Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday October 24, 2023: Conversation and Songs with Terri Thal

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/595/62442.html

Primary Theme: Conversation and Songs with Terri Thal.

Terri Thal is the author of the newly published memoir, My Greenwich Village: Dave, Bob and Me. She became involved in the folk music scene while still a teenager in New York and was the first wife and manager of Dave Van Ronk. She was also the first manager of Bob Dylan and a number of other artists in the 1960s. I spoke with Terri on October 13 via Zoom.

The next five songs punctuated my conversation with Terri.

Pete Seeger- Solidarity Forever

If I Had a Hammer: Songs of Hope & Struggle (Smithsonian Folkways)

Dave Van Ronk- Cocaine Blues

Inside Dave Van Ronk (Fantasy)

Bob Dylan- Masters of War

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (Columbia/Legacy)

Dave Van Ronk- Mack the Knife

Let No One Deceive You: Songs of Bertolt Brecht (Flying Fish)

Terre & Maggie Roche- Malachy’s

Kin Ya See That Sun (Earth Rock Wreckerds) 

Note: This is the first edition of Stranger Songs that I’ve recorded since the day of horrific and unfathomable terrorism committed by Hamas in Israel on October 7, and the entirely predictable consequences that followed in Gaza. I despair for the innocent victims in Israel and in Gaza who have been injured and killed these last few weeks. May there soon be peace, shalom, salaam, in Israel, Gaza, and the West Bank; in Ukraine, and everywhere else on Earth torn apart by war. These are just a few of the songs I was reminded of in the days that followed October 7.

Leonard Cohen- Story of Isaac

Songs from a Room (Columbia/Legacy)

Kronos Quartet with Sam Amidon, Brian Carpenter, Lee Knight & Aoife O'Donovan- Turn, Turn, Turn

Long Time Passing: Kronos Quartet & Friends Celebrate Pete Seeger (Smithsonian Folkways)

Nanci Griffith- From a Distance

Lone Star State of Mind (MCA)

The Klezmatics with Adrienne Cooper- I Ain’t Afraid

Live at Town Hall (Klezmatics Disc) 

Fran Avni with Rachelle Mingail Shubert & Jeffrey Simons- Sim Shalom/Bring the Peace

Kulanu: All of Us in Harmony (Fran Avni)

Next week: Halloween and CKCU Funding Drive.

--Mike Regenstreif 

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday November 22, 2022: Songs for Holocaust Education Month

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 recorded and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/58421.html

Theme: Songs for Holocaust Education Month.

November is Holocaust Education Month and in these times of rising antisemitism and other forms of racism and hatred, it’s important for us to pause and remember the lessons of the Holocaust when Hitler’s Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered 6 million Jews – about two-thirds of the Jews who lived in Europe.

John McCutcheon- Second Hand

Leap! (Appalsongs)

Janis Ian- Tattoo

Best of Janis Ian: The Autobiography Collection (Rude Girl)

Tom Paxton- Train for Auschwitz

The Best of Broadside 1962-1988 (Smithsonian Folkways)

Rod MacDonald- Auschwitz

The Man on the Ledge (Shanachie)

Meghan Hone- No Art

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

Lenka Lichtenberg- Waiting at the end of an alley

Thieves of Dreams (Six Degrees)

Lee Oskar- Never Forget

Never Forget (Dreams We Share Productions)

Art of Time Ensemble featuring Sarah Harmer- Dance Me to the End of Love

Songs of Leonard Cohen Live (Art of Time Recordings)

Chuck Brodsky- Warsaw in May

Them and Us (Chuck Brodsky)

Aviva Chernick & Payadora Tango Ensemble- Silent Tears

Silent Tears: The Last Yiddish Tango

Lenka Lichtenberg & Payadora Tango Ensemble- A Victim of Mengele

Silent Tears: The Last Yiddish Tango

Olga Mieleszczuk & Payadora Tango Ensemble- Vi Ahin Zol Ikh Geyn/Buried Underground

