Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday March, 2023

Saturday Morning is an eclectic roots-oriented program on CKCU in Ottawa heard on Saturday mornings from 7 until 10 am (Eastern time) and available for on-demand streaming anytime. 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 recorded and can already be streamed on-demand at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/59865.html

The Brothers & Sisters- Mr. Tambourine Man 

Dylan’s Gospel (Columbia)

Three songs in memory of Dane Lanken. Dane, an old friend and colleague in both music and journalism, died on March 3rd, at age 77.

Kate & Anna McGarrigle- Jigsaw Puzzle of Life

Tell My Sister: Kate & Anna McGarrigle (Nonesuch)

Kate & Anna McGarrigle with Dane Lanken- No Biscuit Blues

Tell My Sister: Dancer with Bruised Knees (Nonesuch)

Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Mike Regenstreif, Chaim Tannenbaum & Dane Lanken (1976) photo: Felicity Fanjoy

Kate McGarrigle, Martha Wainwright & Lily Lanken with Anna McGarrigle, Rufus & Loudon Wainwright, Chaim Tannenbaum, Dane & Sylvan Lanken- Johnny’s Gone to Hilo

The McGarrigle Hour (Hannibal)

Rob Corcoran & The Necessary Evils- Over in Verona

Grand Declarations (Rob Corcoran)Er

Steve Lundquist- I’m Not Your Romeo

Acting a Fool (Steve Lundquist)

Lynne Hanson- Seeking Juliet

Eleven Months (Lynne Hanson)

Eric Bibb- 500 Miles

Ridin’ (Stony Plain)

Just Us Lillys- In the Hills of Tennessee

Not Far from the Tree (Just Us Lillys)

Kerri Powers- Speed of the Sound of Loneliness

Words on the Wind (Must Have Music)

Tim Grimm- The Leaving

The Little In-Between (Vault)

Chaim Tannenbaum- Ain’t No More Cane on the Brazos

Chaim Tannenbaum (StorySound)

Mary Gauthier- Sugar Cane

Live at Blue Rock (In the Black)

Geoff Bartley- Joshua Gone Barbados

The Ballad of Billy Bridger (Magic Crow)

Bunny Barnes- Hallelujah

It Goes Like It Goes (Bunny Barnes)

Mike Regenstreif & Connie Kaldor (2015)

Connie Kaldor- The Woman Who Pays

The Woman Who Pays – single (Connie Kaldor)

Mary Beth Carty- Voilà le Printemps

Crossing the Causeway (Mary Beth Carty)

Amelia Hogan- Red-Winged Blackbird

Taking Flight (Amelia Hogan)

Vinta- The Heron’s Rookery

Beacons (Vinta)

Natalie MacMaster & Donnell Leahy featuring Rhiannon Giddens- Woman of the House

Canvas (Linus)

Karan Casey- I Thank My Lucky Stars

Nine Apples of Gold (Crow Valley Music)

Jason Lang- Happiness Is

Handled with Care (Famgroup/Genison Music)

Penny Lang- Diamonds on the Water

Stone + Sand + Sea + Sky (Borealis)

Ball & Chain & The Wreckers- My Time is Gonna Come

Satisfied (Ball & Chain)

Rebecca Folsom- New Way Home

Sanctuary (Sunshine Productions)

Ben & Dom- Children of Darkness

His Head Lies Heavy (Ben & Dom)

Doug Cox & Linda McRae- Beyond the Great Pause

Beyond the Great Pause (42 RPM)

Eric Erickson- Slow and Steady

The Shadow of the Moon (Ardith Recordings)

Annie Capps- How Can I Say This

How Can I Say This? (Yellow Room)

Eric Kilburn- She Do

Reckonings (Wellspring)

Dakota Dave Hull- Big Bad Bill is Sweet William Now

Better Late Than Never: The Classic American Guitar-Banjo (Arabica)

Aaron Nathans & Michael G. Ronstadt- Dr. Joelson’s Bag

Hello World (Crooked Cyclone)

Bonnie Dobson- Peter Amberley

At Folk City (Prestige)

The Clancy Brothers & Robbie O'Connell- Those Were the Days

Older But No Wiser (Vanguard)

Lynn Miles- Hwy 105

tumbleWeedyWorld (True North)

Tom Russell- T-Bone Steak and Spanish Wine

October in the Railroad Earth (Frontera)

Keith Glass Band- Come Along

Different World (Stump)

Rick Scott & Nico Rhodes- Hurt So Long

Roots & Grooves (Grand PooBah Music)

Shari Ulrich & Mike Regenstreif (2019)

Shari Ulrich- Free Fall

Everywhere I Go (Borealis)

Derek Vanderhorst- Hanging on Your Door

Wildflower (Derek Vanderhorst)

Scarlet Rivera- Before Everything Changed

Tribute to a Song Poet: Songs of Eric Andersen (Y&T Music)

My Politic- Cursing at the Night & at the Morning

Missouri Folklore: Songs & Stories from Home (My Politic)

Marilyn Jordan- Calico Curtains

Both Things are True (Marilyn Jordan)

The Klezmorim- Firen Di Mekhutonim Aheym

First Recordings (Arhoolie)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on April 22. I also host Stranger Songs on CKCU every Tuesday from 3:30-5 pm. 

