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MIKE MULCAHY: With news from Minnesota Public Radio, I'm Mike Mulcahy. The Minnesota Finance Department has ended its freeze on state grants to nonprofit groups, but it's uncertain which organizations will receive state money.

Last month, the finance department asked state agencies to stop giving new grant money while it made plans to deal with the state's projected $2 billion budget shortfall. Marsha Avner is Public Policy Director for the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits. She says the freeze has put many nonprofits in a difficult situation.

MARSHA AVNER: Many that were expecting money this fiscal year already, either starting July 1 or January 1, have had to make decisions to lay off people, to suspend services, or to at least alert the people who depend on their services, that there could be problems.

MIKE MULCAHY: Avner says, because state agencies will now decide when to release grant money, some nonprofits remain unsure of the future of their programs.

Minneapolis and St. Paul are working together to try to bring the NHL all-star game to the Xcel Energy Center. Officials say hosting the game could bring millions of dollars into the local economy. The earliest the all-star game could be played in Minnesota is 2004. The state last hosted the game in 1972 at the old Met Center.

Minneapolis Mayor Sharon Sayles Belton and four outgoing city council members attended their final city council meeting today. It marked Sayles Belton's final official meeting after eight years as mayor. R.T. Rybak will be sworn in as the city's new mayor next week.

It'll be breezy, cold, scattered light snow, and flurries around the state today. Highs are From five above to around 20. It's about the same picture for the rest of the weekend.

In Marshall right now it's cloudy and 10 degrees. Rochester has sunny skies and 12 in the Twin Cities. It's cloudy and 14 degrees. That's news. I'm Mike Mulcahy.

SPEAKER 1: Programming on Minnesota Public Radio is supported by the Eighth Annual Twin Cities Food and Wine Experience with 250 gourmet food and wine exhibitors at the Minneapolis Convention Center, February 8, 9, and 10. Tickets at Lunds and Byerlys or at foodwineshow.com.

GARY EICHTEN: It is six minutes now past 12 o'clock, and welcome back to Midday on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Gary Eichten. This is our Midday.

We're going to meet some Minnesota musicians and hear some of their music. The producer of our interview series, Voices of Minnesota, Dan Olson, has been out and about lately. And today, we're going to meet some of the folks who he's been meeting.

[CHARMIN MICHELLE, "HUNGRY BLUES"]

(SINGING) Now I got them hungry blues

DAN OLSON: This hour, we hear from two of Minnesota's most talented jazz artists, Charmin Michelle and Doug Haining. Charmin talks about her stint in the navy, and Doug will relate his dramatic challenge for the first chair clarinet spot in the St. Louis Park High School band. They've just released a brand new compact disk of jazz standards, including Charmin singing Hungry Blues. We'll hear that tune and other selections later.

First, we hear the harp like sounds of the bandura, a folk instrument from Ukraine. One of North America's few remaining bandura masters, Tanya Ryabokon lives in Big Lake near the Twin Cities. She'll tell us the story of this centuries-old instrument, how the Soviets tried to suppress the Indigenous Ukrainian music and its players and how they survived.

First is a sample of modern bandura music. Tanya sat in a recording studio a few years ago with some friends and recorded a tune called Snow Dance.

["SNOW DANCE" PLAYING]

Snow Dance is played by Tanya Ryabokon on the bandura. The first reference to the instrument is from sixth-century Greece. A writer describes warriors from Ukraine playing lute-like instruments.

Later, bandura players like troubadours wandered the Ukraine countryside, noting the latest developments and putting the news in their songs. Warlords became upset with news spreading about battles and shifting political alliances. They didn't want to lose the element of surprise, so Ryabokon says they tried to capture and kill the bandura players.

TANYA RYABOKON: The invaders realized the value of the people who played the kobza. It was called the kobza at that time. In those days, of course, this is before radio and TV and newspaper, these people traveled by foot from town to town, of course, bringing news of the war, bringing news of neighboring villages. And what they were known for is the epic ballad called The Duma.

DAN OLSON: Besides the news, Ryabokon says, the epic songs told stories intended to teach a lesson. She reads an excerpt, which describes the behavior of brash and violent young Cossack men.

The song is a lament. They're in a tight spot at sea, facing the risk of drowning, their lives are flashing before their eyes, and they're having pangs of regret for the way they've treated people.

TANYA RYABOKON: "For when we were setting out for the volunteer army, we did not ask forgiveness from our father or mother. And we pushed our old mother away with our stirrups, and we were all so very proud.

We did not treat our older brother as a brother. We treated our middle sister with contempt. And we refused our closest neighbors bread and salt. We were very proud.

We rode past the Holy churches. We did not take off our Cossack caps, and we did not cross ourselves. We did not ask the merciful creator for help. We pranced our horses through the streets and did not stop for anyone in our path.

We rode down small children with our horses. We spilled Christian blood on the cold Earth. If only, brothers, our fathers and mother's prayers would help us out here, oh, then we would know how to honor and respect our fathers' and mothers' prayers."

["THE DUMA" PLAYING] [NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

DAN OLSON: The epic ballads went on and on, sung by the bandura player while plucking up to 60 chromatically tuned strings. Many of the players, Ryabokon says, were blind. They studied under masters, then were married to their instruments in a religious ceremony.

The creation of the Soviet Union signaled a new assault on bandura players. The Soviets, Ryabokon says, forbid folk tunes, allowing only government-approved music. The suppression took a deadly turn when Joseph Stalin came to power. In 1935, his government invited the few hundred remaining bandura players to a conference.

TANYA RYABOKON: Then they had this congress of folk musicians in Russia, and they went there, and they never returned. Presumably, they were all shot. But of course, there is no documentation of that, except that none of them returned.

Later on in the later '30s, they had another Congress, and only four showed up. Now, if there were others, presumably, they were afraid to come because they knew what had happened to their comrades.

DAN OLSON: The bandura was brought back from the edge of extinction in the 1950s, during the years of Nikita Khrushchev, a Soviet leader born in Ukraine. He allowed mass production of the instruments. Tanya's father bought one.

TANYA RYABOKON: We had no idea, neither did my father, because he didn't know how to play. But he was very musical, and he did receive an instruction book from the Soviet Ukraine, How to Play the Bandura.

And looking at these books-- and, of course, they published music, et cetera-- you look back, and you want to laugh. At the time, it was funny and sad. What they had to do, the compromises these artists had to make to even get out what they did get out, to get the instrument produced, they knew that in the West it would be preserved.

They knew that the West could do and play what they were not allowed to do. So even in this book, for instance, How to Play the Bandura, there are a lot of folk songs, simple little things that have no political significance. And yet, these were important, that the children would learn to play these.

So at any rate, my father taught himself to play. He had known how to play the guitar and the violin. And then he taught us just using this book.

DAN OLSON: Tanya Ryabokon says her bandura training was enriched by summer camp sessions in Canada, where Ukrainian culture continues to flourish. She's been teaching and playing for 25 years.

A much more dramatic bid to save the bandura from extinction had already taken hold in Michigan before Tanya was born. That's where a large group of Ukrainian emigres found their new home, among them a group of men dedicated to preserving the bandura.

TANYA RYABOKON: The recognized performing group of this instrument is called the capella, in honor of Taras Shevchenko. Taras Shevchenko was the famous Ukrainian poet, again, a man who politically stimulated the feeling of nationalism in Ukraine.

So this capella, this group of players and singers, is in honor of him. It is in Detroit. It began originally in Kyiv. Back in 1918, they were formed. Of course, with the revolution and everything, they then all as a group-- well, not all of them-- but as a group, they made a decision to emigrate, to get out, to preserve this musical group, to preserve this tradition.

They said, we have to do this as a group. And they emigrated to the US, to Detroit, in that area. I believe almost all of that original group have now passed on. Big, burly fellows, the lot of them, and then they pick up this delicate instrument and play and make such beautiful, beautiful music.

DAN OLSON: Here, from Tanya Roberson's collection of bandura music, is a 1960 recording of the Ukrainian bandurist chorus playing and singing Christmas Bells.