Silent Tears: The Last Yiddish Tango

Brendan Nolan- Kissing the Wall

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

Dave Curley- Mr. Sugihara’s Eyes

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

Tim Grimm- Anne in Amsterdam

The Turning Point (Cavalier)

Psoy Korolenko- Babi Yar

Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II (Six Degrees)

Sophie Milman- Tulchin

Yiddish Glory: The Lost Songs of World War II (Six Degrees)

Frank London & Cantor Sveta Kundish- Minutn fun bitokhn

Ghetto Songs (Felmay)

Adrienne Cooper & Zalmen Mlotek- Yid du partizaner (Jew, Partisan)

Ghetto Tango (Traditional Crossroads)

Michael Alpert, Lauren Brody, Adrienne Cooper, Irena Klepfiz, Henry Sapoznik, Jeff Shandler, Lorin Sklamberg, Josh Walensky, & Alan Zemel- Zog nit keyn mol (Never Say)

Partisans of Vilna (Flying Fish)

Next week: Remembering Jack Hardy.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

The Klezmatics -- Live at Town Hall

This review is from the December 12, 2011 issue of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin.

The Klezmatics

Live At Town Hall

Klezmatics Disc

klezmatics.com

The New York City-based Klezmatics, without doubt one of the most creative and influential of contemporary klezmer bands, celebrate their 25th anniversary this year with the release of a two-CD set recorded at their exciting 20th anniversary concert in 2006. The current line-up of the band was joined by their former clarinetists Margot Leverett and David Kraukauer, and a stellar bunch of 24 other guest singers and musicians, to play some of the best music from their nine previous albums in what really was a once-in-a-lifetime extravaganza.

Live At Town Hall opens with the exuberant, joyfully over-the-top “Man in a Hat,” a Yiddish-English celebration of Manhattan, sailors, world travel and lust. Lead singer Lorin Sklamberg sings the double entendre lyrics with an elastic facility few singers in any genre of music can match. Meanwhile the band – virtuoso players all – wails in triple time.

From there we journey through a marvellous set that includes several extended medleys and suites.

Among the many highlights are four songs featuring special guest singers.

Joanne Borts and Sklamberg sing a duet on “Di Krenitse,” an Itzik Fefer poem set to music by Israeli singer Chava Alberstein. The arrangement draws on both klezmer and cabaret styles.

“Elijah Rock,” an African American spiritual which references biblical prophets Elijah, Moses and Ezekiel, features singer Joshua Nelson and an arrangement that could raise the roof on Preservation Hall in New Orleans.

Adrienne Cooper is featured on a powerful version of “I Ain’t Afraid,” a Holly Near song with added Yiddish lyrics by Cooper and Michael Wex, which the Klezmatics turned into a post-9/11 anthem extolling both defiance to terrorism and reconciliation of peoples.

And Susan McKeown, the superb Irish traditional singer, joins the band on “Gonna Get Through This World,” one of several songs drawn from the Klezmatics’ two albums of the Woody Guthrie Jewish-themed lyrics they set to music.

Other highlights include several other songs from the Guthrie project including “Holy Ground,” sung beautifully by Sklamberg with a choir of other Klezmatics and guests adding gorgeous harmonies, and just in time for right now, the celebratory “Hanuka Gelt.”

Along with Sklamberg, who plays accordion, guitar and piano in addition to his lead vocals, the core Klezmatics include Frank London on trumpet, horns, keyboards and percussion; violinist Lisa Gutkin; Matt Darriau on clarinet alto saxophone and kaval; Paul Morrissett on bass and tsimbl; and drummers David Licht and Richie Barshay. They are not just one of the best bands in klezmer music, they’re one of the best bands in any kind of music.

--Mike Regenstreif

Adrienne Cooper -- Enchanted: A New Generation of Yiddish Song

My review of Enchanted: A New Generation of Yiddish Song by Adrienne Cooper for The Forward is now available on their Arty Semite  blog.

--Mike Regenstreif