Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – May 21, 2024: Even More Songs of Bob Dylan

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/595/65281.html

Theme: Even More Songs of Bob Dylan.

Bob Dylan – who turns 83 this week on May 24 – is, arguably, but certainly in my opinion, the most important and influential songwriter ever. All of the songs on this show have never been heard on any previous edition of Stranger Songs.

Bob Dylan- Stuck Inside of Mobile with the Memphis Blues Again

Blonde On Blonde (Columbia)

The Clancy Brothers with Louis Killen- Girl from the North Country

Save the Land! (Audio Fidelity)

Joan Baez- Love Minus Zero/No Limit

Any Day Now (Vanguard)

Pete Seeger- Who Killed Davey Moore?

We Shall Overcome: The Complete Carnegie Hall Concert, June 8, 1963 (Columbia)

Happy Traum with Bob Dylan- Let Me Die in My Footsteps

The Best of Broadside 1962-1988 (Smithsonian Folkways)

Bob Dylan- Ballad of Hollis Brown

The Times They Are A-Changin’ (Columbia)

J.D. Crowe & The New South- Nashville Skyline Rag

Flashback (Rounder)

Odetta- Walkin’ Down the Line

Odetta Sings Dylan (RCA)

The Brothers & Sisters- Just Like a Woman

Dylan’s Gospel (Columbia)

Julie Felix- It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)

Starry Eyed and Laughing… Songs by Bob Dylan (Remarkable)

Bob Dylan- Blind Willie McTell

The Bootleg Series, Volume 3 (Columbia)

Tom Russell- John Wesley Harding

Tonight We Ride EP (HighTone)

Ian & Sylvia- Tears of Rage

Long Long Time (Vanguard)

Peter, Paul & Mary- Too Much of Nothing

Late Again (Warner Bros.)

Bob Dylan- If Dogs Run Free

New Morning (Columbia)

Jimmy LaFave- You’re Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go

Peace Town (Music Road)

Ian Hanchet- If Not for You

Dealin’ from the Bottom (of My Heart) (Ian Hanchet)

Caroline Doctorow- Time Passes Slowly

Dreaming in Vinyl (Narrow Lane)

Bob Dylan- Sad Eyed Lady of the Lowlands

Blonde On Blonde (Columbia)[MR1]

Next week: 50 years ago I took over The Golem.

--Mike Regenstreif

Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday April 10, 2021

Saturday Morning is an eclectic roots-oriented program on CKCU in Ottawa heard live on Saturday mornings from 7 until 10 am (Eastern time) and then available for on-demand streaming. I am one of the four rotating hosts of Saturday Morning and base my programming on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches format I developed at CKUT in Montreal.

CKCU can be heard live at 93.1 FM in Ottawa and https://www.ckcufm.com/ on the web.

This episode of Saturday Morning was prerecorded at home and can already be streamed on-demand at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/51567.html

Note: I was subbing for Stephen Neale on this edition of Saturday Morning. I will be back in my regular Saturday Morning slot on April 24. Steve should be back in his next slot in the rotation on May 8.

The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem- Early Morning Rain
The Bold Fenian Men (Columbia)

Marc Nerenberg- I Wish I was a Mole in the Ground
On the Street Again (Marc Nerenberg)
Hannah Shira Naiman- Train On the Island
Know the Mountain (Merriweather)
Joachim Cooder- Over That Road I’m Bound to Go
Over That Road I’m Bound: The Songs of Uncle Dave Macon (Nonesuch)

Reggie Harris- My Working Bones
On Solid Ground (Reggie Harris Music)
Crys Matthews- Exactly Where You Are
Changemakers (Crys Matthews)
Tret Fure- Monuments
Stone by Stone (Tomboy girl Records)
Noel Paul Stookey- In These Times
Just Causes (Neworld)
Tim Grimm- A Dream
Gone (Vault)

Michael J. Miles- Mississippi Overture
Mississippi River Suite/Which Side Are You On? (Right Turn On Red Music)
Leon Bibb- Ol’ Man River
Praising Peace: A Tribute to Paul Robeson (Stony Plain)
Michael J. Miles featuring Zahra Glenda Baker- Mississippi River Suite, Part 1
Mississippi River Suite/Which Side Are You On? (Right Turn On Red Music)
Dave Brubeck Quartet featuring Jimmy Rushing- River Stay ‘Way From My Door
Brubeck & Rushing (Columbia)
Michael J. Miles featuring Zahra Glenda Baker- Mississippi River Suite, Part 2
Mississippi River Suite/Which Side Are You On? (Right Turn On Red Music)
Tom Russell & Iris DeMent- Big Water
The Long Way Around (HighTone)

