Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – July 16, 2024: A Salute to Nora Guthrie

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/595/66023.html

Theme: A Salute to Nora Guthrie.

Nora Guthrie & Mike Regenstreif (2017)

Nora Guthrie – Woody Guthrie’s daughter – recently announced her retirement after 33 years as President of the Woody Guthrie Foundation and Woody Guthrie Publications. Nora was also the founder of the Woody Guthrie Archive and co-founder of the Woody Guthrie Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Prior to working with the Woody Guthrie Foundation, Nora had a career as a modern dancer – following in the footsteps of her mother, Marjorie Mazia Guthrie, who had been a member of the famed Martha Graham Dance Company.

Over the past 33 years, Nora was responsible for many Woody Guthrie projects including books, films, concerts, festivals and other events, and the unearthing of thousands of previously unheard Woody Guthrie songs that existed only as lyrics in the Woody Guthrie Archive. One of Nora’s greatest accomplishments was finding the right composers to set those lyrics to music. The songs on this show are just a small sampling of Nora’s work in that regard.

Billy Bragg & Wilco- I Guess I Planted

Mermaid Avenue (Elektra)

Cole Quest & The City Pickers- Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key

Self [En] Titled (Omnivore) 

Folk Uke- California Stars

Starfucker (Folk Uke)

Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer- Birds and Ships

Postcards (Community Music)

Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion- Be No Church Tonight

The Woody Guthrie Tribute Tour: Ribbon of Highway, Endless Skyway (Ribbon of Highway, Endless Skyway)

Lucinda Williams- House of Earth

Ghosts of Highway 20 (Highway 20)

Jackson Browne & Rob Wasserman- You Know the Night

Note of Hope: A Celebration of Woody Guthrie (429)

The Klezmatics- Holy Ground

Wonder Wheel: Lyrics by Woody Guthrie (Jewish Music Group)

Lisa Gutkin- From Here On In

From Here On In (Lisa Gutkin)

The Burns Sisters- God’s Promise

Wild Bouquet (Ithaca)

Wenzel- Ninety Mile Wind 

Ticky Tock: Wenzel Sings Woody Guthrie (Conträr Musik) 

John McCutcheon- Harness Up the Day

This Land: Woody Guthrie’s America (Appalsongs)

Lucy Kaplansky- This Morning I Am Born Again

Reunion (Red House)

Joel Rafael Band- Ramblin’ Reckless Hobo

Woodyboye: Songs of Woody Guthrie (and Tales Worth Telling) Volume II (Appleseed)

The Del McCoury Band- Family Reunion

Del and Woody (McCoury Music)

Mike Regenstreif, Nora Guthrie, Kris Kristofferson & Jimmy LaFave (2007)

Jimmy LaFave- Salvation Train

Peace Town (Music Road)

Dropkick Murphys- Watchin’ the World Go By

Okemah Rising: Lyrics of Woody Guthrie (Dummy Luck Music)

Arlo Guthrie- My Peace

Here Come the Kids (Rising Son)

Next week: When the Saints Go Marching In.

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday July 19, 2022: Songs of Woody Guthrie, Part 2 – “New” Songs from the Archives

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 prerecorded and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/56977.html

Theme: Songs of Woody Guthrie, Part 2 – “New” Songs from the Archives.

In the 1990s, Nora Guthrie, Woody Guthrie’s daughter who was then maintaining the Woody Guthrie Archives, discovered the lyrics to literally thousands of songs that Woody Guthrie wrote that he never set to music or whose tunes were never recorded and lost. Nora began to distribute sets of lyrics to contemporary musicians she thought would bring these songs to life. On this show, we’re listening to some of those songs.

Visit https://www.woodyguthrie.org/ for more information on Woody Guthrie.

Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion- Folksong
Folksong (RTE 8)

Billy Bragg & Wilco- Walt Whitman’s Niece
Mermaid Avenue (Elektra)
Folk Uke- California Stars
Starfucker (Folk Uke)
Dave Carter & Tracy Grammer- Way Over Yonder in the Minor Key
Little Blue Egg (Red House)
Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer- Birds and Ships
Postcards (Community Music)

The Del McCoury Band- The New York Trains
Del and Woody (McCoury Music)
Ellis Paul & Vance Gilbert- This Morning I am Born Again
Side of the Road (Philo)

The Klezmatics- Mermaid’s Avenue
Wonder Wheel: Lyrics by Woody Guthrie (Jewish Music Group)
Lisa Gutkin- Gonna Get Through This World
From Here On In (Lisa Gutkin)
Wenzel- I Don’t Feel at Home on the Bowery No More
Ticky Tock: Wenzel Sings Woody Guthrie (Conträr Musik)
Jonatha Brooke- Madonna on the Curb
The Works (Bad Dog)

Mike Regenstreif, Nora Guthrie, Kris Kristofferson & Jimmy LaFave talking about Woody Guthrie at the 2007 Ottawa Folk Festival

Eliza Gilkyson- Beach Haven
2020 (Red House)
Jimmy LaFave- Peace Town
Peace Town (Music Road)
Janis Ian- I Hear You Sing Again
Best of Janis Ian: The Autobiography Collection (Rude Girl)
Corey Harris- Teabag Blues
Greens from the Garden (Alligator)

John McCutcheon- Old Cap Moore
This Land: Woody Guthrie’s America (Appalsongs)
Madeleine Peyroux & Rob Wasserman- Wild Card in the Hole
Note of Hope: A Celebration of Woody Guthrie (429)
Joel Rafael Band- Dance a Little Longer
Woodeye: Songs of Woody Guthrie (Inside Recordings)
Lucinda Williams- House of Earth
Ghosts of Highway 20 (Highway 20)

Arlo Guthrie- My Peace
Here Come the Kids (Rising Son)

Next week: On the Road Again.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday May 31, 2022: Reflections on Freedom

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 prerecorded at home and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/56423.html

Theme: Reflections on Freedom.

The very idea of Freedom is not something we can be complacent about. As one of the songs on this show notes, Freedom is a Constant Struggle.

Lois Deloatch- Hymn to Freedom
Hymn to Freedom: Homage to Oscar Peterson (Improv Media)

Ken Whiteley- Freedom is a Constant Struggle
Freedom Blues (Borealis)

Billy Bragg, SONiA disappear fear & Mike Regenstreif (2017)

James Gordon- Crybabies Caravan
Crybabies Caravan – single (James Gordon)
Billy Bragg- Freedom Doesn’t Come for Free
The Million Things That Never Happened (Cooking Vinyl)

Kim & Reggie Harris- Follow the Drinking Gourd
Steal Away: Songs of the Underground Railroad (Appleseed)
Khari Wendell McClelland- No More Auction Block
Freedom Singer (Khari Wendell McClelland)

Odetta- Freedom Trilogy: Oh Freedom, Come & Go with Me, I’m On My Way
Gonna Let It Shine (M.C.)
Crabtree & Mills- The Price of Freedom
Freedom (Free & Easy Music)
Reggie Harris- Standing in Freedom’s Name
On Solid Ground (Reggie Harris Music)
Peter, Paul & Mary- No Easy Walk to Freedom
No Easy Walk to Freedom (Gold Castle)

The video of this performance of “Ukrainian Now” is at this link. 

John McCutcheon with Tom Paxton, Noel Paul Stookey, Peter Yarrow, Bill Miller, Tret Fure, Holly Near Joe Jencks, Emma's Revolution, Rebel Voices, Crys Matthews, Carrie Newcomer & Christine Lavin- Ukrainian Now
Ukrainian Now – single (Appalseed)
Lenka Lichtenberg- Ženeme ?as/We’re chasing time
Thieves of Dreams (Six Degrees)
SONiA disappear fear- By My Silence
By My Silence (Disappear)

Mike Regenstreif & Eric Bibb (2005)

Ladysmith Black Mambazo- Long Walk to Freedom
Long Walk to Freedom (Heads Up International)
Eric Bibb- Stayed On Freedom
Get Onboard (Telarc)

Rosalie Sorrels- Rosie Jane
No Closing Chord: The Songs of Malvina Reynolds (Red House)
Eric Bogle- Roll Call
A Toss of the Coin (Greentrax)

Judy Collins- Liberté
Portrait of an American Girl (Wildflower)

