Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – December 3, 2024: Top 10 for 2024

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU, 93.1 FM, in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

This episode of Stranger Songs was recorded and can be streamed on-demand, now or anytime, by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/67938.html

Theme: Songs from my top 10 folk-rooted and folk-branched albums of 2024.

The annotated and illustrated list is posted on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches blog at this link. https://frfb.blogspot.com/2024/11/top-10-for-2024.html

Number 10 – Heartbreak, Misery & Death by Grayson Capps

Grayson Capps- Hallelujah

Heartbreak, Misery & Death (Royal Potato Family)

Number 9 – Lonesome Road: Suite for Solo Guitar and Voice – Songs of the Lost Generation 1924-1928 by Joel Mabus

Joel Mabus- The Lonesome Road

Lonesome Road: Suite for Solo Guitar and Voice – Songs of the Lost Generation 1924-1928 (Fossil)

Number 8 – American Patchwork Quartet by American Patchwork Quartet

American Patchwork Quartet- Shenandoah

American Patchwork Quartet (Carolina Jasmine)

Number 7 – Heart of the Swan by Carla Sciaky

Carla Sciaky- Standing by a River

Heart of the Swan (Propinquity)

Carla Sciaky- This Forsaken Garden

Heart of the Swan (Propinquity)

Number 6 – Two Sides to Your Story by Chris Rawlings

Chris Rawlings- Bastille Day

Two Sides to Your Story (Cookingfat Music)

Chris Rawlings- Smoker’s Lullaby

Two Sides to Your Story (Cookingfat Music)

Number 5 – Live at the Scala Theatre and In the Real World by Eric Bibb

Eric Bibb- Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie 

Live at the Scala Theatre (Stony Plain) 

Eric Bibb- Best I Can

In the Real World (Stony Plain)

Number 4 – American Railroad by Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens

Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens- Swannanoa Tunnel/Steel-Driving Man

American Railroad (Nonesuch)

Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens- Tamping Song

American Railroad (Nonesuch)

Number 3 – Feel with Blood by Lenka Lichtenberg

Lenka Lichtenberg- Feel with Blood

Feel with Blood (Six Degrees)

Lenka Lichtenberg- Wintry Dusk

Feel with Blood (Six Degrees)

Number 2 – Bandits, Ballads and Blues by James Talley

James Talley- The Love Song of Billy the Kid

Bandits, Ballads and Blues (Cimarron)

James Talley- If We Could Love One Another

Bandits, Ballads and Blues (Cimarron)

Number 1 – A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend by Perla Batalla

Perla Batalla- A Singer Must Die

A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda Music)

Perla Batalla- You Want It Darker

A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda Music)

I’m taking the next four weeks off and Stranger Songs will feature some repeat shows from 2022. You can see the playlists and stream the shows at the following links.

December 10: Songs of the Mountain City Four and Kate & Anna McGarrigle. https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/57707.html

December 17: “Acapella Stella” and other a capella songs. https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/57170.html

December 24: Happy Holidays. https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/58701.html

December 31: Songs of – or inspired by – Jesse Winchester. https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/56097.html

New programs will resume on January 7.

--Mike Regenstreif

Top 10 for 2024

Here are my picks for the Top 10 folk-rooted or folk-branched albums of 2024. I started with a list of about 30 superb albums released between December 2023 and November 2024. I’ve been over the list several times over the past couple of weeks and came up with several similar – not identical – Top 10 lists. Today’s list is the final one. The order might have been slightly different and there are several other worthy albums that might have been included, had one of the other lists represented the final choice. Any new albums that arrive between now and the end of the year will be considered for my 2025 list. 

1. Perla Batalla – A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda Music). Early in her career, in the late-1980s and ‘90s, Perla Batalla toured the world as a backup singer in Leonard Cohen’s band. I remember being mesmerized by her singing as I sat front row, centre at the St. Denis Theatre in Montreal in 1988. In 2004, Perla released the superb collection, Bird on the Wire: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, and now follows up with this sublime album. She includes superb versions of eight of Leonard’s songs; a version of “The Partisan,” a song from the French Resistance in the World War II that Leonard made his own; and two of Perla’s original songs inspired by her friend and mentor.

