Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday March 15, 2022: Jack Kerouac at 100

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/595/55531.html

Theme: Jack Kerouac at 100

This week is the centennial of the birth of Jack Kerouac, the great beat novelist and poet. Kerouac, who died in 1969 at age 47 from a hemorrhage caused by cirrhosis due to long-term alcoholism, was born Jean-Louis Lebris de Kerouac to French Canadian parents in Lowell, Massachusetts on March 12th, 1922. Kerouac’s parents were among the nearly one million French Canadians who migrated from Quebec to the New England states to find work there between 1840 and 1930. Kerouac’s mother tongue was French and he didn’t learn to speak English until he went to school at age six. And, apparently, despite being born in the U.S., Kerouac identified as Canadian.

In the 1990s, the late Kate McGarrigle worked on – but didn’t finish – a musical about Jack Kerouac. “Jacques et Gilles” is about French Canadians – like Kerouac’s parents – who migrated to New England.

Kate & Anna McGarrigle- Jacques et Gilles
Matapedia (Hannibal)

Jack Kerouac with Steve Allen- October in the Railroad Earth
The Kerouac Collection: Poetry for the Beat Generation (Rhino)
Tom Russell- October in the Railroad Earth
October in the Railroad Earth (Frontera)

Mike Regenstreif & Jimmy LaFave (2017)

Jack Kerouac with Steve Allen- MacDougal Street Blues
The Kerouac Collection: Poetry for the Beat Generation (Rhino)
Jimmy LaFave- Bohemian Cowboy Blues
Blue Nightfall (Red House)

Jack Kerouac with Steve Allen- Goofing at the Table
The Kerouac Collection: Poetry for the Beat Generation (Rhino)

Mike Regenstreif & David Amram (2017)

Jack Kerouac with The David Amram Ensemble- Washington D.C. Blues
Jack Kerouac reads On the Road (Rykodisc)
David Amram with Lynn Sheffield- Pull My Daisy
No More Walls (Flying Fish)

Bob Martin- Stella Kerouac
The River Turns the Wheel (Riversong)
Lyle Lovett- Babes in the Woods
Step Inside This House (Curb/MCA)

Tom Waits- Jack & Neal/California Here I Come
Foreign Affairs (Elektra)
Aztec Two-Step- The Persecution and Restoration of Dean Moriarty
Live at Caffé Lena: Music from America’s Legendary Coffeehouse 1967-2013 (Tompkins Square)
Jack Kerouac with Steve Allen- Readings from “On the Road” and “Visions of Cody”
The Kerouac Collection: Poetry for the Beat Generation (Rhino)
Eric Taylor- Intro Dean Moriarty/Dean Moriarty
Live at the Red Shack (Blue Ruby)

Next week: Garden Songs

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday July 6, 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 was prerecorded at home and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/52602.html

Theme: The Fourth Stranger Songs Fantasy Concert, a whole show of music recorded live in concert while we look forward to returning to concerts, clubs and festivals.

Eric Andersen- Blue River
Woodstock Under the Stars (Y&T Music)

Ian & Sylvia- Summer Wages
The Lost Tapes (Stony Plain)
Tom Russell & The Norwegian Wind Ensemble- St. Olav’s Gate
Aztec Jazz (Frontera)
Rosalie Sorrels- Girls In Our Town
Then Came the Children (Green Linnet)

Joseph Spence- Out on the Rolling Sea
Encore: Unheard Recordings of Bahamian Guitar and Singing (Smithsonian Folkways)
Bill Staines- I Bid You Goodnight
Bridges (Red House)

Hoyle Osborne- Maple Leaf Rag
Live at The Diamond Belle (Ripple)

David Amram- Pull My Daisy
Pull My Daisy (Premier)
Asleep at the Wheel- Route 66
Live at Billy Bob’s Texas (Smith)

Anna McGarrigle & Lily Lanken- Jacques et Gilles
Sing Me the Songs: Celebrating the Works of Kate McGarrigle (Nonesuch)
Linda Thompson & Richard Thompson- Go Leave
Sing Me the Songs: Celebrating the Works of Kate McGarrigle (Nonesuch)
Anna McGarrigle, Chaim Tannenbaum, Lily Lanken, Rufus Wainwright & Martha Wainwright- Dink’s Song
Sing Me the Songs: Celebrating the Works of Kate McGarrigle (Nonesuch)

The Wailin' Jennys- Bring Me Little Water Sylvie
Live at The Mauch Chunk Opera House (Outside)
Saul Broudy- Cool Colorado
Ten Great Years at Kerrville, Volume One (Silverwolf)
Eric Taylor with Nanci Griffith- Mission Door
Live at the Red Shack (Blue Ruby)

Mike Regenstreif & Missy Burgess (2014)

Debi Smith- Intertwined
Deep Tracks (Degan Music)
Missy Burgess- Picture in a Frame
Missy Burgess with The Blue Train Live (Missy Burgess)
Lynn Miles with Keith Glass- Rust
Road (Lynn Miles)
Bob Franke- A Healing in This Night
The Other Evening in Chicago (Waterbug)

Hoyle Osborne- The Entertainer
Live at The Diamond Belle (Ripple)

Next week – Songs About Refugees with guest Diana Jones

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

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday March 27, 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/128/51381.html

 

Michael Johnathon- Sunday Morning
The Painter (PoetMan)

Jesse Winchester- I Wave Bye Bye
Gentleman of Leisure (Sugar Hill)
Steel Rail- Flow River Flow
Coming Home (Crossties)
Dave Clarke- Until We Meet Again
The Healing Garden (Crossties)
Chris Rawlings & Anne Lederman- I Want to Hear You Sing
A Whistle, a Tune, a Song and a Dance (Cooking Fat Music)

Liz Simmons- Night in the City
Poets (Morgana Music)
Becky Buller- Woodstock
Distance and Time (Dark Shadow Recording)
Joni Mitchell- Born to Take the Highway
Archives – Volume 1: The Early Years (1963-1967) (Rhino)
Alice Howe- A Case of You
A Case of You – single (Alice Howe)
Lisa Jeanette- Darling of the Muses
Jellyfish on the Moon (Lisa Jeanette Music)

Michael Smith- The Dutchman
Such Things are Finely Done (Tales from the Tavern)
Eric Taylor- Visitors from Indiana
Eric Taylor (Watermelon)
David Olney- Jerusalem Tomorrow
The Stone (Deadbeet)
Tim Grimm- Dreaming of King Lear
Gone (Vault)

Magpie- Which Side Are You On?
When We Stand Together (Longtail Records)
Michael J. Miles featuring Zahra Glenda Baker- Which Side Are You On? Dilemma
Mississippi River Suite/Which Side Are You On? (Right Turn On Red Music)
Ellis Paul- $20 Bill (For George Floyd)
Ellis Paul’s Traveling Medicine Show Vol. 1 (Rosella)
Michael J. Miles featuring Zahra Glenda Baker- Which Side Are You On? Enough
Mississippi River Suite/Which Side Are You On? (Right Turn On Red Music)
Marc Nerenberg- Ain’t Gonna Study War No More (Down By the Riverside)
Times Ain’t Nuthin’ Like They Used to Be (Marc Nerenberg)

New Moon Jelly Roll Freedom Rockers- Blues for Yesterday
Volume 2 (Stony Plain)
Diana Braithwaite & Chris Whiteley- Careless Love
Blues Stories (Big City Blues)
Vince Halfhide- Memphis Rounder
Vince Halfhide (Vince Halfhide)
Katie Oates- Bury Me On Beale Street
We Go On: Si Kahn’s Songs of Hope in Hard Times (Hollow Reed Arts Recordings)
Junior Wells- Cha Cha Cha in Blue
Junior’s Wails: Singles As & Bs 1953-1961 (Jasmine)

Maggie & Terre Roche- Jill of All Trades
Where Do I Come From: Selected Songs (StorySound)
Suzzy Roche & Lucy Wainwright Roche- Jane
I Can Still Hear You (StorySound)
Laura Smith- One Woman
As Long As I’m Dreaming (Borealis)
Jane Voss- Free at Last (Let Me Find My Wings)
Farther Down the Road (Ripple)

Anne Hills- Acquainted with the Night
Accidental August (Hand & Heart Music)
Dulcie Taylor- First Kiss
Rediscovered (Mesa/Bluemoon Recordings)
Annabelle Chvostek- Je t’ai vue hier soir (I Saw You Last Night)
String of Pearls (Annabelle Chvostek)
Rod Abernethy- Just Around the Corner
Normal Isn’t Normal Anymore (Songs From Downstairs Records)

Willie Dunn- The Ballad of Crowfoot
Creation Never Sleeps, Creation Never Dies: The Willie Dunn Anthology (Light in the Attic)

Frank London with Karim Sulayman- Amore en
Ghetto Songs (Felmay)
Frank London with Karim Sulayman & Cantor Seta Kundish- O dolcezz’amarissime
Ghetto Songs (Felmay)
Frank London with Cantor Seta Kundish – Minutn fun bitokhn
Ghetto Songs (Felmay)
Bob Jensen- The Partisan
For the Sake of the Song (Bob Jensen)

Rod MacDonald- In Every Dream
Boulevard (Blue Flute Music)
John Gorka- I Can’t Do Crazy (Anymore)
Willie Nile Uncovered (Paradiddle)
Anna Elizabeth Laube- Sweet Boy from Minnesota
Annamania (Continental Song City)
Reid Jamieson- Everyday People
Songs of 69 (Reid Jamieson)

Jimmy Yancey- Yancey Stomp
Blues & Boogie (Cherry Red)

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

Eric Taylor – Live at the Red Shack

ERIC TAYLOR

Live at the Red Shack

Blue Ruby Music & Records

bluerubymusic.com

Back in the 1980s, Nanci Griffith was a regular performer at the Golem, the Montreal folk club I was running in those days. Like many of the artists who played the Golem, Nanci stayed with me and we’d often sit up, late at night, talking about music, musicians, singers, songs and songwriters. One of the people she told me about was her ex-husband, a great songwriter, troubled in those days, named Eric Taylor. I’d had a bit of an introduction to Eric via his song, “Dollar Matinee,” which he performed with Nanci on her first LP, There’s a Light Beyond These Woods.

Eric grew up in Georgia and arrived on the Texas folk scene in the early-1970s. Following in the footsteps of songwriters like Townes Van Zandt and Guy Clark, he was one of the best of the next wave of singer-songwriters in a scene known for its great writers. Eric released his first LP, Shameless Love, in 1981, and then pretty much disappeared for more than a decade.

I was doing the Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio show when Eric re-emerged in the mid-1990s with the eponymously named Eric Taylor, a CD which re-established Eric’s place in the front ranks of contemporary folk-based singer-songwriters. That album, and a series of excellent releases that followed, were staples on the radio show for its entire run.

For Live at the Red Shack, Eric took some songs from his extensive back catalogue – including a couple that have only been available on Nanci Griffith or Lyle Lovett albums and another that was (so far as I know) previously unrecorded – into the Red Shack, a Houston recording studio, and performed them live to a small audience of invited guests. Backing Eric throughout the album are Marco Python Fecchio, an excellent, atmospheric electric guitarist and James Gilmer, a very tasteful percussionist. Nanci, Lyle, Denice Franke and Susan Lindfors Taylor provide duet and/or harmony vocals to some of the songs.

Something I’ve always loved about Eric’s work is that he’s not a navel-obsessed songwriter. Many of his songs are from the perspective of a character completely, or at least seemingly, outside of himself. In one song, he’s a guy from Indiana who just happened to be a tourist in the crowd when John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas. In another, he’s a guy in a saloon in Deadwood, South Dakota when news about the death of Crazy Horse comes through in 1877. And, in yet another, he’s a character in Jack Kerouac’s On the Road talking about Dean Moriarty. And in all of these settings, and others, he seems to be singing with complete honesty and authenticity.

Without question, these are all great versions of great songs, but I’ll call attention to a few of my favorite tracks.

One is certainly the afore mentioned “Dean Moriarty,” doubled in length by a spoken word into that sounds like it could have been written by Kerouac back in the day. Another is “Mission Door,” with chorus harmony from Nanci, a beautifully constructed portrait of skid row life. And yet another is a gorgeous duet with Denice Franke on “Blue Piano,” which captures a scene from many years ago of Bonnie Brown playing the painted-blue piano at Anderson Fair, a legendary Houston music club.

It was also great to hear Eric and Nanci reprising their version of “Dollar Matinee,” first recorded on Nanci’s debut album in 1978, and to hear Eric and Lyle team up on “Memphis Midnight, Memphis Morning,” an Eric Taylor song Lyle recorded on Step Inside This House, an album he made in tribute to influential Texas songwriters.

If you appreciate great singer-songwriters, you should be listening to Eric Taylor.

--Mike Regenstreif

This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history (December 8-14)

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 15th 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.

December 8, 1994: Extended feature- Jesse Winchester.
December 12, 1996: Extended feature- A Hanukkah Celebration.
December 11, 1997: Special edition- The Songs of Jimmie Rodgers.
December 10, 1998: Guest- Eric Taylor.
December 14, 2000: Guest- Stephen Fearing.
December 13, 2001: Guest- Kirk MacGeachy.
December 12. 2002: Guest- Réjean Archambault of La Bottine Souriante.
December 9, 2004: Recurring theme- Songs of Hannukah.
December 8, 2005: Guests- Kate & Anna McGarrigle; Tom Russell & Andrew Hardin.
December 14, 2006: Guest- Ian Tyson.
December 13, 2007 (Folk Roots/Folk Branches feature): Songs from Dave on Dave, David Massengill’s tribute to Dave Van Ronk (and a bit of Dave on Dave, Dave Van Ronk singing a David Massengill song).

Pictured (left to right): Tom Russell, Mike Regenstreif and Andrew Hardin at the Green Room on December 8, 2005.

--Mike Regenstreif