[THE UKRAINIAN BANDURIST CHORUS, "CHRISTMAS BELLS"]

[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

DAN OLSON: The Ukrainian Bandurist Chorus and a 1960 recording of their performance of Christmas Bells. You're listening to a special music edition of Voices of Minnesota on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Dan Olson.

Tanya Ryabokon and a handful of others are writing, playing, and singing the newest chapter of bandura history. They're taking traditional tunes and giving them a makeover for a wider audience. Here's an example.

TANYA RYABOKON: This is a love song, and it's about a young Cossack who's going off into battle, and he is parting with his beloved. And he realizes that he probably will not come back, so he tells her to go and find someone new, but to keep their love a secret and a treasure that he can go to the grave with.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[NON-ENGLISH SINGING]

DAN OLSON: A few years ago, Tanya took her bandura and a traditional Ukrainian tune into a recording studio where, joined by friends on synthesizer and other instruments, she created a new age instrumental called Rain Play.

["RAIN PLAY" PLAYING]

Rain Play is a new age version of a traditional bandura tune. Tanya Ryabokon still plays and teaches bandura. She's enthusiastic about the success of lifelong friend, Julian Kytasty, in bringing bandura music to a wider audience.

Kytasty and vocalist Alexis Kochan from Winnipeg have created a compact disk called Paris to Kyiv, Variances. One of the tunes is Historical Song. Alexis sings about the demise of the Cossack culture as Julian Kytasty accompanies on bandura.

[PARIS TO KYIV, "HISTORICAL SONG"]

[NON-ENGLISH SINGING] Alexis Kochan is singing and Julian Kytasty is playing bandura on the tune Historical Song from the Paris to Kyiv recording called Variances on the Alesia label.

It's a little early to say the centuries old bandura tradition has been saved. The compact disks are few and far between, but can be found on the web and in shops specializing in Ukrainian cultural items. Tanya Ryabokon says the music will survive because the themes are timeless.

TANYA RYABOKON: Understanding this repertoire, human tragedy, human happiness, human experience, it transcends time. It's just that the manner in which it is done, of course, is old fashioned, shall we say. It's an acoustic instrument. But the stories that are told, of course, transcend time.

And the instrument is taking some wonderful steps towards some avant-garde work, wonderful stuff. Julian right now is on tour in Poland. They're doing some wonderful fusion kinds of stuff. And there's also a trio out on the East Coast that are doing fabulous things with this instrument.

DAN OLSON: This bandura music has a distinct new age quality to it, the way you have updated it. And is that an insult to take this music new age, or is it just making it accessible to more people, do you think?

TANYA RYABOKON: I don't think it's an insult at all. All music has to grow and evolve, and that's simply what we have been doing here. People define new age in a million different ways, so I don't know what you mean by it. But it's basically taking the bandura and going forward with it. And if the music brings pleasure to people, then, of course, it's a good thing.

DAN OLSON: Tanya, Thank you so much for your time. Well, Thank you.

["PRAIRIE STORM" PLAYING]

Big Lake area resident Tanya Ryabokon was playing a tune called Prairie Storm from a Ukrainian melody called Song of the Steppes. You're listening to a music edition of Voices of Minnesota on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Dan Olson.

[CHARMIN MICHELLE, "HUNGRY BLUES"]

Like the bandura tunes of old, Hungry Blues carries a message both through the words and the beat. This swing style of jazz, according to Grove's Dictionary of Jazz, started in the 1930s.

The double bass replaced the tuba. The rhythm guitar replaced the banjo. Equal weight is given to the four beats of the bar.

The swing masters included Duke Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, and the Count Basie Band, among others. Add to the list Twin Cities residents Charmin Michel, along with Doug Haining. And the Twin Cities 7.

Their new compact disk is called Hot. In a moment, they talk about the music. First, here are Charmaine, Doug, and the Twin Cities 7 performing James P. Johnson's Hungry Blues with lyrics by Langston Hughes.

