Saturday, November 24, 2018

Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday November 24, 2018


Saturday Morning is an eclectic roots-oriented program on CKCU in Ottawa heard live on Saturday mornings from 7 until 10 am (Eastern time) and then available for on-demand streaming. I am one of the four rotating hosts of Saturday Morning and base my programming on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches format I developed at CKUT in Montreal.

CKCU can be heard at 93.1 FM in Ottawa and http://www.ckcufm.com/ on the web.

This episode of Saturday Morning can be streamed on-demand at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/40368.html

Extended feature: Songs of Bob Dylan, Part 2.

Larry Hanks- South Coast
The Last Wagon (Zippety Whippet Music)

Catherine & Ronny Cox- Jesus Velarde
Jesus Velarde – single (Ronny Cox)
Eric Bibb- Hoist Up the Banner
Global Griot (Stony Plain)
Yale Strom's Broken Consort- The Fool Over Yonder *
Chris White- Hold Fast to Your Memories
Music All Around (Chris White)

*Due to a faulty CD only part of “The Fool Over Yonder” was heard.

The Roches- Pretty and High
Debi Smith- Gone, Gone
Deep Tracks (Degan Music)
Doc & Merle Watson- Deep River Blues
Sittin’ Here Pickin’ the Blues (Rounder)

Michael Jerling- When Words Still Mattered
Family Recipe (Fool’s Hill Music)
Noah Zacharin- No Oxygen
A Startle of Wings (Noah Zacharin)
Ken Tizzard- 1962
A Good Dog is Lost: A Collection of Ron Hynes Songs (Ken Tizzard)
Kat Danser- Goin’ Gone
Goin’ Gone (Black Hen)
Three O'Clock Train- Bluer Than You
Cuatro de Los Angeles (Three O’Clock Train)
The Ennis Sisters- Wheels
Keeping Time (The Ennis Sisters)

The rest of the show was the extended feature: Songs of Bob Dylan, Part 2.

Loudon Wainwright III w/Kate McGarrigle- You Ain’t Going Nowhere
Years in the Making (StorySound)
Ian & Sylvia- Tomorrow is a Long Time
Four Strong Winds (Vanguard)
Robin & Linda Williams- Boots of Spanish Leather
Back 40 (Red House)
David Wiffen- Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
At the Bunkhouse Coffeehouse, Vancouver BC (Universal International)
Bob Dylan- Bob Dylan’s Dream
The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (Columbia/Legacy)

The Balladeers- Blowin’ in the Wind
It’s About Time (Balladeers Productions)
Jane Lewis- I Shall Be Released
Stay with Me (Jane Lewis)
Andrew & Casey Calhoun- When the Ship Comes In
Skeins (Waterbug)
Jenny Whiteley- Oxford Town
Bob Dylan- Farewell, Angelina
The Best of the Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12 (Columbia/Legacy)

Jimmy LaFave- My Back Pages
Peace Town (Music Road)
The Brothers & Sisters- Chimes of Freedom
Dylan’s Gospel (Columbia)
Finest Kind- The Times They Are A-Changin’
Silks & Spices (Fallen Angle)
Bob Dylan- It Ain’t Me Babe
Another Side of Bob Dylan (Columbia/Legacy)

Penny Lang- One Too Many Mornings
Stone + Sand + Sea + Sky (Borealis)
Happy & Artie Traum- It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry
The Test of Time (Roaring Stream)
Sneezy Waters- Visions of Johanna
Sneezy Waters Live (Sneezy Waters)
Tom Russell & Joe Ely- Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues
Folk Hotel (Frontera)
Bob Dylan- Mr. Tambourine Man
Bringing It All Back Home (Columbia/Legacy)

Mariane Faithfull- It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue
Negative Capability (BMG)
Ben Sidran- Ballad of a Thin Man
Dylan Different (Bonsai)
Joan Baez- Love is Just a Four-Letter Word
Any Day Now (Vanguard)
Dawn Tyler Watson- Forever Young
Jawbreaker (Dawn Tyler Watson)
Bob Dylan- Desolation Row
The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12 (Columbia/Legacy)

J.D. Crowe & the New South- Nashville Skyline Rag
Flashback (Rounder)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on January 5.

Find me on Twitter. @MikeRegenstreif


--Mike Regenstreif

Wednesday, November 21, 2018

Maggie Roche – Where Do I Come From: Selected Songs


MAGGIE ROCHE
Where Do I Come From: Selected Songs
StorySound Records
storysoundrecords.com 

As I’ve mentioned before, “I first started writing record reviews for the Montreal Gazette back in 1975 and one of the LPs I wrote about that first year was Seductive Reasoning, the debut of a sister duo, Maggie & Terre Roche, built around quirky, affecting songs and terrific harmonies. Later, younger sister Suzzy Roche joined up and they became The Roches, releasing a series of albums between 1979 and 2007.”

Maggie, the eldest sister – who lost her battle with cancer on January 21, 2017 at age 65 – was a uniquely gifted songwriter responsible for almost all of the songs on Seductive Reasoning, as well as on many of the The Roches’ albums. Where Do I Come From: Selected Songs is a lovingly compiled 2-CD set of Maggie’s songs including tracks from albums by The Roches, as well as duo albums by Maggie & Terre and Maggie & Suzzy, a couple of previously unreleased demos from the early-‘70s, a solo home recording of what was probably Maggie’s final song, and a new studio recording of a previously unreleased Christmas song of Maggie’s by family members Suzzy, Lucy Wainwright Roche, Oona Roche, Dave Roche and guest Daisy Press.

Whether singing solo on the demos or in beautiful or soaring harmonies with one or both of her sisters, Maggie’s songs are always compelling for their poetic lyrics – whether narrative or oblique – and gorgeous melodies.

While I could easily heap praise on all 32 songs, I’ll cite a few as particular favorites. For those of us who have worked in small folk clubs, “Malachy’s” rings with authenticity. Similarly, “Hammond Song” captures the 20-something angst that so many of us were feeling in the ‘70s as we created paths in life that steered away from conventional expectations. “The Married Men” balances guilt and defiance within irresistible harmonies, while “My Winter Coat” is a delightful eight-minute celebration of something simple. And those four highlights barely scratch the surface.

The album ends with a solo home recording of “Where Do I Come From,” a fragmentary song that Suzzy found after Maggie had passed away. Assuming that Maggie knew her time was short adds much poignancy to thoughts like “All I got is me/ My hands are full of time/ Wanting to be free/ Is that a crime/ No one seems to hear the beating of my heart/ Don’t want you to come near/ I’m torn apart.”

While almost all of these songs were already very familiar to me, these “selected songs” are a great reminder of Maggie’s brilliant creativity.

My one regret about Where Do I Come From is that it doesn’t include a version of “Apostrophe to the Wind,” a lovely early song of Maggie’s that was never included on any of the albums she made with her sisters. I learned it from the late Jack Hardy when he was staying at my apartment in Montreal in the early-1980s and was hoping this collection might include a demo of Maggie singing it.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

Mike Regenstreif