2. James Talley – Bandits, Ballads and Blues (Cimarron). James Talley has been one of my favorite singer-songwriters since he released Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, but We Sure Got a Lot of Love in 1974. On Bandits, Ballads and Blues, James sings compassionate songs about old west outlaws, family, a missed dog, and – most importantly – common folk victimized by forces beyond their control.

3. Lenka Lichtenberg – Feel with Blood (Six Degrees). Feel with Blood by Lenka Lichtenberg, the second album that Lenka has done based on poems written by Anna Hana Friesová, her maternal grandmother, while she was a prisoner at the Theresienstadt concentration camp during the Holocaust. While Thieves of Dreams, her first album of this material was largely sung in Czech, this album is largely sung in English translation.

4. Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens – American Railroad (Nonesuch). The Silkroad Ensemble is a multicultural group of musicians founded by Yo-Yo Ma and now under the artistic direction of Rhiannon Giddens. As explained on the Silkroad Ensemble website, American Railroad, was inspired by the impact that African American, Chinese, Indigenous, Irish, and other immigrant communities had on the creation of the transcontinental and connecting railways in North America.

5. Eric Bibb – Live at the Scala Theatre (Stony Plain) and In the Real World (Stony Plain). The always inspiring Eric Bibb, who has been a favorite folk and acoustic blues performer for many years, released both a live album, Live at the Scala Theatre, and a studio album, In the Real World, this year and both are deserving of inclusion on this list, so I decided to bend my list and have two albums share a slot.

6. Chris Rawlings – Two Sides to Your Story (Cookingfat Music). I’ve known Chris Rawlings since circa 1970 and I think that Two Sides to Your Story – featuring stellar backup from Henry Heillig and Jim Hoke – is his best (and best sounding) album yet. Among the highlights is a new version of “Smoker’s Lullaby,” a piece that Chris sang the first time I heard him about 55 years ago, featuring slightly edited lyrics that make a great song even better – and whose opening line gives the album its title.

7. Carla Sciaky – Heart of the Swan (Propinquity). Heart of the Swan, the first solo album in about 30 years by Carla Sciaky, marks a triumphant return of a fine singer and songwriter who was unheard from for too long. This is an album of quiet power with several tracks featuring recurring instrumental or vocal passages from the traditional ballad, “Polly Vaughn,” about a hunter mistakes the woman he loves for a swan.

8. American Patchwork Quartet – American Patchwork Quartet (Carolina Jasmine). American Patchwork Quartet is a multicultural group whose members are both ethnically and musically diverse, traits which they bring to their delightfully re-imagined versions of 14 traditional folksongs that demonstrate how relevant and powerful traditional source material remains for contemporary music.

9. Joel Mabus – Lonesome Road: Suite for Solo Guitar and Voice – Songs of the Lost Generation 1924-1928 (Fossil). Joel Mabus, a longtime veteran of the folk music scene, is a fine singer and player of many stringed instruments. Joel is also an excellent songwriter whose work is well informed by his knowledge of diverse styles including traditional balladry, old-time country, bluegrass, jazz, vintage pop and blues. On Lonesome Road: Suite for Solo Guitar and Voice – Songs of the Lost Generation 1924-1928 Joel offers fine versions of 14 classic songs written between 1924 and 1928.

10. Grayson Capps – Heartbreak, Misery & Death (Royal Potato Family). On Heartbreak, Misery & Death, Grayson Capps, a singer-songwriter from Alabama well-versed in folk and blues styles, turns his attention to really nice versions of traditional folksongs and contemporary folk classics written by the likes of Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, Jerry Jeff Walker and Randy Newman.

I will be featuring songs from each of these albums on Stranger Songs, Tuesday December 3, 3:30-5 pm (ET), on CKCU. The program is already available 24/7 for on-demand streaming at this link. https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/67938.html

–Mike Regenstreif

Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday November 30, 2024

Saturday Morning is an eclectic roots-oriented program on CKCU, 93.1 FM, in Ottawa on Saturday mornings from 7 until 10 am (Eastern time) and available for on-demand streaming anytime. I am one of the four rotating hosts of the Saturday Morning show. 

This episode of Saturday Morning was recorded and can be streamed on-demand, now or anytime, by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/67920.html

Willie Nelson- Last Leaf

Last Leaf on the Tree (Legacy)

Mike Regenstreif & Tom Paxton (1994)

Tom Paxton- Has Annie Been in Tonight

Up & Up (Mountain Railroad)

Bob Dylan- Annie’s Going to Sing Her Song

Another Self Portrait 1969-1971: The Bootleg Series Vol. 10 (Columbia/Legacy)

Tom Paxton- When Annie Took Me Home

New Songs for Old Friends (Reprise)

Laurie Lewis- Central Square

Bluegrass Sings Paxton (Mountain Home)

Chris Rawlings & Mike Regenstreif (2007)

Chris Rawlings- Smoker’s Lullaby

Two Sides to Your Story (Cookingfat Music)

Jesse Winchester & Mike Regenstreif (2000)

Jesse Winchester- Defying Gravity

Learn to Love It (Stony Plain)

Ronney Abramson & Mike Regenstreif (2016)

Ronney Abramson- Purify My River

Ronney Abramson (Capitol)

Bruce Murdoch- (Can I) Come Across to You

Bruce Murdoch (Radio Canada International)

Kevin Head & Mike Regenstreif (2013) photo: Vanessa Burnett

Kevin Head- Digby Lament

Hear Them Callin’ (Kevin Head)

Mason Daring & Jeanie Stahl- The Ring

Recordings Celebrating 50 Years of a Musical Partnership (Mason Daring & Jeanie Stahl) 

Neale Eckstein- The Lighthouse (NE & Eric Schwartz)

Never Too Late (Neale Eckstein)

Howard Gladstone- Sea of Sorrow

Crazy Talk (Howard Gladstone)

Carolyn Shulman- No Sad Songs

Heart on a Wire (Carolyn Shulman)

Ball & Chain & The Wreckers- Man with the Pain

Satisfied (Moo Music)

Paul Mills- Stubbs Stomp

The Other Side of the Glass (Borealis)

Rufus Wainwright & Anohni- Going to a Town

Folkocracy (BMG)

Ferron- It Won’t Take Long

Shadows on a Dime (Lucy)

Moonfruits- Brittle Earth

Salt (Co-Op)

Jay Linden- Dreamers on a Sailing Ship

Ordinary Sunrise (Americana North)

Albert & Gage- I Used to be Lonesome

Burnin’ Moonlight (MoonHouse)

Efrat- We Just Need Love

We Just Need Love (Efrat)

Tom Mitchell & Mike Regenstreif (1999)

Tom Mitchell- Soap and Powder

Old Cloth (Yabut Music)

Rosalie Sorrels & Mike Regenstreif (1993)

Rosalie Sorrels- The Pine

Live at the Great American Music Hall (Flying Fish)

Shelley Posen & Mike Regenstreif on Zoom (2023)

Shelley Posen- Having a Drink with Jane

The Old Songs Home (Well Done Music)

Jane Voss & Hoyle Osborne- To All My Friends in Far-Flung Places

Sparkle and Shine (Front Hall)

Michael Jerome Browne & Mike Regenstreif (2005)

Michael Jerome Browne- Where is the Song?

That’s Where It’s At! (Borealis)

Paul Geremia & Mike Regenstreif (2012)

Paul Geremia- Kick It in the Country

Self Portrait in Blues (Red House)

Little Birdie (Orit Shimoni)- Can’t Stop This Train

Bare Bones (Little Birdie)

Perla Batalla- Awakened

A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda Music)

Leonard Cohen- By the Rivers Dark

Ten New Songs (Columbia)

Perla Batalla- Take This Waltz

A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda Music)

Chris Rawlings- Lifting the Darkness

Two Sides to Your Story (Cookingfat Music)

Kate & Anna McGarrigle- Come Back Baby

Pronto Monto (Omnivore)

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

Chaim Tannenbaum- Belfast Louis Falls in Love

Chaim Tannenbaum (StorySound)

Tom Russell & Mike Regenstreif (2018)

Tom Russell- All on a Belfast Morning

Folk Hotel (Frontera)

Mike Regenstreif & Bruce Murdoch (2014)

Bruce Murdoch- Rompin’ Rovin’ Days

Singer-Songwriter Project (Elektra)

Kat Goldman- Take It Down the Line

The Workingman’s Blues (Kat Goldman)

Kurt Anderson- 900 Miles

Life on Interstate 40 (Riverlark Music)

Sonya Cohen Cramer- No Place to Fall

You’ve Been a Friend to Me (Smithsonian Folkways)

Grayson Capps- Columbus Stockade Blues

Heartbreak, Misery & Death (Royal Potato Family)

The Wailin' Jennys- The Parting Glass

40 Days (Jericho Beach Music)

I’m taking some time off in December so I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on January 25. I also host Stranger Songs on CKCU every Tuesday from 3:30-5 pm.

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – November 26, 2024: Immigration, Part 2

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU, 93.1 FM, in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

This episode of Stranger Songs was recorded and can be streamed on-demand, now or anytime, by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/67838.html

Theme: Immigration, Part 2.

Maria Dunn- Immigrant Dreams

Piece By Piece (Distant Whisper)

Joe Jencks- I’m a Stranger in This Land

The Forgotten: Recovered Treasures from the Pen of Si Kahn (Turtle Bear Music)

Rude Girls- Crossing the Border

Mixed Messages (Flying Fish)

Si Kahn- Lady of the Harbor

Best of the Rest (Strictly Country)

John McCutcheon- Third Way

Leap! (Appalsongs)

David Massengill- My Name Joe

Coming Up for Air (Flying Fish)

Grit Laskin- Sewing Machines

Unabashedly Folk (Borealis)

Mara Levine- Immigrant Dream

Jewels and Harmony (Mara’s Creations)

Brendan Nolan- The Curse of the Immigrant

Across the Great Divide (Ould Sagosha)

Martha Trachtenberg & Dede Wyland- Ticket Back

It’s About Time (Mom and Pop)

Crabtree & Mills- Across the Borderline

Flight of Fancy (Free and Easy Music)

Diana Jones- El Chaparral

Song to a Refugee (Goldmine)

Jackson Browne- The Dreamer

Downhill from Everywhere (Inside Recordings)

James Talley- Christmas on the Rio Grande

Bandits, Ballads and Blues (Cimarron)

Guy Clark- Immigrant Eyes

Old Friends (Sugar Hill)

Eric Andersen- Eyes of the Immigrants

Woodstock Under the Stars (Y&T Music)

C. Daniel Boling- All of Us are Immigrants

Love, Dan (Berkalin)

Carla Sciaky- For Nyla

Heart of the Swan (Propinquity)

Ben Caplan- Traveller’s Curse

Old Stock (Rhyme and Reason)

Ben Caplan- You’ve Arrived

Old Stock (Rhyme and Reason)

Next week: Songs from my Top 10 Folk-Rooted and Folk-Branched albums of 2024.

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – November 19, 2024: Immigration, Part 1 – The Man from God Knows Where

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU, 93.1 FM, in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

This episode of Stranger Songs was recorded and can be streamed on-demand, now or anytime, by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/67731.html

Theme: Immigration, Part 1 – The Man from God Knows Where.

As I wrote in Sing Out magazine in 1999 … Thomas Russell was a leader of the United Irish Rebellion in the 1790s. Two centuries later, singer and songwriter Tom Russell was playing a gig in Downpatrick, Ireland when he was approached by an old man in a bar. “Thomas Russell,” he said, “we hung you across the road in 1798.” Tom bought the old man a pint of beer and heard the story of his namesake and of the narrative poem about him called “The Man from God Knows Where.”

For several years prior to that encounter, Tom had been working on a song-cycle that began when a phrase, “American primitive man in an American primitive land,” occurred to him. Originally, Tom conceived the piece as a long tone-poem that would tell some of the history of America absent from the standard history texts. But as he wrote, Tom soon recognized that his own family’s history would provide much of the raw material he needed to tell a compelling story of immigration and the pursuit of the American Dream.

So, more than 200 years after Thomas Russell’s hanging, the man from God knows where is resurrected to observe and to chronicle the struggles, tragedies and joys of the Russells and Malloys who immigrate to the United States from Ireland in the nineteenth century, and of the Larsens and Olsens who come from Norway, and of their lineage through to today’s Tom Russell.

