Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday December 28, 2021: Top 10 for 2021

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU in Ottawa on Tuesday afternoons 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/595/54677.html

Theme: My Top 10 folk-rooted and folk-branched albums of 2021. Visit the Folk Roots/Folk Branches blog at https://frfb.blogspot.com/2021/12/top-10-for-2021.html to see the annotated and illustrated list.

#10 – Blues/Ballads/Cowboy Songs by Peter Keane

Peter Keane- Clay Pigeons
Blues/Ballads/Cowboy Songs (Peter Keane)
Peter Keane- Cool Water
Blues/Ballads/Cowboy Songs (Peter Keane)

#9 – Let’s Get Happy Together by Maria Muldaur with Tuba Skinny

Maria Muldaur with Tuba Skinny- I Go for That
Let’s Get Happy Together (Stony Plain)
Maria Muldaur with Tuba Skinny- Some Sweet Day
Let’s Get Happy Together (Stony Plain)
Maria Muldaur with Tuba Skinny- Swing You Sinners
Let’s Get Happy Together (Stony Plain)

#8 – Pay Day by Hans Theessink & Big Daddy Wilson

Hans Theessink & Big Daddy Wilson- Everybody Ought to Treat a Stranger Right
Pay Day (Blue Groove)
Hans Theessink & Big Daddy Wilson- I Got Plenty
Pay Day (Blue Groove)
Hans Theessink & Big Daddy Wilson- Old Man Trouble
Pay Day (Blue Groove)

#7 – One Night Lonely by Mary Chapin Carpenter

Mary Chapin Carpenter- I am a Town
One Night Lonely (Lambent Light)
Mary Chapin Carpenter- Farther Along and Further In
One Night Lonely (Lambent Light)

#6 – Joyful Banner Blazing by Maria Dunn

Maria Dunn- Secondhand Skates
Joyful Banner Blazing (Distant Whisper)
Maria Dunn- Joyful Banner Blazing
Joyful Banner Blazing (Distant Whisper)

#5 – Hourglass by Murray McLauchlan

Murray McLauchlan- Hourglass
Hourglass (True North)
Murray McLauchlan- Wishes
Hourglass (True North)

#4 – On Solid Ground by Reggie Harris

Reggie Harris- Hello In There
On Solid Ground (Reggie Harris Music)
Reggie Harris- High Over the Hudson
On Solid Ground (Reggie Harris Music)

#3 – Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) by Joni Mitchell

Joni Mitchell- Hunter
Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino)
Joni Mitchell- Urge for Going
Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino)

#2 – Song to a Refugee by Diana Jones

Diana Jones- Song to a Refugee
Song to a Refugee (Goldmine)
Diana Jones, Steve Earle, Richard Thompson, Peggy Seeger & Zahara Phillips- We Believe You
Song to a Refugee (Goldmine)

#1 – Outside Child by Allison Russell

Allison Russell- Montreal
Outside Child (Fantasy)
Allison Russell- Persephone
Outside Child (Fantasy)

Next week: The Folk Roots of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Branches of Folk Music.

Find me on Twitter. www.twitter.com/mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Top 10 for 2021

Here are my picks for the Top 10 folk-rooted or folk-branched albums of 2021. As in past years, I started with the list of hundreds of new albums (including reissues) that I listened to over the past year and narrowed it down to a short list of about 30. I’ve been over the short 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.

1. Allison Russell – Outside Child (Fantasy). On this brave and compelling song-cycle, Allison Russell – known for her work with Po’ Girl, Sankofa, Birds of Chicago and Our Native Daughters – documents the childhood sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her step-father and how she was able to overcome and break that cycle of abuse. On a personal note, I’m about 25 years older than Allison and didn’t yet know her at the time of the abuse she writes and sings about – we first met in 2003 when she was a member of Po’ Girl and they were guests on my Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio program in Montreal – but Allison as a child lived about a block away from me. I had no idea, at the time, that such things were happening in my neighborhood. Now, of course, we understand that such things happen in virtually every neighborhood.

2. Diana Jones – Song to a Refugee (Goldmine). Over the course of 13 poignant and moving songs, Diana Jones sings about the plight of refugees in the modern world. Some of these songs, like “We Believe You,” with Steve Earle, Richard Thompson and Peggy Seeger joining Diana, are addressed to refugees. Others, like “The Sea is My Mother,” are sung from the perspective of refugees. As I mentioned to Diana when she was my guest on the July 13 edition of Stranger Songs, these are magnificent songs that I wish did not have to be written.

3. Joni Mitchell – Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino). This 5-CD set includes home demos, studio outtakes and alternate versions, and several concerts recorded live, including a 1968 set recorded here in Ottawa at the legendary Le Hibou coffee house – which I featured in its entirety on the December 7 edition of Stranger Songs. These often-enthralling recordings provide valuable insight into Joni Mitchell’s masterful songwriting as she developed and went beyond her folk roots.

4. Reggie Harris – On Solid Ground (Reggie Harris). On his second solo album, after many as a duo with Kim Harris, Reggie Harris offers another inspired and inspiring set of mostly original songs including topical songs, civil rights songs, love songs, and a glorious tribute to Pete Seeger. He also includes superb interpretations of songs from Malvina Reynolds, John Prine, and, perhaps surprisingly, The Beatles.

5. Murray McLauchlan – Hourglass (True North). On one of the finest albums of a career that has stretched back more than a half-century, Murray McLauchlan offers a largely topical set of songs that comments on such contemporary issues as income inequality, racism, refugees, and threats to democracy. Most of the songs were played when Murray was my guest on the July 27 edition of Stranger Songs.

6. Maria Dunn – Joyful Banner Blazing (Distant Whisper). Maria Dunn’s inspiring original songs, deeply rooted in folk and Celtic music traditions, capture the good in the human spirit and the essence of communal common cause. She also includes a stunning version of “From Dublin with Love,” written by the late, great Newfoundland songwriting legend, Ron Hynes.

7. Mary Chapin Carpenter – One Night Lonely (Lambent Light). In November 2020, during the pandemic, Mary Chapin Carpenter was filmed and recorded at the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Virginia, near Washington, DC, performing a PBS concert with no audience. Now available as a 2-CD set, One Night Lonely, is a beautiful solo performance of many of the finest songs from throughout her career.

8. Hans Theessink & Big Daddy Wilson – Pay Day (Blue Groove). Hans Theessink is a Dutch-born, Austrian-based, singer and guitarist who has long been one of my favorite blues artists. On Pay Day, he offers a wonderful and subtle collaboration with Big Daddy Wilson, a fine North Carolina blues singer, who has primarily toured and recorded in Europe over the past several decades. The album includes in-the-tradition original songs from both, and exceptional interpretations of classics drawn from Blind Willie Johnson, Mississippi John Hurt, Skip James and Washington Phillips.

9. Maria Muldaur with Tuba Skinny – Let’s Get Happy Together (Stony Plain). On her latest collection, Maria Muldaur is backed by Tuba Skinny, a marvelous group of traditional New Orleans jazz musicians, for a set of wonderful old, mostly obscure, songs from the New Orleans tradition. There’s much joy in Maria’s singing and Tuba Skinny’s playing.

10. Peter Keane – Blues/Ballads/Cowboy Songs (Peter Keane). As indicated by the title, Peter Keane’s latest album is a terrific collection of mostly old songs from blues, folk and country sources (plus one original), that are mostly performed solo by just Peter and his archtop Gibson guitar – with some limited and tasteful overdubs on a few tracks. If I have one criticism of this set it’s that at just 26 minutes, it’s over much too soon.

I will be featuring songs from each of these albums on Stranger Songs, Tuesday December 28, 3:30-5 pm, on CKCU. The program is now available 24/7 for on-demand streaming by clicking "Listen Now" at this link.

Find me on Twitter. www.twitter.com/mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

–Mike Regenstreif

Eric Bibb & JJ Milteau – Lead Belly’s Gold

ERIC BIBB & JJ MILTEAU

Lead Belly’s Gold

Stony Plain Records

ericbibb.com

Lead Belly (Huddie Ledbetter, 1888-1949) was one of the most definitive and influential of all American folk and blues singers. He lived a life of a legend that included early years growing up in the Deep South at a time of intense racism and spent time in Texas and Louisiana prisons for killing two men. Legend has it that he sang his way out of prison in 1934, earning a pardon from the governor of Louisiana.

Lead Belly’s recordings from the 1930s and ‘40s, and his repertoire – songs that he wrote and traditional songs that he adapted – have been cornerstones of the folk and blues revivals from the 1930s to the present and his tremendous influence has also been felt by artists from other music genres from rock to jazz.

Pete Seeger, who was inspired by Lead Belly to play 12-string guitar, once told me that the greatest thing he ever did in music was to help spread the songs of Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie after they could no longer do so. And I have fond memories of sitting with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee – the first musicians older than my parents who I had the chance to get to know – as they told me stories about their friends Lead Belly and Woody Guthrie. I don’t think I ever saw Pete or Sonny and Brownie do a concert that didn’t include a Lead Belly song.

Eric Bibb is one of my favorite contemporary folk and blues artists and I’ve written about many of his terrific albums over the years. As the son of the late Leon Bibb, an acclaimed singer and actor who passed away last month at age 93, Eric grew up in a musical milieu in New York City in which Lead Belly songs would have been familiar to him virtually from birth. Now, Eric, who has lived most of his adult life in Europe, has teamed with French harmonica player Jean-Jacques (JJ) Milteau to record Lead Belly’s Gold, a magnificent collection of 13 songs from Lead Belly’s repertoire and three original songs written and sung from what they imagine to be Lead Belly’s perspective. The first 11 tracks were recorded in concert at the Sunset, a Paris jazz club, while the other five are studio recordings.

Each of the Lead Belly songs is a well-known classic, and even though I’ve heard each of them countless times over many decades, they all sound fresh and contemporary thanks to Eric and JJ’s outstanding performances.

Some of these renditions, notably the allegorical “Grey Goose” and the topical “Bourgeois Blues, are incredibly powerful. Some others, like “Bring a Little Water, Sylvie,” “Midnight Special,” “Pick a Bale of Cotton,” “Titanic” and “Rock Island Line,” are completely infectious.

Among my other favorites are the haunting renditions of “House of the Rising Sun” and “Where Did You Sleep Last Night.”

Lead Belly

All three of the original songs – two written by Eric and one by Eric and JJ – are also excellent. “When I Get to Dallas,” is sung from the perspective of the young Lead Belly en route there to be a street singer. In “Chauffeur Blues,” which very appropriately follows “Bourgeois Blues,” Eric imagines how Lead Belly might look back at the indignity of being a servant for exploitative folklorist John Lomax after his parole. And, in “Swimmin’ in a River of Songs,” the album’s finale, Eric imagines Lead Belly looking back at some of the memorable events of his life, all experienced while “swimmin’ in a river of songs.”

As always, Eric’s singing and guitar playing is brilliant throughout and he is ably assisted by JJ’s fine harmonica playing and Larry Crockett’s drums and percussion. Gilles Michel plays bass on several songs while Michael Jerome Browne is on 12-string guitar and mandolin on “Swimmin’ in a River of Songs.” Michael Robinson and/or Big Daddy Wilson's backing vocals are heard on several songs. Wilson’s singing reminds me of Sam Gary’s singing with Josh White.

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And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif