Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – February 18, 2025: Songs from Gullah Traditions

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/595/68957.html

Theme: Songs from Gullah Traditions.

The Gullah people are an African American group – descended from enslaved people from West Africa – who live in the coastal plains and sea islands of North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia and northern Florida and have a rich tradition of folksongs.

Bessie Jones & The Georgia Sea Island Singers- O Day

Get in Union (Tompkins Square)

Bessie Jones & The Georgia Sea Island Singers- Buzzard Lope

Get in Union (Tompkins Square)

Reggie Harris- Sheep, Sheep/Little David

Ready to Go (Reggie Harris Music)

Ken Whiteley and the Beulah Band- Beulah Land

Ken Whiteley and the Beulah Band (Borealis)

Ranky Tanky- That’s Alright

Ranky Tanky (Resilience Music)

David Rea- Kindlin’ Wood/Things are Coming My Way

X 7 (Gitsu)

Bessie Jones & The Georgia Sea Island Singers- Sink ‘Em Low

Get in Union (Tompkins Square)

Ranky Tanky- Join the Band

Ranky Tanky (Resilience Music)

Ken Whiteley- Michael Row

Long Time Travelling (Ken Whiteley)

Kim & Reggie Harris with Baby Jay- Row de Boat

Get On Board: Underground Railroad & Civil Rights Freedom Songs, Volume 2 (Appleseed)

Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project with Tim O'Brien- Before This Time Another Year

Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project (Borealis)

Bessie Jones & The Georgia Sea Island Singers- Sign of the Judgement

Get in Union (Tompkins Square)

The Duhks- Moses Don’t Get Lost

Migrations (Sugar Hill)

The Duhks- Turtle Dove

Migrations (Sugar Hill)

Penny Lang- Let Me Fly

Stone + Sand + Sea + Sky (Borealis)

Ranky Tanky- Watch That Star

Ranky Tanky (Resilience Music)

Bessie Jones & The Georgia Sea Island Singers- Once There was No Sun

The Complete Friends of Old Time Music Concert (Smithsonian Folkways)

John Davis & The Georgia Sea Island Singers- Adam in the Garden

The Complete Friends of Old Time Music Concert (Smithsonian Folkways)

Bessie Jones & The Georgia Sea Island Singers- Who Built the Ark

The Complete Friends of Old Time Music Concert (Smithsonian Folkways)

John Davis & The Georgia Sea Island Singers- Let My Children Go

The Complete Friends of Old Time Music Concert (Smithsonian Folkways)

Peter Davis & The Georgia Sea Island Singers- My God is a Rock

The Complete Friends of Old Time Music Concert (Smithsonian Folkways)

Bruce Springsteen & The Sessions Band- Pay Me My Money Down

Live in Dublin (Columbia)

Ranky Tanky- Ranky Tanky

Ranky Tanky (Resilience Music)

Bessie Jones & The Georgia Sea Island Singers- You Better Mind

Put Your Hand On Your Hip and Let Your Backbone Slip: Songs and Games from the Georgia Sea Islands (Rounder)

Bessie Jones & The Georgia Sea Island Singers- May Be the Last Time, I Don’t Know

Put Your Hand On Your Hip and Let Your Backbone Slip: Songs and Games from the Georgia Sea Islands (Rounder)

Next week: A Tribute to Nina Simone.

--Mike Regenstreif 

Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project

JAYME STONE’S LOMAX PROJECT

Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project

Borealis Records

jaymestone.com

Alan Lomax (1915-2002), who started as an assistant to his father, the pioneering folklorist John Lomax, was one of the most important folklorists and ethnomusicologists – if not the most important – of the 20th century. His thousands of recordings of traditional artists from all over the world, including of such important figures as Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Muddy Waters and Jelly Roll Morton, most of them field recordings, is one of the most important repositories of traditional music.

For Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project, his most ambitious project yet, Canadian banjo master Jayme Stone has surrounded himself with a stellar cast of singers and musicians – among them Tim O’Brien, Margaret Glaspy, Moira Smiley, Bruce Molsky, Brittany Haas, Eli West, and Drew Gonsalves – who reinterpret and reimagine 19 songs and tunes collected by Lomax over the years.

Being released to celebrate the centennial of Lomax’s birth, it is an extraordinary collection at once timeless, traditional and utterly contemporary. Jayme and his collaborators – he refers to the album as a “collaboratory” – breathe new life into the music. And to be sure, this is not a Jayme Stone star turn. The lead vocals are left to others and his banjo playing is part of the ensemble on most tunes, doing exactly what needs to be done in service to the songs and tunes.

While each of these 19 performances is very special, I’ll call attention to a few of my favorites.

Among them are a couple of songs from the repertoire of the amazing Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers. “Before This Time Another Year,” features Tim O’Brien on lead vocals and guitar (the only instrument) with stunning harmonies by six other singers. Tim, who happens to be the same age as me, adds a few lines of his own to the traditional verses to mark the milestone birthday he passed this past year. Then on the spiritual “Sheep, Sheep Don’tcha Know the Road,” the same singers, this time led by Moira Smiley, do an amazing a cappella call-and-response rendition punctuated by their infectious hand clapping.

The shanty “Shenandoah” receives an interpretation that is at times hauntingly beautiful and at times exciting thanks to the sublime singing of Margaret Glaspy, Jayme’s banjo, and Brittany Haas’ fiddling.

The duet by Margaret and Tim on the old cowboy song “Goodbye, Old Paint (Leaving Cheyenne)” is sad and beautiful, while Margaret’s duet with Bruce Molsky on “Now Your Man Done Gone,” although sung a cappella, captures all the essence of the blues.

Lomax recorded some of the great early calypso singers and one of the most infectious pieces here is Drew Gonsalves’ version of “Bury Boula for Me” on which Jayme’s banjo playing stands in perfectly for steel drums.

This sublime album includes a beautiful 52-page booklet with detailed song notes, photos, and essays by Jayme and Stephen Wade. An essential album.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Ken Whiteley -- Another Day's Journey

KEN WHITELEY
Another Day’s Journey
Borealis
kenwhiteley.com

Ken Whiteley’s website notes that “his musical journey has taken him from jug band, folk and swing to blues, gospel and children's music.” With the exception of children’s music, Ken covers all of those grounds on Another Day’s Journey, which I think I can say without much reservation, is the finest solo album of his long career.

Of course, the term ‘solo’ is a bit of a misnomer as Ken, who sings and variously plays more than a dozen different instruments, works with cast of great collaborators – singers and instrumentalists – that changes, track to track, as the album unfolds on this journey through Ken's musical world.

The album begins with the title track, a joyous, uplifting song from the repertoire of the amazing Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers. Acoustic blues great Guy Davis, is Ken’s principal accomplice on this tune. Guy returns later in the CD to add his harmonies, harmonica and guitar playing to “Too Much Trouble,” a lovely, nostalgic original by Ken, and on a bluesy version of the traditional “Motherless Children.”

Kim and Reggie Harris – whose music and infectious personalities never fail to inspire – and sacred steel master Chuck Campbell join Ken for three songs including the inspirational “Butterfly,” and the poignant “No Answer,” both co-written by Ken and Reggie, and “I Want to Live So God Can Use Me,” an on-your-feet gospel number.

I’ve been on a listening to a lot of jug band music lately and two juggy tracks here are duets with Maria Muldaur, a central figure in the jug band revival of the 1960s and in its latest revival over the past few years. “Language of Love” and “Mike and Mary” are both recent Ken Whiteley originals that sound like they could have been recorded by the Memphis Jug Band in 1927, the Jim Kweskin Jug Band in 1965, or the Original Sloth Band in 1975.

Newfoundland swing guitarist Duane Andrews joins Ken for two other highlights on the album: Ken’s own “Old Wind Blow,” which also features some excellent harmonica work by Ken’s brother, Chris Whiteley, and “I Want To Be Happy,” an old swing tune that was a staple in the repertoire of the late, great Jackie Washington.

Ken Whiteley performs in Montreal on a split bill with Lake of Stew on Saturday, December 11, 8:00 pm, at Petit Campus. Click here for info.

--Mike Regenstreif