      

Tom Russell’s The Man from God Knows Where is more than just a song-cycle, it’s a fully realized folk-opera featuring Tom and a superb cast of American, Irish and Norwegian singers. Using singers with authentic Irish, Norwegian and rural and urban American accents helps provide authenticity to the voices of Russell’s ancestors and to the other characters who are brought to life in the folk-opera. As well, Tom frequently utilizes distinctly Irish and Norwegian instruments and musical forms to complement the more familiar American folk styles that run through the score to The Man from God Knows Where.

Tom wrote most of the songs we hear in The Man from God Knows Where. There are also some traditional folksongs, a song written by David Massengill, and a poem by Walt Whitman.

Tom Russell- The Man from God Knows Where

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Iris DeMent- Wayfarin’ Stranger

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Tom Russell & Iris DeMent- Patrick Russell

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Dolores Keane- Mary Clare Molloy (American Wake)

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Dave Van Ronk- The Outcast

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Sondre Bratland & Iris DeMent- Ambrose Larsen

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Tom Russell & Dolores Keane- The Dreamin’

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Sondre Bratland & Kari Bremnes- The Old Northern Shore

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Tom Russell & Walt Whitman- The Man from God Knows Where/America

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Kari Bremnes- Anna Olsen

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Tom Russell- Rider on an Orphan Train

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Iris DeMent- Acres of Corn

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Tom Russell- The Man from God Knows Where

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Tom Russell- Sitting Bull in Venice

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Iris DeMent & Kari Bremnes- The Old Rugged Cross

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Kari Bremnes- Anna Olsen’s Letter Home

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Sondre Bratland- Eg er framand

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Dolores Keane & Iris DeMent- When Irish Girls Grow Up

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Tom Russell- Casey Jones

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Tom Russell- Chickasaw County Jail

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Knut Reiersrud- Wayfarin’ Stranger (Passage of Time)

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Tom Russell & Iris DeMent- Throwin’ Horseshoes at the Moon

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Tom Russell- The Man from God Knows Where

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Dave Van Ronk- The Outcast (revisited)

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Iris DeMent- Wayfarin’ Stranger (revisited)

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

Tom Russell & Iris DeMent- Love Abides

The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)

“Wayfarin’ Stranger” is one of the recurring themes in The Man from God Knows Where so I used the last few minutes of the show to play a recent version of the song.

American Patchwork Quartet- Wayfaring Stranger

American Patchwork Quartet (Carolina Jasmine)

Next week: Immigration, Part 2.

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – November 12, 2024: Remembering Barbara Dane (1927-2024)

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU, 93.1 FM, in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

This episode of Stranger Songs was recorded and can be streamed on-demand, now or anytime, by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/67642.html

Theme: Remembering Barbara Dane (1927-2024).

Barbara Dane, the folk, blues and jazz singer – and political activist – died at home in Oakland, California on October 20 at age 97. Barbara was born in Detroit in 1927 and began singing at demonstrations for racial equality and labor rights while still a teenager. She remained an activist for those causes, as well as for peace and women’s rights all of her life.

In 2017, I had the honor of interviewing Barbara on stage during the Wisdom of the Elders panel at the Folk Alliance International conference in Kansas City. She truly had a remarkable and inspiring life.

Mike Regenstreif & Barbara Dane (2017)

Barbara Dane- Stranger’s Blues

Barbara Dane Sings the Blues (Folkways)

Barbara Dane- Nine Hundred Miles

Anthology of American Folk Songs (Tradition)

Barbara Dane- When I was a Young Girl

Anthology of American Folk Songs (Tradition)

Barbara Dane & Doc Watson- You Don’t Know Me/You Don’t Know My Mind

Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs (Smithsonian Folkways)

Barbara Dane & Pete Seeger- Solidarity Forever

Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs (Smithsonian Folkways)

Barbara Dane with Jesse Cahn, Pablo Menendez & Johnny Harper- Oh, Had I a Golden Thread

Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs (Smithsonian Folkways)

Barbara Dane & The Chambers Brothers- It Isn’t Nice

Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs (Smithsonian Folkways)

Barbara Dane & The Chambers Brothers- Come By Here

Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs (Smithsonian Folkways)