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Kate & Anna McGarrigle – Pronto Monto

KATE & ANNA McGARRIGLE

Pronto Monto

Omnivore Recordings

mcgarrigles.com

omnivorerecordings.com

I worked with Kate & Anna McGarrigle – first producing concerts in Montreal, then booking concerts for them as an agent across Canada and in the United States at such venues as the National Arts Centre (Ottawa), Convocation Hall (Toronto), Carnegie Hall (New York), and others – between 1974 and 1980.

During those years they recorded and released three LPs on Warner Bros. Records: Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Dancer with Bruised Knees, and Pronto Monto. The first two LPs were reissued fairly early in the CD era – and more recently in the 3-CD set Tell My Sister (the third CD is of early, previously unreleased demos) – but the third LP, Pronto Monto, released in 1978, has been out of print for at least 35 years. Finally, though, it is now reissued on CD for the first time.

While the first two LPs were critically acclaimed, they didn’t meet the major label sales standards that Warner Bros. expected. So there was an attempt, at the production level, to give Kate and Anna more of a pop sound on Pronto Monto. Songwriter David Nichtern, who had a major hit with Maria Muldaur’s recording of “Midnight at the Oasis,” was brought in to produce the album and a number of Los Angeles and New York A-list studio musicians played on it (along with key McGarrigle sidemen Chaim Tannenbaum, Peter Weldon, Dane Lanken, Ken Pearson, Pat Donaldson and Scot Lang).

The thing is, though, Kate and Anna were never (thankfully) cookie-cutter pop singers. They were always idiosyncratic, rootsy singers and songwriters – and that was a major part of what their charm was about. And – thankfully – that added pop gloss could not, and did not, really hide their idiosyncrasies and rootsy charm on Pronto Monto.

I haven’t had a working turntable for many years so it had been a long time since I’d listened to Pronto Monto. It’s been quite a delight to listen to the album again after so much time. Among my favorite tracks are Kate’s clever “NA CL”; Kate’s “Stella By Artois,” which celebrated the dawning of her decade-long relationship with British bass player Pat Donaldson; Anna’s “Bundle of Sorrow, Bundle of Joy,” which celebrated the birth of her son, Sylvan Lanken, who, by now, is close to 40 years old; and Kate’s “Come Back Baby,” a gently-rolling blues.

I also still really like their covers of “Tryin’ to Get to You,” an Elvis Presley B-side from his Sun Records days that was a rock ‘n’ roll highlight of Kate and Anna’s late-‘70s concerts; and Galt McDermot and William Dumaresq’s lovely goodnight song, “Cover Up My Head” (written years before Montrealer McDermot achieved fame for composing the Broadway hit “Hair”).

Pronto Monto has been the missing Kate & Anna McGarrigle album for far too long. It’s really nice to have it back (and to now have all of their albums on my shelves as accessible CDs).

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Kate McGarrigle tribute at Luminato Festival

This Friday evening, June 15, I’ll be in Toronto to attend Love Over and Over – The Songsof Kate McGarrigle, the Luminato Festival’s tribute to my late friend Kate McGarrigle at Massey Hall.

The concert is a fundraiser for the Kate McGarrigle Fund which supports research into sarcoma, the form of cancer which claimed Kate’s life in 2010.

The concert is being curated by Joe Boyd, who produced the first two Kate & Anna McGarrigle albums in the 1970s and The McGarrigle Hour album in 1998, and will include performances of Kate’s songs by such family members as Anna and Jane McGarrigle; Rufus and Martha Wainwright; Dane, Sylvan and Lily Lanken; longtime friends and musical associates like Chaim Tannenbaum and Joel Zifkin; and a wide array of artists including, among others, Emmylou Harris, Peggy Seeger, Bruce Cockburn, Ron Sexsmith, Jane Siberry and Robert Charlebois.

I'm sure it will be a fabulous, poignant evening filled with great songs, laughter and tears.

My friendship with Kate dates back to the early-1970s. I worked extensively with Kate and Anna from 1974 to 1980, producing concerts in Montreal and as an agent arranging concerts at such venues as the National Arts Centre (Ottawa) Convocation Hall (Toronto) and Carnegie Hall (New York). Later on, I wrote about Kate and Anna often for such publications as the Montreal Gazette, the National Post and a major cover feature in Sing Out! magazine. As well, Kate and Anna were my frequent guests on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio program.

My remembrance of Kate written just after she passed away is at this link.

Since then, I’ve also written reviews of Oddities, a collection of Kate and Anna’s previously unreleased tracks at this link, and Tell My Sister, the 3-CD collection which includes re-mastered versions of the first two albums – Kate & Anna McGarrigle and Dancer with Bruised Knees – as well as an absolutely essential collection of early solo and duo demos at this link.

--Mike Regenstreif

Kate & Anna McGarrigle -- Tell My Sister

KATE & ANNA McGARRIGLE

Tell My Sister

Nonesuch

mcgarrigles.com

Tell My Sister, assembled by producer Joe Boyd, and released to coincide with the Kate McGarrigle tribute concerts last week at Town Hall in New York City, is an essential 3-CD set that reissues the first two 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.

Aside from the fact that they are great albums, those first two Kate & Anna LPs were important to me personally as they (along with the third LP, Pronto Monto) came out during the time that I worked closely with Kate and Anna, producing concerts for them in Montreal and arranging touring concert dates for them at such venues as Convocation Hall in Toronto, the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, Carnegie Hall in New York City, and other places in Canada and the U.S. I wrote more about my friendship and working relationship with Kate and Anna in this article after Kate passed away last year.

The first LP, Kate & Anna McGarrigle, released in 1976, was one of the greatest folk and singer-songwriter LPs of the decade. Every one of the dozen songs – including five written by Kate and four by Anna – is a perfectly polished gem. The singing – in particular the stunning sibling harmonies – is stunning, the arrangements featuring a combination of folk music friends and some of the top studio musicians of the day are as near as you can get to being perfect.

I’ve always thought of Side 1 of the original LP – the first six songs on the CD reissue – as perhaps the most perfect of LP sides, rivalled only by Side 2 of Abbey Road by the Beatles.

The Side 1 suite begins with “Kiss and Say Goodbye,” Kate’s rock ‘n’ roll celebration of a hoped-for night, and segues into “My Town,” Anna’s sad, but gorgeous, lament for a broken heart that features some very pretty mandolin work by David Grisman (who would soon go on to revolutionize how we think about the possibilities of bluegrass instruments). Then, Kate’s “Blues in D,” patterned after the great piano-guitar duo recordings of Leroy Carr & Scrapper Blackwell, and featuring some nifty work by Amos Garrett on acoustic guitar and Joel Tepp on clarinet, leads into Kate and Anna trading verses and adding celestial harmonies to a majestic version of “Heart Like a Wheel.” The days of the Mountain City Four, the legendary Montreal folk group of the 1960s that included Kate and Anna, are recalled with the Wade Hemsworth classic, “Foolish You,” before the side ends with a beautifully orchestrated version of “(Talk to Me of) Mendocino,” Kate’s exquisite ode to New York State, the California coast and lost love.

While Side 1 of the LP – tracks 6-12 on the CD – may have been a perfect album side, there is no fault to be found with the second side. Anna’s “Complainte pour Ste-Catherine,” co-written with Philippe Tatarcheff, and featuring some Cajun-style fiddling by Jay Ungar and Floyd Gilbeau, is one of the McGarrigles’ most enduring French-language songs. “Complainte” leads into “Tell My Sister,” Kate’s song about needing to come home alone from a bad period in her marriage to Loudon Wainwright III. Interestingly, Kate and Anna follow “Tell My Sister” with a fun version of Loudon’s “Swimming Song.” It’s followed by Anna’s “Jigsaw Puzzle of Life,” which describes the first decade of her relationship with her then-boyfriend, soon-to-be-husband Dane Lanken. Then we hear Kate’s stunning, heartbreaking performance of “Go Leave,” a song for dying relationship that she still carried some hope for, before the album ends with a joyous rendition of the Bahaman spiritual “Travelling on for Jesus.”

I’ve listened to Kate & Anna McGarrigle many hundreds of times over the past 35 years. Listening to this newly remastered version, it still sounds as fresh as it did when I first sat down with Kate in 1975 and she played the first rough mixes for me.

Dancer with Bruised Knees, released on LP in 1977, may not have been quite as good as the first album, but it wasn’t off by much. As Joe Boyd says in the Tell My Sister liner notes, “Its only problem was the album it had to follow.”

Among my favourites of Kate’s songs from Dancer are the pastoral “Southern Boys,” the lovely “Walking Song” and “Hommage à Grungie,” a tribute to an artist friend. Favourites of Anna’s include the title track, told from the point of view of an ex-dancer friend (and including a brief parody of Kate’s “Work Song”), the pretty “Naufragée du Tendre,” again co-written, like most of Kate and Anna’s French songs, with Philippe Tatartcheff, and “Kitty Come Home,” Anna’s plea to Kate to leave the scene of her broken marriage and return to Montreal. Another of my favourites is their version of Galt MacDermot and Bill Dumaresq’s “No Biscuit Blues,” a song that predates Montrealer MacDermott’s great success as the composer of the Broadway hit, Hair.

Like the first album, Dancer with Bruised Knees is an album I’ve listened to hundreds of times and it still sounds great after all these years. It’s also an album that has a few personal memories as I visited in the studio a couple of times during the recording process and listened in as Kate and Anna worked on several of the songs.

It’s the third CD in the set – demo recordings from 1971-1974 – that  makes Tell My Sister essential for Kate & Anna fans that still have copies of the original LPs or CD reissues. These 21 tracks, lasting more than an hour, and including two versions each of “Heart Like a Wheel” and “(Talk to Me of) Mendocino,” are absolutely wonderful. While most of the songs would end up being recorded on later Kate & Anna albums, there are six songs, including “Annie,” a never-released gem written by Chaim Tannenbaum and sung by Kate, that have never before appeared on any of Kate and Anna’s albums.

The solo songs reveal that Kate, had she pursued a solo career, would have been at the top of the folk and singer-songwriter scene. Most of her naked solo performances are every bit as good as the versions she’d re-record in subsequent years for official albums. Some, like this version of “The Work Song,” are superior to the later recordings. The same can be said of the tracks recorded with Anna – they are also a delight to hear in these versions naked of any layered-on production.

Among the demo tracks are two songs Kate and Anna recorded in 1974 with Roma Baran on guitar and vocals: a version of Kate’s “Kiss and Say Goodbye” and “Willie Moore,” the traditional folksong. These songs remind me of the first three shows I produced for Kate and Anna in the summer of 1974 at the Golem Coffee House in Montreal. Those wonderful concerts, which they played as a trio with Roma, remain a fond memory. The three were brilliant together and I’ve always regretted that Kate, Anna and Roma didn’t continue in that trio format.

It’s also interesting to hear Anna’s “Heart Like a Wheel” as primarily a solo vehicle for Kate. Even on the later version of “Heart Like a Wheel,” which includes some harmony from Anna, it is still Kate’s performance. In later concerts, and in the version recorded for Kate & Anna McGarrigle, it was very much a shared performance.

Another fascinating performance is the 1971 version of “(Talk to Me of) Mendocino,” that includes a final verse that Kate dropped before the song became well known.

Speaking as someone who knew Kate and Anna McGarrigle, and their music, back in the day when these “good old songs were new,” I cannot recommend Tell My Sister highly enough.

--Mike Regenstreif

This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history (February 9-15)

Folk Roots/Folk Branches with Mike Regenstreif was a Thursday tradition on CKUT in Montreal for nearly 14 years from February 3, 1994 until August 30, 2007. Folk Roots/Folk Branches continued as occasional features on CKUT and is now also a blog. Here’s the 24th instalment of “This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches,” a weekly look back continuing through next August at some of the most notable guests, features and moments in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history.

February 9, 1995: Pre-Valentine’s Day “All Love Songs” Special.
February 13, 1997: Pre-Valentine’s Day “All Love Songs” Special.
February 11, 1999: Guest- James Keelaghan.
February 14, 2002: Tribute to the late Dave Van Ronk; Guest- Gerry Goodfriend.
February 12, 2004: Guests- Jason Rosenblatt of Shtreiml and Abby Rosenblatt.
February 10, 2005: Tributes to the late Stan Rogers and Odetta, the 2005 Lifetime Acheievement Award honorees of the North American Folk Alliance.
February 9, 2006: Special Edition- Variations on the theme of John Henry.
February 15, 2007: Guests- Dane Lanken and Anna McGarrigle.
February 14, 2008 (Folk Roots/Folk Branches feature): Spotlight on Paul Robeson.

Pictured: Anna McGarrigle and Mike Regenstreif at the launch of Kate & Anna McGarrigle: Songs & Stories by Dane Lanken, recording an interview heard February 15, 2007 on Folk Roots/Foolk Branches. (Photo: Campbell Hendery)

--Mike Regenstreif