Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – May 26, 2026: Remembering Enoch Kent; A Tribute to Django Reinhardt

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/595/75523.html

Themes: Part 1 – Remembering Enoch Kent (1931-2026); Part 2 – A Tribute to Django Reinhardt (1910-1953).

Remembering Enoch Kent (1931-2026)

I was deeply saddened by the news that Enoch Kent passed away on April 28 at age 94. Enoch was born in Scotland and was a significant presence on the UK folk scene before moving to Canada in the 1960s. I first met Enoch in the mid-1970s and learned a lot from him over the years – as did so many others.

Enoch began his career in folk music by singing traditional Scottish songs in a band called The Reivers. Her later collaborated with Ewan MacColl and Peggy Seeger in founding The Singers Club – also known as The Critics Group – in London before immigrating to Canada. The first time I met Peggy Seeger, I mentioned to her that I knew Enoch and she spoke fondly and admiringly about him.

It was only when Enoch was 70 years old that Enoch began to record albums for the first time since leaving the UK. But he was prolific over the next few years releasing with six excellent albums between 2002 and 2010.

Enoch Kent- I’m a Workin’ Chap

I’m a Workin’ Chap (Second Avenue)

Enoch Kent- The Pawnshop Window

Take a Trip with Me (Borealis)

Garnet Rogers- The Farm Auction

The Outside Track (Snow Goose Songs)

Enoch Kent- My Mother’s Sewing Machine

Songs of Love, Lust & Loathing (Second Avenue)

Enoch Kent- Old Time Songs

Take a Trip with Me (Borealis)

Enoch Kent- Come A’ Ye Tramps and Hawkers

I’m a Rover (Second Avenue)

A Tribute to Django Reinhardt (1910-1953)

Django Reinhardt, the Belgian Roma guitarist died in 1953 at the young age of 43. More than seven decades after his death, Reinhardt remains an incredibly influential musician and a revered figure in the history of jazz, Roma music, and the guitar.

Django Reinhardt & The Quintette Hot Club de France- Hot Lips

Django Reinhardt (Object Enterprises)

Chris Whiteley- Swing 42

Second Look (Pyramid)

Susie Arioli Band featuring Jordan Officer- Nuages

That’s For Me (Justin Time)

Hot Club of Cowtown- Minor Swing

Rendezvous in Rhythm (Gold Strike)

Django Reinhardt & The Quintette Hot Club de France- Swing Guitars

Django Reinhardt Vol. 3, 1936-1937: Swing Guitars (Naxos)

Modern Jazz Quartet- Django

European Concert (Atlantic)

Stephane Grappelli & David Grisman- Shine

Live (Warner Bros.)

Claribol Stompers- Swing 39

Swingattic (Claribol)

Tommy Emmanuel, Frank Vignola & Vinny Raniolo- Djangology

Accomplice One (The Players Club)

Django Reinhardt- Django’s Blues

Django’s Blues (Gitanes/Verve)

Joe Craven- Hungaria

Django Latino (Crow Art)

Harmonious Wail- Dark Eyes

Gypsy Swing (Naxos)

Stephane Wrembel- Swing de Paris

The Django Experiment VI (Water is Life)

Django Reinhardt- Topsy

Django’s Blues (Gitanes/Verve)

Django Reinhardt & The Quintette Hot Club de France- How High the Moon

In Person (Warner Music Group/X5)

Next week: Songs for International Sex Workers Day.

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – August 19, 2025: The Original Sloth Band at 60

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/595/71585.html

Theme: The Original Sloth Band at 60.

The Original Sloth Band – teenaged brothers Chris Whiteley and Ken Whiteley and their friend Tom Evans – played their first gig in 1965. Their band name for that gig was Tubby Fats Original Allstar Downtown Syncopated Big Rock Jug Band but they soon evolved into the Original Sloth Band. Sadly, Tom Evans passed away from cancer in 2009, but, in June, Chris and Ken with some guest musicians played a concert at Hugh’s Room in Toronto to mark the milestone anniversary.

Original Sloth Band- The New Heartbreak Blues

Whoopee After Midnight (Sloth)

Samoa Wilson with The Jim Kweskin Band- (I Just Want to Be) Horizontal

I Just Want to Be Horizontal (Kingswood)

Tony Rice- Temperance Reel

Tony Rice (Rounder)

Jeff Healey- Sheik of Araby

The Best of the Stony Plain Years: Vintage Jazz, Swing and Blues (Stony Plain)

Amos Milburn- Johnson Rag

Rockin’ and Drinkin’: Greatest Hits and More 1946-1959 (Jasmine)

Original Sloth Band- Heaven

Whoopee After Midnight (Sloth)

The Dumptrucks- Stealin’

Selections (Laughing Cactus)

Original Sloth Band- I’m a Vulture (for Horticulture)

Whoopee After Midnight (Sloth)

Leon Redbone- Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone

Champagne Charlie (Warner Bros.)

Jenny Whiteley- Things are Coming My Way

The Original Jenny Whiteley (Black Hen Music)

Jay McShann- Sunny Side of the Street

Still Jumpin’ the Blues (Stony Plain)

Mose Scarlett- How Long Blues

The Fundamental Things (Pyramid)

Original Sloth Band- Get a Job 

Whoopee After Midnight (Sloth)

Maria Muldaur- Organ Grinder Blues

One Hour Mama: The Blues of Victoria Spivey (NOLA Blues)

Duke Ellington & Ivie Anderson- Get Yourself a New Broom (and Sweep the Blues Away)

Ellington in Order, Volume 5 (1932-33) (Legacy)

Duke Ellington & The Mills Brothers- Diga Diga Do

Ellington in Order, Volume 5 (1932-33) (Legacy)

Jimmy Bracken's Toe Ticklers- It’s Tight Like That

Jack Teagarden: The Definitive Collection (Master Tape)

Original Sloth Band- Shout Baby Shout

Hustlin’ & Bustlin’ (Woodshed)

The Boswell Sisters- Cheek to Cheek

Cheek to Cheek (Classic)

The Central Park Sheiks- Honeysuckle Rose

Honeysuckle Rose (Flying Fish)

Bessie Smith- Gimme a Pigfoot (and a Bottle of Beer)

Bessie Smith: The Absolutely Essential 3 CD Collection (Big3)

Carolina Chocolate Drops- Memphis Shakedown

Carolina Chocolate Drops & Joe Thompson (Music Makers Recordings)

Original Sloth Band- Hustlin’ and Bustlin’ for Baby

Hustlin’ & Bustlin’ (Woodshed)

Ken Whiteley- Fast Freight Train

Unseen Hands: 12 Songs 12 Strings (Ken Whiteley)

Chris Whiteley- I’ve Got to Split

It’s the Natural Thing to Do (Electro-Fi)

Next week: Songs for August and Highway 61 Revisited – Revisited.

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday March 22, 2022: Garden Songs

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/595/55612.html

Theme: Garden Songs

David Mallett- Garden Song
Parallel Lives (Flying Fish)

Sharon Goldman- A Garden
Every Trip Around the Sun (Sharon Goldman)
Deborah Robins- Crows in the Garden
Lone Journey (Zippety Whippet Music)
Kat Eggleston- My Father’s Garden
Second Nature (Waterbug)
Claudia Russell & Bruce Kaplan- Winter Garden
Lover’s Tree (Radio Rhythm)

Ruth Moody- The Garden
The Garden (Red House)
Debi Smith- The Garden
Deep Tracks (Degan Music)

Oliver Schroer- The Garden of Birds and Flowers
Camino (Borealis)

Mike Regenstreif, Anne Hills & Tom Paxton (2001)

Tom Paxton- Whose Garden Was This
The Compleat Tom Paxton (Even Compleater) (Rhino Handmade)
Anne Hills- Gardens
Points of View (Appleseed)
Alice Di Micele- Every Seed
Every Seed We Plant (Alice Otter Music)
Irene Kelley- Garden of Dreams
Pennsylvania Coal (Patio)
Dave Clarke- The Healing Garden
The Healing Garden (Crossties)

Shelley Posen- Fork Garden
Menorah: Songs from a Jewish Life (Well Done Music)
Frpm Both Ends of the Earth- In Mayn Garten
Klezmer (Arc)
Night Sun- Gardening Song
Home (Night Sun)
Fran Avni- Down in the Garden
Eretz (Tara Music)
Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars featuring Marjana Sadowska- In Your Garden Twenty Fecund Fruit Trees
Carnival Conspiracy (Piranha)

Diana Braithwaite & Chris Whiteley- In My Garden
Morning Sun (Electro-Fi)
Duke Ellington & Johnny Hodges- Royal Garden Blues
Back to Back: Duke Ellington and Johnny Hodges Play the Blues (Verve)

Rosalie Sorrels & Mike Regenstreif (1993)

Rosalie Sorrels- The Bells of Ireland
Report from Grimes Creek (Green Linnet)
Mara Levine- A Perfect Rose
Facets of Folk (Mara’s Creations)
Susan Crowe- I Stole into a Garden
The Door to the River (Corvus)
Brendan Nolan- If I Had a Garden
Live at the Side Door (Ould Segosha)

Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen- Concertina Garden Medley
Being There (Compass Rose)

Next week: The Art of the Long Song

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Jenny Whiteley – The Original Jenny Whiteley

JENNY WHITELEY

The Original Jenny Whiteley

Black Hen Music

jennywhiteley.com

I first met the Original Sloth Band – Chris Whiteley, Ken Whiteley and Tom Evans – in the early-1970s. They had a wonderfully eclectic repertoire of songs gathered from old-time jug band, jazz, blues and folk sources.