Barbara Dane with Memphis Slim & Willie Dixon- Walking Blues

Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs (Smithsonian Folkways)

Barbara Dane & Lightnin' Hopkins- Sometimes I Believe She Loves Me

Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs (Smithsonian Folkways)

Barbara Dane- Ain’t Nobody Got the Blues Like Me

Trouble In Mind (Dreadnaught)

Barbara Dane- Prescription for the Blues

Trouble In Mind (Dreadnaught)

Barbara Dane with Earl 'Fatha' Hines & His Orchestra- Livin’ with the Blues

Livin’ with the Blues (Dreadnaught)

Barbara Dane- Basin Street Blues

Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs (Smithsonian Folkways)

Barbara Dane- Mama Yancey’s Advice

Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs (Smithsonian Folkways)

Barbara Dane with Earl 'Fatha' Hines & His Orchestra- Mecca Flat Blues

Livin’ with the Blues (Dreadnaught)

Barbara Dane- Deportees (Plane Wreck at Los Gatos)

Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs (Smithsonian Folkways)

Barbara Dane & Pete Seeger- We Shall Not Be Moved

Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs (Smithsonian Folkways)

Barbara Dane & The Chambers Brothers- This Little Light of Mine

Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs (Smithsonian Folkways)

Next week: Immigration, Part 1 – The Man from God Knows Where.

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – November 5, 2024: Addendums to Past Themes

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU, 93.1 FM, in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

This episode of Stranger Songs was recorded and can be streamed on-demand, now or anytime, by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/67577.html

Theme: Addendums to Past Themes.

This is the second of two editions of Stranger Songs airing during CKCU’s 2024 Funding Drive. Your support is meaningful and essential to keeping CKCU’s diverse programming on the air for another year. You can make a donation in support of Stranger Songs and CKCU at this link. Charitable income tax receipts are issued for donations of $20 or more. Thanks for your support. https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/CKCU/p2p/fundingdrive2024/page/stranger-songs

A theme I do every year on the second Stranger Songs funding drive show is Addendums to Past Themes. More often than not, when I choose a theme for Stranger Songs, there are more possible songs to choose from than I can include – and sometimes new music that fits the theme arrives after the show has been produced. So, I’ve chosen a few of the themes from the past year for addendums.

Perla Batalla- A Thousand Kisses Deep

A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda Music)

Leonard Cohen- Going Home

Old Ideas (Columbia)

Perla Batalla- Everybody Knows

A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda Music)

Scottie Miller- Ah, New York

Carnival Cocoon (Scottie Miller)

Lucy Kaplansky- Love Song/New York

The Red Thread (Red House)

Amy Speace- In New York City

The American Dream (Windbone)

Shelley Posen- The Old Songs Home

The Old Songs Home (Well Done Music)

Madeleine Peyroux- I Hear Music

Careless Love: Deluxe Edition (Rounder)

The Central Park Sheiks- The People’s Key

Honeysuckle Rose (Flying Fish)

Misty Blues- Keep On Movin’ It On

I’m Too Old for Games: A Live Tribute to Odetta (Guitar One)

Eric Bibb & Odetta- ‘Tain’t Such a Much

Friends (Telarc)

Odetta- Look the World Over

Blues Everywhere I Go (M.C.) 

Bob Dylan- My Back Pages

Another Side of Bob Dylan (Columbia)

Ian & Sylvia- You Were On My Mind

Northern Journey (Vanguard)

Sam Cooke- A Change is Gonna Come

Ain’t That Good News (RCA)

Lenka Lichtenberg- Remember the Sun

Feel with Blood (Six Degrees)

Lenka Lichtenberg- After the Flood

Feel with Blood (Six Degrees)

Sid Selvidge- Pearlee

Twice Told Tales (Elektra Nonesuch)

Rosalie Sorrels- One More Next Time

If I Could Be the Rain (Folk-Legacy)

Gordon Lightfoot- Steel Rail Blues

The Original Lightfoot (EMI)

Duke Ellington- Sugar Hill Shim Sham

Ellington in Order, Volume 8 (1937) (Legacy)

Next week: Remembering Barbara Dane (1927-2024).