(SINGING) Now I got them hungry blues

Nothing in the world to lose

People telling me to choose

Between dining lines and keep on crying

But I'm tired of them hungry blues

There's another thing to choose

Say, listen, have you heard the news

About a brand new world so clean and fine?

Nobody's hungry, and they ain't no colored line

A place like that's good for anybody's dime

Ain't got a thing to lose

But them doggone hungry blues

[SAXOPHONE SOLO]

There's a brand new world so clean and fine

Nobody's hungry, and there ain't no colored line

A place like that's good for anybody's dime

Ain't got a thing to lose

But them doggone hungry blues

DAN OLSON: James P. Johnson's hungry blues, sung by Charmin Michelle, featuring Doug Haining and the Twin Cities 7 on their new compact disk, Hot.

Charmin is a native of Alabama who grew up in Minneapolis, graduating from Washburn High School. Doug is a clarinetist with roots in the Minneapolis suburb of St. Louis Park. Both are fixtures on the Twin Cities jazz scene. They stopped by the Minnesota Public Radio studios to talk about why they decided to collaborate.

Charmin Michelle, Doug Haining, thank you so much for coming by. A pleasure to see both of you.

CHARMIN MICHELLE: Thank you for having us.

DAN OLSON: Charmin tell the story of the brand new CD. Here it is, Hot, Charmin Michelle.

CHARMIN MICHELLE: Well, it started when I went to the release party of Doug Haining's CD, I Swing, Therefore I Am. And when I heard his group-- I had a gig earlier, and when I got there, they were on their last two tunes. And they were swinging so hard that when they got done I said, Doug, may I please sing with your band? [LAUGHS]

It's something I never do, ever. And he said, sure. And we started collaborating then.

DOUG HAINING: She saved me the trouble because I was going to ask her anyway.

[LAUGHTER]

DAN OLSON: Let's go back to the music. Here's a tune off the new CD, If You Were Mine. Do I have the title right?

CHARMIN MICHELLE: Yes.

DAN OLSON: OK, what's the story of this tune?

CHARMIN MICHELLE: That's just a Billie Holiday number that I picked up. It's very plain, to the point, and just romantic.

[CHARMIN MICHELLEM "IF YOU WERE MINE"]

(SINGING) If you were mine,

I would be the ruler of kings

And if you were mine,

I could do such wonderful things

I'd say to the stars,

Stop where you are

Light up my lovers way

And every star above you would obey

Say, if you were mine,

I would live for your love alone

To be by your side,

I would give up all that I own

Even my heart, even my life,

I'd give It all to you

And think that I was lucky, too,

If you were mine

DAN OLSON: Doug Haining and Charmin Michelle are our guests on Voices of Minnesota. I'm Dan Olson.

Doug Haining, go ahead and list the personnel, these stars, these celebrities.

DOUG HAINING: In the Twin Cities 7, we have Tim Sullivan on trumpet, John boblet on trombone. He's actually from Portland, Oregon. He gets such a kick out of playing with us that he flies in every now and then to get his fix. He'll be here with us on New Year's Eve.

DAN OLSON: That's great.

DOUG HAINING: Rick Carlson is on piano. We have Kent Saunders on guitar, Steve Pikaul on bass, and Gordy Knudtson on the drums. And also on the CD, Hot, we did several tunes with the quartet, which consisted of Rick Carlson, myself, Keith Boyles on bass, and Dick Bortoluzzi on drums.

DAN OLSON: What do you want to tell us about your recording style? You have recorded these tunes in-- what would you call it? A more realistic, a more organic way?

DOUG HAINING: Organic, that's a good way of putting it, yeah.

[LAUGHTER]

DAN OLSON: Almost as I said the word, I regretted it.

DOUG HAINING: Yeah, usually, when you go into a studio these days, you get compartmentalized to death. And everybody has a little cubby hole that they go into, and you have to put--

DAN OLSON: Really? Like a little room?

DOUG HAINING: Yeah, a little room, a little tiny studio. Or you get big partitions that get put up in a big studio so that you can't see the person next to you. Or the sound from your instrument doesn't bleed over to get into the microphone that he's playing into.

