” was seeing the straight line on the machine next to his hospital bed at St. Paul Ramsey Hospital on December 13, 1983. In many ways that was the beginning of his second life. He was rarely there for me as a father when I was young, but he tried very hard to make up for it as a Grandfather.

I learned a lot from Dad. He taught me the importance of journaling. He taught me his way of baking a potato. (Boil it for ten minutes, poke it with a fork, wrap it in aluminum foil and bake it for one hour at 400 degrees.) He lost his voice box to cancer in 1969 and the doctors told him he had five years to live. He made it 35 years. He did seminars for the fifth and sixth graders at Upsala school, pointing out the evils of smoking and drinking to excess. Perhaps he convinced some kids to not start. Speaking without a voice box was not easy, but you could hear a pin drop in that room. It is never too late to change.

The “Live from Here” show this week is a brand-new show from the Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco, California. Chris will welcome pioneering musician and songwriter David Crosby; virtuosic harmony trio I’m With Her, made up of our friends Sara Watkins, Sarah Jarosz, and Aoife O’Donovan; and comedian Jenny Zigrino, fresh off her new Comedy Central Half Hour. Singer Gaby Moreno will accompany Chris Thile The First-Call Radio Players — Rich Dworsky on keys, Brittany Haas on fiddle, bassist Alan Hampton, and drummer Ted Poor – will join in on the Song of the Week, and more. Plus: a new “Out. In. America.” segment from Tom Papa; scripts from Serena Brook, Tim Russell, and Fred Newman; and a batch of early-January musicians’ birthdays. Make your way down to the public radio end of the dial and join the gang this Saturday evening.

“It is not so important what happens to us, but how we respond to it.” William E. Osberg 1919-2005