Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday July 18, 2023: Seven Psalms and Other Songs of Paul Simon

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/595/61226.html

Theme: Seven Psalms and Other Songs of Paul Simon.

Simon & Garfunkel- The Sound of Silence

Wednesday Morning 3 A.M. (Columbia)

Lucy Wainwright Roche & Suzzy Roche- Bleecker Street

Mud & Apples (Lucy Wainwright Roche & Suzzy Roche)

Dawn Tyler Watson & Paul Deslauriers-Homeward Bound

En Duo (Justin Time)

Caroline Doctorow- The Dangling Conversation

Dreaming in Vinyl (Narrow Lane)

Kate Campbell- America

The K.O.A. Tapes (Vol.1) (Large River Music)

Dave Van Ronk- Punky’s Dilemma

To All My Friends in Far-Flung Places (Gazell)

Emmylou Harris & The Nash Ramblers- The Boxer

Ramble in Music City: The Lost Concert 1990 (Nonesuch)

Morgane Imbeaud & Elias Dris- Bridge Over Troubled Water

Homeward Bound: The Songs of Simon & Garfunkel (Fredonia)

Mara Levine- Song for the Asking

Facets of Folk (Mara’s Creations)

The Wailin' Jennys- Loves Me Like a Rock

Fifteen (True North)

John Stewart & Darwin’s Army- Boy in the Bubble

John Stewart & Darwin’s Army (Appleseed)

Melody Walker & Jacob Groopman- Graceland

We Made It Home (Maker/Mender Records)

Ladysmith Black Mambazo- Homeless

Live at the Royal Albert Hall (Shanachie)

Carrie Elkin- American Tune

The Penny Collector (Carrie Elkin)

Paul Simon’s new album, Seven Psalms, consists of just one track. Simon’s vision is that it is something to be listened to in its entirety so he weaves the seven psalms together into one piece. The seven psalms are The Lord, Love is Like a Braid, My Professional Opinion, Your Forgiveness, Trail of Volcanos, The Sacred Harp, and Wait. The second vocalist heard occasionally in the piece is Edie Brickell.

Paul Simon- Seven Psalms

Seven Psalms (Owl Legacy)

Paul Simon & Phoebe Snow- Gone at Last

Still Crazy After All These Years (Warner Bros.)

Next week: Name That Tune.

--Mike Regenstreif

Various Artists – The Beautiful Old: Turn-of-the-Century Songs

VARIOUS ARTISTS

The Beautiful Old: Turn-of-the-Century Songs

Doubloon Records

thebeautifulold.com

Popular music began to change in the 1920s with the advent of radio and phonograph records. Before records, in the 1800s and early-1900s, it was the sale of sheet music that led to hit songs. People bought sheet music so they could play the songs in their living rooms, or parlors. Songs from that era are often referred to as parlor music.

On The Beautiful Old: Turn-of-the-Century Songs, producers Paul Marsteller and Gabriel Rhodes have assembled a lovely compilation of parlor songs from between 1805 and 1918 – including a couple of instrumentals – performed by a stellar collection of singers and musicians. The songs are performed strictly on instruments that could have been used back in the day. Despite the fact that the performers span several generations, several genres of music and come from a couple of continents, there is a seamless quality to the production – thanks, no doubt, to the lovely arrangements and excellent performances.

Among my favorite selections are Richard Thompson and Christine Collister’s perfectly charming version of “The Band Played On,” which opens the CD; Jimmy LaFave’s heartfelt rendering of “Long Time Ago”; and Eric Bibb’s uncharacteristic take on “Just A-Wearyin’ For You,” a song once performed by Paul Robeson, his legendary godfather.

Another favorite is Carrie Elkin’s version of “The Dying Californian.” When Kimmie Rhodes adds her lovely harmony to Carrie’s voice I’m reminded of hearing Kate and Anna McGarrigle sing some of the parlor songs they were raised on.

Kimmie Rhodes – whose West Texas Heaven remains one of my all-time favorite country albums – turns in three great performances as lead vocalist. And, if I have a new discovery thanks to this album, it’s Kimmie’s daughter, Jolie Goodnight, who sings two songs including the folksong, “Silver Dagger.”

I also couldn’t help but smile listening to Dave Davies of the Kinks sing “After the Ball” or be moved by Christine Collister’s touching rendition of “Home Sweet Home.”

Of special note among the instrumentalists are pianist Garth Hudson of The Band and producer and multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Rhodes (Kimmie’s son).

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Top 10 for 2011

Here are my picks for the Top 10 folk-rooted or folk-branched albums of 2011 (including reissues). I started with the list of more than 400 albums that landed on my desk over the past year and narrowed it down to a short list of about 35. I’ve been over the short list a bunch of times 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. Tom Russell – Mesabi (Shout! Factory). There are a couple of distinct, but somehow linked, song-cycles on this album. The first explores the nature of the pursuit of art, the nature of legend, and the rewards and the cruelty of fame. The second is about the back-and-forth exchanges and borderland inter-dependencies of the area around El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico. Mesabi is another in Tom Russell’s long series of masterpiece albums – all of them different from each other, all of them layered to reveal more with each hearing.

Click here for my full-length review of Mesabi.

2. Kate & Anna McGarrigle – Tell My Sister (Nonesuch). An essential 3-CD set that reissues the first two highly acclaimed Kate & Anna McGarrigle albums – Kate & Anna McGarrigle and Dancer With Bruised Knees – along with 21 previously unreleased demos – many of them Kate solo – recorded between 1971 and 1974. The third CD of previously unreleased demos is absolutely wonderful. While most of the songs would end up being recorded on later Kate & Anna albums, there are six songs that have never been released before.

Click here for my full-length review of Tell My Sister.

3. Gillian Welch – The Harrow & the Harvest (Acony). It’s been eight years since Gillian Welch’s last album and the wait was rewarded with a superb set of new songs steeped in folk music tradition. The only musicians are Gillian and David Rawlings, her co-writer and long-time partner. The arrangements seem simple but are as deeply complex as the layered songwriting.

4. Stan Rogers – The Very Best of Stan Rogers and Fogarty’s Cove (Fogarty’s Cove/Borealis). The project to remaster and reissue the catalogue of Stan Rogers, arguably Canada’s greatest folk-rooted singer-songwriter, began with The Very Best of Stan Roger, a 16-song overture, and continued with Fogarty’s Cove, his first album. No contemporary songwriter has captured Maritime life as genuinely as Stan did on Fogarty’s Cove.

Click here for my full-length review of The Best of Stan Rogers.

Click here for my full-length review of Fogarty's Cove.

5. Bruce Cockburn – Small Source of Comfort (True North). Small Source of Comfort is Bruce Cockburn at his most intimate, his most musical, and his most incisive. It quickly assumed its place among my favourites of Bruce’s many albums.

Click here for my full-length review of Small Source of Comfort.

6. Diana Jones – High Atmosphere (Proper American). The third in a series of superb albums that Diana Jones has released since 2006 in which she creates seemingly simple and plainspoken (plain sung, really) songs which draw on the traditions of southern folk music. While the songs and performances may be seemingly simple, they are, in fact, skillfully drawn pieces that weave together timeless melodies with lyrics that are poetic and oblique on some songs and which tell stories and present fully fleshed out characters on others. 

Click here for my full-length review of High Atmosphere.

7. The Klezmatics – Live at Town Hall (Klezmatics Disc). The Klezmatics, one of the most creative and influential of contemporary klezmer bands, celebrate their 25th anniversary this year with this two-CD set recorded at their 20th anniversary concert in 2006 where the band was joined by a stellar bunch of 26 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.

Click here for my full-length review of Live at Town Hall.

8. Bruce Murdoch – Sometimes I Wonder Why the World (Bruce Murdoch). These intimate and intense songs seem to flow like 13 movements in a suite. Mature love and human courage are the dominant themes. New songs from Bruce Murdoch are always to be treasured.

Click here for my full-length review of Sometimes I Wonder Why the World.

9. Ry Cooder – Pull Up Some Dust and Sit Down (Nonesuch). Drawing on traditional folk, blues, Mexican and rock motifs, and the influence of Woody Guthrie, Ry Cooder shows how vital contemporary topical songwriting can still be. While the anti-Bush pieces may already seem dated in the Obama era, even they speak to enduring themes of war, peace, honesty and accountability.

10. Carrie Elkin- Call It My Garden (Red House). A mature artist who has obviously developed her song-craft and performance styles, Carrie Elkin’s songs are layered in meaning and seem to reveal more each time I’ve listened to this compelling album.

Click here for my full-length review of Call It My Garden.

---Mike Regenstreif

Carrie Elkin -- Call It My Garden

CARRIE ELKIN
Call It My Garden
Red House
carrieelkin.com

Earlier this week, I responded to the Penguin Eggs critic’s poll for 2010 in which I listed my top 10 CDs of last year and my top three new discoveries among all the artists I heard for the first time over the course of the year. Although the year is still relatively new, I’m reasonably sure that Carrie Elkin will be among the top new discoveries that I list in the 2011 poll and it wouldn’t surprise me either if Call It My Garden made the top 10 album list.

Although Call It My Garden was my introduction to Carrie, the Texas-based singer-songwriter has been around for a while and has a number of earlier CDs to her credit. She is a mature artist who has obviously developed her song-craft and performance styles.

The album, which has the feeling of off-the-floor spontaneity in its music-making that I really appreciate, opens with “Jesse Likes Bird,” a joyous, anthemic tribute to a seemingly still-innocent spirit. About two-thirds of the way through the track, the song turns into an instrumental bluegrass romp that’s about as joyous as the song itself.

As much as I like the joy I hear in the opening track, it is Carrie’s sadder and quieter songs that really slay me. Among the most stunning is “Dear Sam,” a song-letter-tribute written for singer-songwriter Sam Baker who was severely injured in a 1986 terrorist attack in Peru. The song is a stark reminder of how trivial day-to-day troubles can be in comparison to what some people have experienced. Another is “Landeth By Sea,” an impressionistic portrait of a disintegrating love relationship.

Among the other highlights on the album are “St. Louis,” in which a conversation with a seatmate on a plane helps to put life and love into perspective; “Shots Rang Out,” an observation of a woman in a desperate situation; and “Berlin,” a celebration of individual resiliency.

Carrie Elkin’s songs are layered in meaning and seem to reveal more each time I’ve listened to the album – especially when following the lyrics as posted on her website.

--Mike Regenstreif