And you have to wear headphones when you record like that. And for me, as a player, it's very difficult to play from the heart. Everything's fed into you electronically so you don't get a sense of dynamics like you do when you're playing live.

DAN OLSON: So you went back in time-- what would you say? 20 years?

DOUG HAINING: At least, maybe back to the '40s and '50s. Some of my favorite recorded music is on recordings where the guys just went into a big room, and they had a session. And I wanted to try to recreate that.

DAN OLSON: Doug Haining, before we get to biography, here's your CD, Twin Cities 7, Doug Haining and the Twin Cities 7, I Swing, Therefore I am. What would you like to play for us off of this?

DOUG HAINING: Well, one of my favorites on there is Discontented Blues.

DAN OLSON: Why would anybody be discontented? Oh, this is the Ellington tune.

DOUG HAINING: That's an Ellington tune. And he wrote that tune probably in an afternoon after he had met with a record executive who didn't like the way that the record contract was going, and they had one session left.

And he came in and recorded four tunes, and they all were these grumpy titles, and this was one of them. And the tune itself is a natural for the players that I have in the group.

Tim Sullivan on trumpet and John boblet on trombone, particularly, play perfectly the style that's required for this tune. And I think when you listen to it, you'll hear that. It's really a fun tune.

DAN OLSON: Discontented Blues.

[DOUGH HAINING AND THE TWIN CITIES 7, "DISCONTENTED BLUES"]

Duke Ellington's Discontented Blues, played by Doug Haining and the Twin Cities 7 from their compact disk I Swing, Therefore I am. You're listening to a music edition of Voices of Minnesota on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Dan Olson.

Charmin Michelle says her singing career is a relatively recent development. She played flute and violin as a high school student. And a stint in the military set her on a different course for a few years.

When you were a student at Washburn High School, what kind of a career were you thinking of? What were you thinking about life?

CHARMIN MICHELLE: I didn't even think about it. I was just going to school and getting through. [LAUGHS]

DAN OLSON: Do I have it right that you enlisted in the military?

CHARMIN MICHELLE: Yes, yeah, Because I really hadn't-- I didn't have any plans that I wanted to do.

DAN OLSON: Which branch did you go in?

CHARMIN MICHELLE: The Navy.

DAN OLSON: And what did you do in the Navy?

CHARMIN MICHELLE: I worked on electrical meters on my ship and on my fleet of submarines. I was-- [LAUGHS] I was on the USS LY Spear based in Norfolk, Virginia. And it's a sub-tender, and we had a fleet of submarines, which was the Sixth Fleet. And I calibrated electrical meters on my ship and on submarines.

DAN OLSON: Did you have to drop music altogether during this time?

CHARMIN MICHELLE: Well, I didn't really drop it. I practiced for fun, for myself, because I was actually classically trained. So I always had access somewhere to a piano and some music that I could just sit down and play if I felt like it. But like I said, I'd never, ever thought I would be making CDs and singing around town and going to Europe.

DAN OLSON: Is this a made-for-movie story? Did some of your Navy colleagues hear you practicing and say, Charmin, you can sing?

CHARMIN MICHELLE: Well--

DOUG HAINING: "Charmin, you've got to do a show!"

[LAUGHTER]

CHARMIN MICHELLE: Well, yeah, I guess they did hear me. I did do a few things. They would have talent things going on the ship sometimes for entertainment. And I did do a couple of those, now that I remember.

DAN OLSON: And you didn't re-enlist?

CHARMIN MICHELLE: No, I didn't.

DAN OLSON: You came out of the Navy.

CHARMIN MICHELLE: Four years was enough, yeah.

DAN OLSON: A Navy veteran.

CHARMIN MICHELLE: Yes, yes.

DAN OLSON: Let's get back to the music. Here's a tune, A Flower is a Lovesome Thing. What do you want to say about that tune?

CHARMIN MICHELLE: Any collaboration between Ellington and Strayhorn just melts me. And that's all I can say, really.