--Mike Regenstreif

Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday November 2, 2024

Saturday Morning is an eclectic roots-oriented program on CKCU, 93.1 FM, in Ottawa on Saturday mornings from 7 until 10 am (Eastern time) and available for on-demand streaming anytime. I am one of the four rotating hosts of the Saturday Morning show. 

This episode of Saturday Morning was recorded and can be streamed on-demand, now or anytime, by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/67537.html

This is the second of three editions of the Saturday Morning show airing during CKCU’s 2024 Funding Drive. Your support is meaningful and essential to keeping CKCU’s diverse programming on the air for another year. You can make a donation in support of Saturday Morning and CKCU at this link. Charitable income tax receipts are issued for donations of $20 or more. Thanks for your support. https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/CKCU/p2p/fundingdrive2024/page/saturday-morning

Walter Hyatt- In November

King Tears (MCA)

Mary Flower- Brother, Can You Spare a Dime

Bywater Dance (Yellow Dog)

El Coyote- Tip Jar

El Coyote (El Coyote)

Old Man Luedecke- Easy Money

Easy Money (True North)

Bonnie Dobson- Living on Plastic

Take Me for a Walk in the Morning Dew (Hornbeam)

Bill Hearne- Cash on the Barrelhead

Always Trust Your Cape (Howlin’ Dog) 

Perla Batalla- Sisters of Mercy

A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda)

Dave Van Ronk- Bird on the Wire

Van Ronk (Polydor)

Martin Simpson- The Stranger Song

Vagrant Stanzas (Topic)

Leonard Cohen- Famous Blue Raincoat

Songs of Love and Hate (Columbia/Legacy)

Perla Batalla- The L of Your First Name

A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda)

Carla Sciaky- Dear Mr. Bowers

Heart of the Swan (Propinquity)

Tom Mitchell & Mike Regenstreif (1999)

Tom Mitchell- Wasted Rose

1976 live recording – used with permission

Amy Speace- Love is Gonna Come Again

The American Dream (Windbone)

Lenka Lichtenberg- Wintry Dusk

Feel with Blood (Six Degrees)

Mike Regenstreif & Brendan Nolan (2023)

Brendan Nolan- Packing Her Bag

Beneath White Stars: Holocaust Profiles in Song (AlmondSeed Media)

Chava Alberstein & The Klezmatics- Mayn Shvester Khaye (My Sister Khaye)

The Well (Rounder)

Lenka Lichtenberg- Feel with Blood

Feel with Blood (Six Degrees)

Ian Robb & James Stephens- God and The Orange Clown

Declining …with thanks (Fallen Angle Music)

Resistance Revival Chorus featuring Rhiannon Giddens- All You Fascists Bound to Lose

This Joy (Righteous Babe)

John McCutcheon- If I Had a Hammer

To Everyone in All the World: A Celebration of Pete Seeger (Appalseed)

Perla Batalla- Democracy

A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda)

Connie Kaldor- Set You Free

Keep Going (Coyote Entertainment) 

Carolyn Shulman- Bolt Out of the Blue

Heart on a Wire (Carolyn Shulman)

Kurt Anderson- Whistlers and Jugglers

Life on Interstate 40 (Riverlark Music)

Neale Eckstein & BettySoo- Like a Poem Needs a Rhyme

Never Too Late (Neale Eckstein)

Rik Palieri- When the Circus Leaves Town

Hands of Time (Rik Palieri)

Geneviève Racette- X2

Golden (Geneviève Racette)

Eric Bibb- Make a Change (Chains & Free)

In the Real World (Stony Plain)

Reggie Harris- The Times They are A-Changin’

Ready to Go (Reggie Harris Music)

Bettye LaVette- A Change is Gonna Come

Change is Gonna Come Sessions (Anti-)

Jerron Paxton- Things Done Changed

Things Done Changed (Smithsonian Folkways)

Moses Crouch- Hillbilly Willie’s Blues/Travelin’ Railroad Blues

Earth Music (Riverlark)

Joel Mabus & Mike Regenstreif (2001)

Joel Mabus- Blues in a Bottle

Lonesome Road: Suite for Solo Guitar and Voice – Songs of the Lost Generation 1924-1928 (Fossil)

Misty Blues- Weepin’ Willow Blues

I’m Too Old for Games: A Live Tribute to Odetta (Guitar One)

Odetta with Dr. John- Oh Papa

Blues Everywhere I Go (M.C.)

