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.
Theme: Remembering Bruce Murdoch (1947-2026).
Special thanks to Bill Garrett for his assistance in assembling several of the recordings heard on this show.
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| Mike Regenstreif & Bruce Murdoch (2007) |
Bruce Murdoch, a great singer-songwriter and dear friend, passed away on June 11 at age 78. I kept in touch with Bruce – most recently just last month – and although I knew his time was short, it was still difficult to hear the news that he’d died.
I was still a teenager and Bruce was in his early 20s when we first met on the Montreal folk scene, circa 1970. I loved his songs and took every opportunity I could to see him perform at venues like the Back Door, the Yellow Door and Montreal Folk Workshop. By that time, Bruce was back in Montreal after five years or so of performing primarily in the U.S. where he was active in the Civil Rights and anti-war movements.
In the fall of 1972, when I started my first concert series at Dawson College in Montreal, I asked Bruce to headline the first concert. Then, in the spring of 1974 when I took over running The Golem, a Montreal folk club that had been founded in 1973 by Saul Markowicz, Bruce was the artist I booked for my opening weekend. Bruce played there often during my first stint at the Golem from 1974 to 1976.
Bruce’s first recordings were made in the U.S. In 1965, at age 17, Bruce was one of four performers whose first recordings were featured on an LP called the Singer Songwriter Project. The others were Richard Fariña, Patrick Sky and David Blue – who was then still known by his real name: David Cohen.
Bruce Murdoch- Farewell My Friend
Singer Songwriter Project (Elektra)
Bill Staines- Rompin’ Rovin’ Days
Journey Home (Red House)
Bruce Murdoch- Down in Mississippi
Singer Songwriter Project (Elektra)
Bruce Murdoch- Try an’ Ask
Singer Songwriter Project (Elektra)
Bruce’s first full-length album was 33 1/3 Revolutions per Minute released in 1970. Unfortunately, the LP suffered from poor sound quality and some questionable sound effects, which Bruce told me were imposed against his will. But, despite those issues, there were some great songs on the album – including the next six songs.
The first two 33 1/3 RPM songs are from a 1968 concert tape that Bill Garrett has in his collection. The next two are from a recording of a 1969 interview on KPFA in Berkeley, California that Bruce gave me many years ago.
Bruce Murdoch- Spanish Songs of Spain (Letters to Lucille #2)
1968 live tape from New York City – courtesy of Bill Garrett
Bruce Murdoch- Justines Blues
1968 live tape from New York City – courtesy of Bill Garrett
Bruce Murdoch- September 4 – 4 East
From a 1969 radio show on KPFA in Berkeley
Bruce Murdoch- To Angela
From a 1969 radio show on KPFA in Berkeley
Penny Lang- (Can I) Come Across to You
Live at the Yellow Door (She-Wolf)
Bruce Murdoch- Let’s Lay Down Our Drums
33 1/3 Revolutions per Minute (Stormy Forest)
As mentioned earlier, Bruce Murdoch returned to Montreal around 1970 and quickly became one of the city’s best-loved folk artists. He performed regularly on the Montreal scene, including a couple of concerts at Dawson College and many gigs at the Golem that I presented.
However, by late in the 1970s, Bruce decided to stop performing and put his guitar away for about 25 years. He moved to Alberta, went back to school and got his teaching credentials and became a high school teacher and volunteer firefighter in Hinton, a small town about 280 km west of Edmonton.
However, before he moved to Alberta, he recorded a self-titled LP for the CBC with producers Bill Garrett and Paul Mills that included many of the songs he’d been singing in Montreal during the ‘70s.
Bruce Murdoch- Joshua (Rough Night in Jericho)
Bruce Murdoch (Radio Canada International)
Bruce Murdoch- Fool Like Me
Bruce Murdoch (Radio Canada International)
Bruce Murdoch- (The Plains of) Jericho
Bruce Murdoch (Radio Canada International)
Wings was another of Bruce Murdoch’s songs that was on the Bruce Murdoch LP. In 1971, years before Bruce’s own recording of Wings, it was done as single by Bill & Sharon – the duo of Bill Garrett & his then partner Sharon Ryan – and I’d like to thank Bill for digitizing it so that I could play it on this show.
Bill & Sharon- Wings
Wings – single (Much)
Bruce Murdoch- Snowdon
Bruce Murdoch (Radio Canada International)
As mentioned, Bruce Murdoch gave up performing in the late 1970s. For reasons that I fully understood, Bruce was done with the music scene. He needed to get away from it, to go somewhere where he had no history and start over. So he moved out west, went back to school, and became a high school teacher and volunteer firefighter in Hinton, Alberta. His guitar sat unplayed in its case for about 25 years.
When I spoke to him in 1994, after I started the Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio show on CKUT, I told him there was a guest spot for him on the show as soon as he was ready to make music again. Ten or 11 years later, Bruce let me know that the guitar was starting to come out of the case again, that songs were starting to come again. Bruce promised that as soon as he was ready, mine would be the first radio show he’d play his songs on. As fate would have it, Bruce accepted Adrien Doucette’s invitation to perform at the 2007 Branches & Roots Festival in Ormstown, Quebec and made it to Montreal in time to be my final studio guest on CKUT before I left Montreal to move to Ottawa.
In 2008, Bruce released a CD of new songs called Matters of the Heart, and a year or so later, he left Alberta and settled in Ormstown, a small town about 45 minutes south of Montreal.
Bruce’s new songs were different than the ones he was writing in the 1960s and ‘70s. They were generally more personal and less obviously political, but they were every bit as compelling.
Bruce Murdoch- Angels in My Heart
Matters of the Heart (Bruce Murdoch)
Bruce Murdoch- Daly’s Song
Matters of the Heart (Bruce Murdoch)
Bruce Murdoch- I Sit and Count the Stars
Matters of the Heart (Bruce Murdoch)
Bruce Murdoch- I Keep You in My Heart
Matters of the Heart (Bruce Murdoch)
In 2011, Bruce released another CD of new songs called Sometimes I Wonder Why the World.
Bruce Murdoch- The Rookie
Sometimes I Wonder Why the World (Bruce Murdoch)
Bruce Murdoch- I’m at the Mercy of Your Smile
Sometimes I Wonder Why the World (Bruce Murdoch)
Bruce Murdoch- I’d Walk a Thousand Miles
Sometimes I Wonder Why the World (Bruce Murdoch)
I mentioned that Bruce’s newer songs were less political than the ones he was writing in the 1960s and ‘70s – which is not to say that he didn’t still write political songs. In 2015, Bill Garrett produced a recording of a new political song by Bruce.
Bruce Murdoch with Bill Garrett & Sue Lothrop- Begone You Neocons
Begone You Neocons – single (Bruce Murdoch)
Mandy, Bruce’s partner, asked me to say that anyone with memories of Bruce that they’d like to share with the family can send them to… brucemurdochmusic@gmail.com
Bruce Murdoch- Amanda
Sometimes I Wonder Why the World (Bruce Murdoch)
Next week: A Tribute to Rosalie Sorrels.
--Mike Regenstreif
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