Oscar Peterson- Hymn to Freedom
Night Train (Verve)

Next week: Disney Songs.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Tom Paxton – Boat in the Water

TOM PAXTON

Boat in the Water

Pax

tompaxton.com

I’ve written about Tom Paxton a lot over many years: here on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches blog, in Sing Out magazine, and in the Montreal Gazette. I’ve worked with him a bunch of times in coffee houses and concert halls and folk festivals – and, more than once, I’ve told the story of how an encounter with Tom when I was about 14 or 15 (and he was 31 or 32) was that “it moment” for me that led to a lifetime’s involvement in folk music. All this to say, without trying to be too repetitious, that I regard Tom to be one of the most important and significant songwriters and folksingers of all time. Period.

At age 79, Tom remains a vital artist. On Boat in the Water, his new album, Tom offers eight new songs and new versions of five of his classics from the 1960s and ‘70s all delivered from the perspective of wisdom and experience – whether they are songs reflecting his own life or reflecting the lives of characters created from his (and his co-writers’) creative imagination(s).

Among the most poignant of the new songs are “The First Thing I Think of Each Morning,” co-written with Jon Vezner, and “It’s Too Soon,” co-written with Pat Alger, both of which made me think of Midge Paxton, Tom’s late wife, who passed away in 2014. I always enjoyed so enjoyed Midge’s company when she came up to Montreal with Tom or at folk festivals we were all at.

Other highlights from the new songs include “Boat in the Water,” co-written with Pat Alger, a breezy let’s-get-away-from-it-all-together tune; “A Daughter in Denver,” in which Tom’s character, a divorced dad with grown kids, laments how his family has scattered; and “Eleanor’s Song,” co-written with Jon Vezner and Don Henry, a portrait of a woman who has lived life strictly on her own terms.

Highlights from among the older songs that Tom revisits are “Outward Bound,” a beautiful farewell song that takes on even more poignancy in hearing it sung in Tom’s older voice; and “The Last Hobo,” a story of a man left behind by society that is filled with the subtext of ever-changing times.

Tom on vocals and guitar is well supported throughout the album by bassist Ralph Gordon and co-producers/multi-instrumentalists/harmony singers Cathy Fink and Marcy Marxer. Cathy also takes the lead vocal – and does a very nice job – on “Home to Me,” a tender love song that Tom used to sing at the Golem, the Montreal folk club I ran in the 1970s and ‘80s.

To paraphrase the title from a 1973 Tom Paxton LP, it’s always great to have new songs (and new versions of old songs) from an old friend.

Pictured (from left): Billy Bragg, Sonia disappear fear, Mike Regenstreif, Tom Paxton and Greg Greenway (with Zachary Stevenson looking on as he does a sound check) at the Kansas City Folk Festival after the Folk Alliance International Conference (2017).

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Folk Alliance International Conference

I’ve just returned from an inspiring five days in Kansas City attending the 2017 Folk Alliance International Conference from February 15 to 19.

International Folk Music Awards

Mike Regenstreif

The conference began with the International Folk Music Awards and I was deeply honored to be one of the broadcasters inducted into the Folk DJ Hall of Fame in its inaugural year. As noted in the conference program book, “The Folk DJ Hall of Fame has been established to recognize radio DJs who have made an outstanding contribution to the preservation, promotion, and preservation of Folk music, and who have demonstrated and inspired leadership in the broadcast field.”

Kris Kristofferson performs during the Awards Ceremony.

I was not only deeply honored to be one of the first Folk DJ Hall of Fame inductees but to share the honor with colleagues I’ve been privileged to know and deeply respect for many years. The late Oscar Brand hosted “Oscar Brand’s Folksong Festival” on WNYC in New York for more than 70 years (and Oscar’s Canadian TV show, “Let’s Sing Out,” was a big part of my introduction to folk music as a kid in the 1960s); the late Howard and late Roz Larmon who hosted “FolkScene” on KPFK in Los Angeles for more than four decades; Rich Warren, who already had a strong history in folk radio when he became host of “The Midnight Special” on WFMT in Chicago in 1983; and Gene Shay, whose legendary folk music shows on several radio stations in Philadelphia ran from 1962 until 2015.