[CHARMIN MICHELLE, "A FLOWER IS A LOVESOME THING"] A flower is a lovesome thing

A luscious, living, lovesome thing

A daffodil, a rose,

No matter where it grows,

Is such a lovely, lovesome thing

A flower is the heart of spring

That makes the rolling hillside sing

The gentle winds that blow,

Blow gently for they know

A flower is a lovesome thing

Playing in the breeze

Swaying with the trees

In the silent or in the morning light,

Such a miracle

Azalea's drinking pale moonbeams

Gardenias floating through daydreams

No matter where you go,

Wherever it may grow,

A flower is a lovesome thing

[SAXOPHONE SOLO]

Playing in the breeze

Swaying with the trees

In the silent night or in the morning light,

Such a miracle

Azaleas drinking pale moonbeams

Gardenias floating through daydreams

No matter where you go,

Wherever it may grow,

A flower is a lovesome thing

[SAXOPHONE SOLO]

A flower is a lovesome thing

DAN OLSON: Billy Strayhorn's a flower is a lovesome thing, sung by Charmin Michelle, featuring Doug Haining and the Twin Cities 7 on their new compact disk, Hot.

This new release isn't the first collaboration between Doug and Charmin. Doug has been a Reedman backing Charmin on earlier recordings. In a moment, we'll hear his saxophone on Swing! Brother, Swing! from Charmin's 1998 compact disk called Destination Moon.

Doug Haining was principal clarinetist for the St. Olaf College Orchestra, and he nearly won the same spot in his high school band.

You're a clarinetist.

DOUG HAINING: Yes.

DAN OLSON: Both of you are classically trained.

DOUG HAINING: I was classically trained, yes. I didn't really get serious about jazz until after college.

DAN OLSON: And here you were in high school gunning for the first chair spot. Did you get it?

DOUG HAINING: Nope.

DAN OLSON: What happened?

DOUG HAINING: Seniority happened.

[LAUGHTER]

DAN OLSON: Now, there's a story going around town that the first clarinetist had to play a solo.

DOUG HAINING: We were doing Rhapsody in Blue. As you know, that first opening of that tune has a ferocious glissando that the clarinetist has to do. The first chair person couldn't play that part.

DAN OLSON: What? You're kidding me!

DOUG HAINING: But I could. So they said, well, Doug, why don't you play the gliss? And then-- I forget her name.

DAN OLSON: Right, right. It's lost to history, and it's just as well.

DOUG HAINING: That's fine. She can play-- come in after the gliss part and play the rest of the solo because she's the first chair player, so she should have that opportunity. And I said, well, that's fine.

So we get to the concert, and he cues the glissando. And this girl leans forward in the chair to block my view so nobody in the audience can see me. And she pretends that she's playing this glissando.

[LAUGHTER]

DAN OLSON: Your one moment of stardom, stolen.

DOUG HAINING: That's right, and I was really mad after that. I don't think I ever talked to her again.

DAN OLSON: Well, better lost, better lost. What a story, a stolen glissando.

Let's jump to another CD. This is Charmin's Destination Moon from how long ago?

CHARMIN MICHELLE: That is from '98.

DAN OLSON: And you wanted us to be sure to hear Swing! Brother, Swing! What's the story there?

CHARMIN MICHELLE: That's another one of those Billie Holiday numbers that I picked up and--

DOUG HAINING: She did that one with Count Basie, I think, didn't she?

CHARMIN MICHELLE: Yeah, she did. It was for a radio show. Yeah, it was never recorded, but it was a radio show that she did that, yeah.

DAN OLSON: Swing! Brother, Swing! let's hear it now.

[CHARMIN MICHELLE, "SWING! BROTHER, SWING!"] Deep rhythm captivates me

Hot rhythm stimulates me

I can't help but swing it, boys

Swing it. Brother, swing

Don't stop to diddle daddle

Stop this foolish prattle,

Come on. Knock me out

Swing it. Brother, swing

Raring to go

And ain't nobody going to hold me down

Say, listen, boys,

Hurry up and send me

Let me go to town

Stop this diddle daddle

And this foolish prattle

Come on, kill me, joy

Swing it. Brother, swing

[SAXOPHONE SOLO]

[PIANO SOLO]

Deep rhythm captivates me

Hot rhythms stimulate me

I can't help but swing it, boy

Swing it. Brother, swing

Don't stop to diddle daddle

Stop this foolish prattle

Come on. Knock me out

Swing it. Brother, swing

Raring to go

And ain't nobody going to hold me down

Say, listen, boys

Hurry up and send me

Let me go to town.

Stop this diddle daddle

And this foolish prattle

Come on, kill me, joy

Swing it. Brother, swing

DAN OLSON: Let's roll the credits with Doug Haining. Go ahead and list the personnel.

DOUG HAINING: In the Twin Cities 7, we have Tim Sullivan on trumpet, John boblet on trombone, Rick Carlson on piano. We have Kent Saunders on guitar, Steve Pikaul on bass, and Gordy knudtson on the drums.

And also on the CD, Hot, we did several tunes of the quartet, which consisted of Rick Carlson, myself, Keith Boyles on bass, and Dick bortoluzzi on drums.

DAN OLSON: Dates coming up, Saturday, December 29 at Times Bar and Cafe. And that's in Minneapolis on East Hennepin. Monday, December 31, New Year's Eve is Jack's Cafe, the two of you and your colleagues.

CHARMIN MICHELLE: Yes.

DOUG HAINING: Yep.

DAN OLSON: Charmin Michelle, Doug Haining, thanks so much for stopping by to talk.

DOUG HAINING: You're welcome.

CHARMIN MICHELLE: Thanks.

DOUG HAINING: It was fun.

CHARMIN MICHELLE: Yeah.

DAN OLSON: You can learn more about Charmin Michelle on her website charmsongs.com. Read about Doug and his colleagues at their website tc7.com. Their new compact disk is called Hot, and it includes an arrangement of My Heart Belongs to Daddy. You've been hearing a special music edition of Voices of Minnesota on Minnesota Public Radio. I'm Dan Olson.

[CHARMIN MICHELLE, "MY HEART BELONGS TO DADDY"]

(SINGING) While teeing off a game of golf,

I may make a play for the caddie

But when I do, I don't follow through

Because my heart belongs to Daddy

If I invite

A boy some night

To dine on my fine finnan haddie,

I just adore him asking for more

But my heart belongs to Daddy

Well, my heart belongs to Daddy

So I simply couldn't be bad

Yes, my heart belongs to Daddy

Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da

So I have to warn you, laddie,

Though I think you're perfectly swell,

That my heart belongs to Daddy

Because my daddy, he treats it so well

[SAXOPHONE SOLO]

GARY EICHTEN: And that does it for our Midday program today. Gary Eichten here, thanks so much for joining us. By the way, if you missed part of Dan's Voices of Minnesota series program today, we will be rebroadcasting this program at 9:00 tonight.

And of course, all of our Midday programs are always available on our website, minnesotapublicradio.org. So you can listen to any of the programs you hear on Midday at your leisure, minnesotapublicradio.org.

I hope you have a great weekend. Sarah Meyer is the producer of our Midday program, and we had help this week from Gabrielle Zuckerman. On Monday, New Year's eve, Chris Farrell will be here with his end of the year program. And also we'll be talking about September 11. I hope you can join us.

SPEAKER 1: Minnesota Public Radio thanks Kase Printing in Fargo and the Carlson School of Management in the Twin Cities for sponsoring NPR programs. Your company can be a sponsor. Find out more by calling your local NPR station, or call Sarah in Saint Paul at 651-290-1249.

SPEAKER 2: You're listening to Minnesota Public Radio. We have some flurries and 15 degrees at KNOW FM 91.1, Minneapolis and St. Paul. Flurries are all afternoon. Cloudy skies and high temperature is about where it is.

Tonight is cloudy with flurries. Overnight is low 0 to 5 above, and then cloudy with flurries with a high in the middle teens again tomorrow. It's 1 o'clock.