news-record.com

Lee Atkinson could have never imagined after years of spending Saturday evenings listening to Garrison Keillor’s “A Prairie Home Companion” on National Public Radio with her husband and three children that one day she would share the stage with the iconic radio personality. But Saturday evening, she and daughter Sarah Atkinson will perform live for the show’s Great American Duet Sing-off.

“It’s overwhelming,” said Sarah Atkinson, 29, a nurse with Mission Hospital in Asheville. “I’m trying to think of a couple of witty things to say to (Keillor).”

From church hymns to CDs, the Greensboro natives have always performed as a duet.

“We’ve been singing together since she was born,” said Lee Atkinson, 60, a part-time legal administrator. “We have tones that are compatible.”

It was on a whim that Lee Atkinson entered their recording after hearing about the contest. She was shocked to get a call two weeks ago telling her that she and Sarah were going to be flown to New York to be on the show with five other finalists.

“It’s exciting to be in that whole atmosphere of watching them put the whole show together,” Lee Atkinson said. “Who’d have thought?”

With the help of friend and local singer/songwriter, Laurelyn Dossett, the pair have chosen four songs to take with them.

But winning won’t be everything.

“The journey is having fun,” Sarah Atkinson said. “The memories are already made, regardless of the results.”