Anne Hills- Golden Arms
Accidental August (Hand & Heart Music)
Katie Oates- Here in Gastonia
We Go On: Si Kahn’s Songs of Hope in Hard Times (Hollow Reed Arts Recordings)
Dave Clarke- A Thousand Days Like This
The Healing Garden (Crossties)
Steel Rail- The Last Time
Coming Home (Crossties)

Peggy Seeger- How I Long for Peace
First Farewell (Red Grape Music)
Frank London with Cantor Yaakov 'Yanky' Lemmer- Oseh Shalom
Ghetto Songs (Felmay)
Christopher Mark Jones- Call Back Your Soldiers
Looking for the Light (Small Batch Music)
Eliza Gilkyson, Patty Griffin, Mary Chapin Carpenter & Iris DeMent- Peace Call
Land of Milk and Honey (Red House)
Reggie Harris- On Solid Ground
On Solid Ground (Reggie Harris Music)

Dave Alvin- Bus Station
King of California (HighTone)
David Francey- Ankle Tattoo
The Waking Hour (Jericho Beach Music)
Michael Jerome Browne- Somebody Have Mercy
That’s Where It’s At! (Borealis)

Maria Dunn- Waltzing with the Angels
Joyful Banner Blazing (Distant Whisper)
Willie Dunn- Peruvian Dream (Part 1)
Creation Never Sleeps, Creation Never Dies: The Willie Dunn Anthology (Light in the Attic)
Anna Elizabeth Laube- Jardim da Estrela
Annamania (Continental Song City)

Mike Regenstreif & David Amram (2004) photo: Ron Petronko

David Amram & Ramblin' Jack Elliott- Going North
No More Walls (Flying Fish)

Last Forever- Buddy’s Blues
No Place Like Home/Last Forever (2nd Story Sound)
Wynton Marsalis & Catherine Russell- Buddy’s Horn
Bolden: Music from the Original Soundtrack (Blue Engine)
Bill Morrissey- Buddy Bolden’s Blues
Something I Saw or Thought I Saw (Philo)

Maria Muldaur with Tuba Skinny- I Like You Best of All
Let’s Get Happy Together (Stony Plain)
Annabelle Chvostek- Belleville rendez-vous
String of Pearls (Annabelle Chvostek)
The Slowlinks- I Ain’t Got Nobody
Stay With Me Awhile (weewerk)
Samoa Wilson with The Jim Kweskin Band- Me, Myself and I
I Just Want to Be Horizontal (Kingswood)
Le Chat Mort- Bye Bye Baby Bye
Roses (Le Chat Mort)

Laura Smith & Mike Regenstreif (2013)

Rachelle Garniez- Don’t You Know
Gone to Glory (StorySound)
Laura Smith- I’m a Beauty
As Long As I’m Dreaming (Borealis)

David Broza- Night Dawn (Silver Dollar)
Night Dawn: The Unpublished Poetry of Townes Van Zandt (S-Curve)
Bob Jensen- Colorado Girl
For the Sake of the Song (Bob Jensen)
Matthew Barber & Jill Barber- If I Needed You
The Family Album (Outside)
Townes Van Zandt- Snowin’ On Raton
At My Window (Sugar Hill)
Orit Shimoni- Song for Townes
Strange and Beautiful Things (Orit Shimoni)

Shtreiml- Sirba Amen Sela
Har Meron (I.J. Rosenblatt)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on April 24. I also host Stranger Songs on CKCU every Tuesday from 3:30-5 pm.

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

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday March 16, 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 – Episode #6 – was prerecorded at home and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/51230.html

 

Theme: Irish and Irish-inspired songs

The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem- Come By the Hills
The Bold Fenian Men (Columbia)

Moore & McGregor- The Fields of Athenry
Dream with Me (Ivernia)
Brendan Nolan- The Forty Shades of Green
Live at the Side Door (Ould Segosha)
Kirk MacGeachy & David Gossage- The Irish Rover
The Shroud of Erin (Kirk MacGeachy & David Gossage)

Doug McArthur- The Morning I Left Galway
The Horses of the Sea: A Personal Exploration of Ireland (Doug McArthur)
Maria Dunn- From Dublin with Love
Joyful Banner Blazing (Distant Whisper)

Alana & Leigh Cline- The Kerry Lassie Medley: Mother and Child/The Monaghan Twig/The Basket of Oysters/The Kerry Lassie
Alana & Leigh Cline (Scimitar)

Marty Morrissey- Kilkelly
The Ancient Ground (Marty Morrissey)
Highland Weavers- The Star of the County Down
Work O’ The Weavers (Highland Weavers)
Tim Henderson- No Irish Need Apply
Among the Best (Snake Hollow Music)
Ian & Sylvia- Little Beggarman
The Lost Tapes (Stony Plain)

