Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday June 14, 2022: Songs of Wade Hemsworth and Songs of Bill Morrissey

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

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

This episode of Stranger Songs was prerecorded at home and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/56556.html

Theme: Songs of Wade Hemsworth (1916-2002) and Songs of Bill Morrissey (1951-2011).

Wade Hemsworth

Wade Hemsworth, who died in 2002 at age 85, was probably the first important songwriter to come out of the Canadian folk music scene. Although Wade was not very prolific – he wrote less than 20 songs – many of those songs have become classics of Canadian folk music. After serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during the Second World War, Wade worked as a surveyor in Northern Ontario, Quebec and Labrador and those experiences were the basis for many of his songs. He moved to Montreal in 1952 to work as a draftsman for the Canadian National Railway and began performing on the Montreal folk music scene.

Bill Morrissey

Bill Morrissey, who died in 2011 at age 59, was one of the finest songwriters of my generation of folk musicians. Bill lived in New Hampshire and many of his songs reflect life in the mill towns of that part of New England. Bill also wrote an excellent novel, Edson, about a folksinger, not unlike himself, living in one of those mill towns.

Bill Staines- The Black Fly Song
Just Play One Tune More (Folk-Legacy)
Wade Hemsworth- In the Wintertime
The Songs of Wade Hemsworth (Blackfly Music)
Dan Berggren/John Kirk/Chris Shaw with Ann Downey- Log Driver’s Waltz
North River/North Woods (Sleeping Giant)
Wade Hemsworth with the Mountain City Four- Quiet on the River
Wade Hemsworth with the Mountain City Four (Peter Weldon)

Mike Regenstreif & Bill Morrissey (2005)

Bill Morrissey- Small Town on the River
Bill Morrissey (Philo)
Mark Erelli- Handsome Molly
Milltowns (Hillbilly Pilgrim)
Lucy Kaplansky- Texas Blues
The Tide (Red House)
Bill Morrissey- Barstow
Bill Morrissey (Philo)

Art Thieme- The Shining Birch Tree (Land of the Muskeg)
On the Wilderness Road (Folk-Legacy)
Fairport Convention- Foolish You
Old, New, Borrowed, Blue (Green Linnet)
Wade Hemsworth- Song of the Old Rooster
The Songs of Wade Hemsworth (Blackfly Music)

John Gorka, Mike Regenstreif & Lucy Kaplansky (2012)

John Gorka- She’s That Kind of Mystery
Bright Side of Down (Red House)
Bill Morrissey- Ice Fishing
North (Philo)
Laurie MacAlliaster & David Glaser- Birches
The Lies the Poets Tell (Laurie MacAllister)

Kate & Anna McGarrigle & Mike Regenstreif (1976) photo: Felicity Fanjoy

Rick Fielding- Wild Goose
Lifeline (Folk-Legacy)
The Wakami Wailers- Whitewater (The Log Jam Song)
River Through the Pines (The Wakami Wailers)
Kate & Anna McGarrigle- My Mother is the Ocean Sea
CBC Variety 3 (CBC)
Wade Hemsworth with the Mountain City Four- The Story of the I’m Alone
Wade Hemsworth with the Mountain City Four (Peter Weldon)

Peter Keane- I Wonder If I’ll Ever Leave
Walkin’ Around (Flying Fish)
Cormac McCarthy- Marigold Hall
Picture Gallery Blues (Green Linnet)
Mark Erelli- Long Gone
Milltowns (Hillbilly Pilgrim)
Bill Morrissey- By the Grave of Baudelaire
Come Running (Turn and Spin Media)

Wade Hemsworth with the Mountain City Four- Our Last and Humble Home
Wade Hemsworth with the Mountain City Four (Peter Weldon)

Next week: Songs from “Porgy and Bess.”

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--Mike Regenstreif