Terra Spencer & Stephen Fearing- East to West

Sunset (Terra Spencer)

Steve Lundquist- The Great Northwest

The Great Northwest (Steve Lundquist)

Tish Hinojosa- If I Could Only Fly

With a Guitar & a Pen (Tish Hinojosa)

Sav Sankaran- Looking for the Moon

Bluegrass Sings Paxton (Mountain Home)

Amir Amiri Ensemble- Raghseh Choobi (Dance of the Wooden Sticks)

Ajdad – Ancestors: Echoes of Persia (Fifth House)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on November 30. I also host Stranger Songs on CKCU every Tuesday from 3:30-5 pm.

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – October 29, 2024: Stars & Skies

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU, 93.1 FM, in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

This episode of Stranger Songs was recorded and can be streamed on-demand, now or anytime, by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/67488.html

Theme: Stars & Skies – all the songs have something or other to do with stars and/or skies.

This is the first of two editions of Stranger Songs airing during CKCU’s 2024 Funding Drive. Your support is meaningful and essential to keeping CKCU’s diverse programming on the air for another year. You can make a donation in support of Stranger Songs and CKCU at this link. Charitable income tax receipts are issued for donations of $20 or more. Thanks for your support. https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/CKCU/p2p/fundingdrive2024/page/stranger-songs

Jesse Winchester- North Star

Third Down, 110 to Go (Stony Plain)

Mike Regenstreif & Jesse Winchester (2006)

Jesse Winchester- How Far to the Horizon?

Learn to Love It (Stony Plain)

Mason Daring & Jeanie Stahl- Counting on the Stars

The Early Years (Daring)

James Keelaghan- My Skies

History: The First 25 Years (Borealis)

Mike Regenstreif & Connie Kaldor (2015)

Connie Kaldor- Sky with Nothing to Get in the Way

Sky with Nothing to Get in the Way (Coyote Entertainment)

Mike Regenstreif & Lynn Miles (2013)

Lynn Miles- We’ll Look for Stars

We’ll Look for Stars (Must Have Music)

Martha Seyler & Robert Resnik- Blue Skies

Martha Sings & Robert Plays (Martha Seyler & Robert Resnik)

Dave Van Ronk- Would You Like to Swing on a Star?

Sunday Street (Philo)

Mike Regenstreif & Bruce Cockburn (2017)

Bruce Cockburn- Whole Night Sky

Rarities (True North)

The Wailin’ Jennys- Bright Morning Stars

Bright Morning Stars (True North)

Mike Regenstreif & Bruce Cockburn (2007)

Bruce Murdoch- I Sit and Count the Stars

Matters of the Heart (Bruce Murdoch)

Cindy Church, George Koller, Joe Sealy- Stardust

The Nearness of You: A Tribute to the Music of Hoagy Carmichael (Seajam)

Vance Gilbert- Ten Thousand Skies

Unfamiliar Moon (Disismye Music)

Steel Rail- Prairie Sky

The Road Less Travelled (Crossties)

Caroline Doctorow- Prairie in the Sky

I Carry All I Own: The Songs of Mary McCaslin (Narrow Lane)

Tom Paxton & John McCutcheon- Prairie Star

Together (Appalseed Productions) 

The Wainwright Sisters- Dusty Skies

Songs in the Dark (MapleMusic)

Mike Regenstreif & Mary McCaslin (1999)

Mary McCaslin- Ghost Riders in the Sky

Prairie in the Sky (Philo)

Anne Hills- Pleiades

Bittersweet Street (Redwing Music)

Eric Bogle- One Small Star

At This Stage (Greentrax)

Jane Voss & Hoyle Osborne- The Galaxy Song

Beyond the Boundaries (Ripple)

Mike Regenstreif & Priscilla Herdman (2000)

Priscilla Herdman- Underneath the Stars

Into the Stars (Stardreamer Music)

Guy Van Duser & Billy Novick- Stars Fell on Alabama

Stride Guitar (Rounder)

Next week: Addendums to Past Themes (CKCU Funding Drive)

--Mike Regenstreif