Tom Keith was a master of sound
What he did with his voice would astound
Now I’m empty inside
Cos I hear that he’s died
And his equal may never be found.
Headline: Tom Keith, ‘A Prairie Home Companion’s’ Sound Guy, Has Died
Tom Keith was amazing. I listened to PHC just to hear what he could do. See, the thing is, I do that too. In my classes. I provide all the sound effects to my stories–I thought everybody did, but in observing other teachers, I find this not to be the case.
Some people have their little dreams of playing catch with their sports hero, or acting with their favorite star, or hanging out with Stephen Hawking. Me, I wanted a guest gig on PHC, dueling sound effects with Tom Keith.
Gotta scratch that one off the list, unaccomplished.
Awww. I’m really sorry to hear that, too. And your now-unfulfillable dream is sweet, and reading about it made me choke up a bit. Keep on keeping on!
Yes, it was so sad to hear today the news of Tom’s death; on NPR, of course.
For me, he was always the chief element in every PHC show.
From now only in reruns.
I’ll miss Keith too! Such a shame that the epic sound duel between Tom Keith and a vocal cephalopod won’t be appearing on Youtube — ‘twould have been the battle of the century!
While I see that you’re sad with regret,
don’t give up on your dream! You forget
how a passed-away King
with his daughter could sing
“Unforgettable” as a duet.
Seriously, get in touch with the people at PHC and ask if there are recordings you could use to do some “duet” acoustic effects. Who knows, it may lead to a second career?
This broke my heart too. I wish I could have listened to his morning radio show all these years.
Keith also created some great PHC characters– Larry the basement guy, Timmy the Sad Rich Boy, and Maurice the maitre d’