Katie Kerkhover is a 16-year-old fiddler, singer and songwriter from a small town in southern Illinois. She began playing violin at age four and started her bluegrass career at the age of seven, playing at church picnics, town festivals and organizational fundraisers.
At age eleven, Kerkhover made her first recording, and her second, ôTo All My Friends,ö followed a year later. She has played at numerous bluegrass festivals throughout the United States, and has appeared at Six Flags-St. Louis during the Country Fair Days for four consecutive years. She has just completed a new project, produced by John Carter Cash and recorded at Cash Cabin in Hendersonville, Tennessee, with Bitter Harvest Records. This past February, she appeared on the pilot radio show of ôLittle Woodsongs,ö in Lexington, Kentucky, which airs on 190 radio stations and cable TV.
As this yearÆs winner of NPRÆs A Prairie Home CompanionÆs ôTalent From Towns Under 2,000 Contest,ö Kerkhover was flown to Minnesota and joined Garrison Keillor on April 21 for a live broadcast from the Fitzgerald Theater.
The ôTalent From Towns Under 2,000 Contestö is an annual event produced by A Prairie Home Companion. As Garrison Keillor explains, ôThis [show] represents a sort of quota in hiring preferences, setting aside a show for people from small towns and discriminating against people from Minneapolis, New York, Los Angeles, even Anoka [KeillorÆs hometown]. Though they may be more talented and deserving, I say, æTough.Æ We all know that life is terribly unfair, so why not spread the unfairness around more evenly?ö
9/5/01: Katie Kerkhover