Jack Hardy- Willie Goggin’s Hat
The Passing (Prime CD)
Runa- The Wind That Shakes the Barley
Live (Runa)
The Irish Rovers- The Black Velvet Band
The Best of the Irish Rovers (MCA)
Tara O'Grady- Wild Rover
Black Irish (Tara O’Grady)

Susan McKeown & Lorin Sklamberg- Oakum
Saints & Tzadiks (World Village)
The Dubliners- The Auld Triangle
Spirit of the Irish: The Ultimate Collection (Sanctuary)
The Burns Sisters- From Clare to Here
Looking Back: Our Irish American Souls (Sisters Music)
Makem & Spain- Nae Awa’ to Bide Awa’
Four Pounds a Day (New Folk)

Jamie O'Reilly & The Rogues- Cockles and Mussels
A Collection of Rogues’ Recordings (J. O’Reilly Productions)
The Pogues- Sally Maclennane
Rum, Sodomy & the Lash (WEA)
Stephen Mendel- The Parting Glass
Sing Me a Story (Stephen Mendel)

Kevin Burke's Open House- Paddy the Caffler/Glen Cottage Polka/Tolka Polka
Hoofandmouth (Green Linnet)

Next week – A Tribute to the late Bob Nesbitt, founder and director of the Ottawa Grassroots Festival: Songs by artists who performed at the Ottawa Grassroots Festival over the years.

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

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

The Pogues – The Very Best of the Pogues

THE POGUES
The Very Best of the Pogues
Shout! Factory 
pogues.com

When they burst on the scene in 1984 – 29 years ago – with their first LP, Red Roses for Me, the Pogues were something special playing traditional Irish folksongs, and some in-the-tradition contemporary material, with an attack that was equal parts Clancy Brothers and the Clash. By the second album, Rum, Sodomy and the Lash, a year later, their original material, good enough that much of it could be mistaken for traditional, was dominant.

The Pogues in their prime were a great band fronted by Shane McGowan, an inspired singer and songwriter, with a seeming predilection for self-destruction and unpredictability that meant their star shone all too briefly before flaming out.

The 18 songs included on The Very Best of the Pogues are drawn from all of the albums the Pogues released between 1984 and 1995 and provide a great introduction to the band. Most of the tracks feature McGowan but other Pogues take several lead vocals – including Spider Stacy on his “Tuesday Morning,” from Waiting for Herb, one of a couple of albums the Pogues released after McGowan burned out.

Among the highlights are such exceptional McGowan songs as the rousing “If I Should Fall from Grace with God,” “Sally MacLennane,” whose drunken main character seems like it could have been inspired by the author, and “Body of an American,” as great a song about an Irish wake as I’ve ever heard.

Of course, “Fairytale of New York,” McGowan’s fabulous duet with the late Kirsty MacColl, one of the best Christmas season songs ever, is included, as is their compelling version of Ewan MacColl’s “Dirty Old Town.”

Listening to these songs, I'm reminded how great the Pogues were in those days. The songs are as fresh and as vital now as they were back in the day – in fact, thanks to remastering, they sound better than ever.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Liam Clancy – the last of the Clancy Brothers passes away

“I never heard a singer as good as Liam ever. He was just the best ballad singer I’d ever heard in my life. Still is, probably.” –Bob Dylan, 1984

Liam Clancy, the last of the Clancy Brothers, in fact, the last of the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, the Irish group that introduced me – and most folkies of my generation – to Irish folk music, passed away on Friday at age 74 after a long battle with pulmonary fibrosis.

I still love the old Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem albums from the 1960s, but my favourites are the intimate and beautiful duo albums – Tommy Makem & Liam Clancy, Two for the Early Dew, and The Makem & Clancy Collection – that Liam and Tommy recorded in the 1970s.

And like so many others on hearing the news of Liam’s passing, I’m reminded of “The Parting Glass,” a traditional Irish folk song that Liam sang so beautifully (and which Dylan used as his template for “Restless Farewell”).

The Parting Glass (traditional)

Of all the money e'er I had,
I spent it in good company.
And all the harm I've ever done,
Alas! it was to none but me.
And all I've done for want of wit
To mem'ry now I can't recall
So fill to me the parting glass
Good night and joy be with you all

Oh, all the comrades e'er I had,
They're sorry for my going away,
And all the sweethearts e'er I had,
They'd wish me one more day to stay,
But since it falls unto my lot,
That I should go and you should not,
I gently rise and softly call,
Good night and joy be with you all.

If I had money enough to spend,
And leisure time to sit awhile,
There is a fair maid in this town,
That sorely has my heart beguiled.
Her rosy cheeks and ruby lips,
I own she has my heart in thrall,
Then fill to me the parting glass,
Good night and joy be with you all.


--Mike Regenstreif