Sioux Falls Couple To Perform On Popular Show

A Sioux Falls husband and wife are about to take their singing show on the road.  While they're not strangers to concerts, they didn't imagine they'd be performing for a well-known radio program.

It's not uncommon to hear a melody coming from the Bonde home in Sioux Falls.  But Brian and Kaija will soon perform on A Prairie Home Companion with Garrison Keillor live in St. Paul, Minnesota. It started when the show asked for duet auditions last July.

"Actually I saw it on Facebook.  I'm a Facebook friend of Prairie Home Companion and said to Brian, maybe we should do this.  He kind of poo-pooed it actually," Kaija said.

"Kaija said, 'why don't we?' And so we did.  It's just a fluke with that recording from our CD," Brian said.

The Bondes are more known for their local group "East of Westerville."  The October 20 performance will feature the duo and be broadcast on 600 radio stations across the nation, reaching an estimated audience of 4 million people.

"We perform live all the time.  There will be about 1,000 people in the audience and we'll just do what we do and entertain that group there and if there's a few million people listening some place, that will be fun too," Brian said.

As many as 1,000 duos auditioned with just six being accepted to the show.  Now, the Bondes will practice the performance each night leading up to their trip.

"It's definitely a step up, I think.  But it's also right in our audience.  We're folk musicians, bluegrass musicians, Americana music.  That's Prairie Home Companion, so it feels kind of natural," Kaija said.

"It's quite an honor to be on the show.  We're really looking forward just as much to see the show come together and see Garrison as we are to sing on the show," Brian said.

And that will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience for them.