Chris had an infant daughter back then who would grow up to be – like her father, uncle, brothers and cousins – an excellent musician, singer and songwriter and who now has five solo albums to her credit. Jenny Whiteley’s first recording projects – long before she started making solo albums – were in the 1980s when she sang with dad and uncle on their Junior Jug Band LPs.

Jenny’s fifth solo album, The Original Jenny Whiteley, is a homage to her dad. Whether on songs like “Stealin’, Stealin’” or “Things are Coming My Way,” which were on Original Sloth Band LPs back in the ‘70s, or on other vintage songs, or even her own original material,  they were all, she notes, “influenced in some way by his music.”

The Original Jenny Whiteley is a delightful 11-song romp. Among my favorites are the already mentioned “Stealin’, Stealin’” and “Things are Coming My Way,” the latter featuring harmony vocals from Chris and Ken; her own songs “Banjo Girl,” reprised from Jenny’s 2006 album, Dear, and “Higher Learning”; the traditional classic “In the Pines”; and Uncle Dave Macon’s “Morning Blues,” a favorite I first heard on the Jim Kweskin Jug Band Jug Band Music LP in the ‘60s.

Aside from Jenny’s own vocals and guitar, most of the backup on The Original Jenny Whiteley is by multi-instrumentalists Sam Allison, who produced the album, and Teillard Frost, who, as Sheesham & Lotus, are highly reminiscent of the Original Sloth Band.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Erynn Marshall – Tune Tramp

ERYNN MARSHALL
Tune Tramp
Hickoryjack 
hickoryjack.com

Erynn Marshall is a Canadian ethnomusicologist and fiddler now based in Galax, Virginia, home to the Old Fiddler’s Convention, the longest-running fiddle contest. For Tune Tramp, she tramped around various locations in Canada and the United States recording 20 different tunes with various combinations of 45 musicians – an ambitious and completely successful undertaking – after noting that old-time music is played differently in different regional locales.

Erynn is a superb fiddler and she seems to adapt easily to whatever collaborators she’s working with from tune to tune and blend beautifully with them. Her fiddle is front and centre on some tunes and plays a significant supporting role on others.

Some of my favourites among many include a couple of tunes recorded here in Canada. On “Milwaukee Blues,” she fiddles and sings harmony with Pharis Romero on guitar and lead vocals and Jason Romero on banjo and harmony vocals. Then, on the delightful “Ragged But Right,” Erynn and her partner, mandolinist Carl Jones who is also heard on many of the tracks, are joined by Toronto-based musicians Arnie Naiman on vocals and banjo, Chris Coole on guitar, Chris Whiteley on harmonica and Ken Whiteley on jug.

A few of the other highlights include an up-tempo string band version of “Rovin’ Gambler” featuring lead vocals by guitarist Mac Snow; a Cajun version of “Poor Hobo,” sung by Joel Savoy and featuring twin fiddles by Erynn and Joel and a great lap steel solo by Carl; a sad duet with Skip Gorman on the Delmore Brothers’ “Fugitive’s Lament”; and the title song, “Tune Tramp,” a beautiful song written and sung by Carl with Erynn on fiddle that captures the spirit of the 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

Diana Braithwaite & Chris Whiteley -- DeltaPhonic

DIANA BRAITHWAITE & CHRIS WHITELEY
DeltaPhonic
Electro-Fi Records
braithwaiteandwhiteley.com

The pairing of singer Diana Braithwaite with multi-instrumentalist and singer Chris Whiteley was almost certainly a match made in blues heaven. On DeltaPhonic, their third CD as a duo, Diana and Chris continue to create vital, contemporary blues mostly in the traditions of 1930s and ‘40s when the blues had migrated from the rural south to the urban north and acquired a sophisticated, jazzy hue. This time, though, some of the tunes begin to take on the harder edge of Chicago blues in the post-war years.

All but two of these songs – including one instrumental – were composed by Diana and Chris. Among my favourites is “Midnight Stroll,” a swinging, Basie-like tune that begins with Chris’s guitar trading licks with the horn section before Chris and Diana start trading lines in the verses. I particularly like both the horn arrangement – featuring Phil Skladowski on baritone sax, Jonathon Wong on tenor sax and Chris on trumpet – and the vocal interplay on this number.

Another is “Border Patrol Blues,” a slow, blues that begins with Chris on guitar in a musical conversation with his son, Jesse Whiteley, at the piano before Diana comes in with the vocals and her riding-on-the-train and crossing-the-border verses. Chris also offers a great harmonica solo on this track.

Along with their original material, Diana and Chris also offer up a fine version of Tampa Red’s blues standard, “It Hurts Me Too,” and a sublime version of the jazz ballad, “It Was a Sad Night in Harlem,” a song that Ivie Anderson sang with the Duke Ellington Orchestra back in the 1930s. It’s a beautiful number to end the album with.

--Mike Regenstreif