David Amram

It was also particularly meaningful to me that several of the other award recipients this year were friends I’ve been honored to know since the 1970s. They included the late Malvina Reynolds, who I presented in concert in Montreal in 1973 and David Amram, the always-amazing classical-jazz-folk-world-music composer-conductor-performer who I met at the Mariposa Folk Festival in 1974, who received richly deserved Lifetime Achievement Awards (I was so pleased that I was seated next to David Amram during the ceremony.); Bruce Cockburn, who received the People’s Voice Award; and Si Kahn who received a Spirit of Folk Award.

Bruce Cockburn

Other honorees – all so richly deserving – included The Clearwater Festival, which received the inaugural Clearwater Award; and Barbara Dane, Chloe Goodyear, Michelle Conceison, Ramy Essam, and Sonia disappear fear (Sonia Rutstein) who received Spirit of Folk Awards.

Daytime programs

Daytime programs at the conference included some tremendous panel discussions and special presentations. Among the presentations I found particularly inspiring were talks by Ani DiFranco, Billy Bragg and Nora Guthrie (discussing her father, Woody Guthrie) on the intersection of folk music and activism – and the Wisdom of the Elders panel with Barbara Dane, Len Chandler and Ron Cohen.

Wisdom of the Elders (Photo: Art Menius)

Wisdom of the Elders is an annual oral history session at the conference created by the amazing Sonny Ochs to present “elders of our community in an intimate forum to share perspectives from a lifetime in folk music.” I was deeply honored to co-moderate the Wisdom of the Elders panel with Sonny this year.

Official Showcases

Each night featured multi-artist official showcase concerts in nine different locations.

Susan Werner

I got to MC one of the Thursday night concerts and introduced performances by Elle Márjá Eira from Norway; Kortchmar, Postell & Navarro (Danny Kortchmar, Steve Postell and Dan Navarro); Susan Werner; Masters of Hawaiian Music (George Kahumoku, Jr., Nathan Aweau and David “Kawika” Kahiapo); Gaby Moreno from Guatemala; and Hermitage Green from Ireland.

Some of the other official showcase artists I particularly enjoyed hearing on the nights I wasn’t MCing included Sonia disappear fear; Ellis Paul; OSOG, an eight piece folk-rock band from Israel; Plainsong; Heather Rankin; John McCutcheon; Vance Gilbert; Jimmy LaFave; and Barbara Dane. There were literally dozens of official showcases I wished I could have been at as there were more than 200 different official showcases with nine different ones happening at any given moment.

Private Showcases

Vance Gilbert

Late nights – from about 10:30 pm until 4 am – in dozens and dozens of locations there was an overwhelming number of private showcases. I didn’t stay up on Wednesday night but among my favorite performances on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights were short sets by Sonia disappear fear; Orit Shimoni; Sharon Goldman; Vance Gilbert; Carrie Elkin; The Once; Ben Caplan; David Olney; Robinlee Garber; Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer; Sussex; Maria Dunn; Eve Goldberg; Joe Newbury & April Verch; and a Local 1000 song circle that included – amongst others – John McCutcheon, Tom Paxton, Tret Fure and Joe Jencks.

And, again, there were dozens and dozens of other private showcases I wish I could have made it to.

Kansas City Folk Festival

Tribute to Woody Guthrie

After the conference, Folk Alliance International presented the Kansas City Folk Festival on multiple, simultaneous stages in the conference hotel. I got to see two inspiring presentations on the “tribute stage” before we had to checkout and head to the airport.

First was a tribute to Phil Ochs, hosted by actor-singer Zachary Stevenson who is developing a stage show based on Phil. Other participants included Billy Bragg, Sonia disappear fear, Tom Paxton, Greg Greenway, and Joe Jencks.

The other was a tribute to Woody Guthrie, with songs and readings, performed by Jimmy LaFave, Betty Soo, Ray Bonneville and Sam Baker.

It was an intense and inspiring five days at the Folk Alliance International Conference.Special thanks to Folk Alliance International Executive Director Aengus Finnan and staff members Jennifer Roe, Cindy Cogbill, Ana Miura and all the rest. 

Visit my Facebook Folk Alliance album at this link for more photos. There are also some photos in my Facebook music friends album.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif