Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday September 7, 2021: A Tribute to The Everly Brothers

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/595/53344.html

Theme: A Tribute to The Everly Brothers

The Everly Brothers – Phil Everly, who died in 2014 at age 74, and Don Everly, who died on August 21st at age 84 – were a highly influential duo whose music encompassed rock ‘n’ roll, country and folk music. All the songs on this show were recorded, at one time or another, by The Everly Brothers.

The Everly Brothers- This Little Girl of Mine
Cadence Classics: Their 20 Greatest Hits (Rhino)

Madeleine Peyroux- Bye Bye Love
The Blue Room (Decca)
Simon & Garfunkel- Wake Up Little Susie
The Concert in Central Park (Warner Bros.)
Kate Brislin & Katy Moffatt- Sleepless Nights
Sleepless Nights (Rounder)
The Persuasions- All I Have to Do is Dream
Good News (Rounder)
The Everly Brothers- Sweet Dreams
Walk Right Back: The Everly Brothers on Warner Bros. 1960 to 1969 (Warner Archives)

Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris- Love Hurts
Grievous Angel (Reprise)
Linda Ronstadt- When Will I Be Loved
Heart Like a Wheel (Capitol)
The Everly Brothers- (‘Til) I Kissed You
Cadence Classics: Their 20 Greatest Hits (Rhino)

Andy Hedges- Roving Gambler
Cowboy Songster (Yellowhouse)
Ian & Sylvia- Down By the Willow Garden
Ian & Sylvia (Vanguard)
Tim Grimm & Carrie Newcomer- Barbara Allen
Names (Wind River)
Billie Joe + Norah- Who’s Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet?
Foreverly (Reprise)
The Everly Brothers- I’m Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail
Songs Our Daddy Taught Us (Rhino)

Nanci Griffith- Walk Right Back
Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful) (Elektra)
The Everly Brothers- On the Wings of a Nightingale
EB 84 (Mercury)

John Sebastian- Stories We Could Tell
Faithful Virtue: The Reprise Recordings (Rhino)
The Everly Brothers- The Brand New Tennessee Waltz
Stories We Could Tell (RCA)
Jesse Winchester- Bowling Green
Seem Like Only Yesterday: Live in Montreal 1976 (Real Gone Music)

Kate Brislin & Katy Moffatt- So Sad
Sleepless Nights (Rounder)
Roberta Flack- Let It Be Me
Chapter Two (Atlantic)
Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris- Brand New Heartache
Sleepless Nights (A&M)
Doc Watson- Bird Dog
Docabilly (Sugar Hill)
The Everly Brothers- I’m Movin’ On
Walk Right Back: The Everly Brothers on Warner Bros. 1960 to 1969 (Warner Archives)

The Everly Brothers- Asleep
EB 84 (Mercury)

Next week: Strange Songs and Stranger Songs

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--Mike Regenstreif

Bonnie Koloc – Rediscovered

BONNIE KOLOC

Rediscovered

Mr. Biscuit

bonniekoloc.com

As I noted in my review of Beginnings, a Bonnie Koloc collection of vintage – but previously unreleased – live recordings, I was first turned onto Bonnie almost four decades ago by the late Steve Goodman, one of her contemporaries on the Chicago folk club scene at the time.

Taking Steve’s enthusiastic recommendations to heart, I collected Bonnie’s 1970s recordings, all of which are now long out-of-print. On Rediscovered, Bonnie has recorded new versions of 10 songs from earlier albums, most of them from that period (and a couple from her much more recent and presumably still in-print CD, Visual Voice).

As always, Bonnie’s music falls somewhere between contemporary folk and pop music with strong elements of blues – particularly showing the influence of the classic woman blues singers of the 1920s and ‘30s – and jazz.

If anything, Bonnie’s interpretive skills have deepened and the arrangements on these 10 songs – a nicely balanced collection of five original songs and five drawn from other songwriters – are beautifully intimate featuring small groups or small groups plus strings.

Among my favorites from among Bonnie’s own songs is “Children’s Blues,” a powerful, deeply-felt commentary about the painful, often lasting effects of parental conflict on young kids. Despite not having heard the LP version in about 25 years, it’s a song I’ve never forgotten. The perfect arrangement is built on Larry Kohut’s heartbeat bass with Chris Siebold’s acoustic rhythm guitar and lead lines from John Rice on dobro and Steve Eisen on tenor sax – and, of course, Bonnie’s superb singing.

Another is “Two Black Guitars,” a heartfelt remembrance of Bonnie’s late brother Jim, also a musician, that references the Everly Brothers and ends with a coda from the Everlys hit, “Bye Bye Love.” Howard Levy’s sublime harmonica playing adds much to this and several other songs.

Among the covers, there’s a great version of Lil Green’s classic “In the Dark,” which Bonnie starts singing a cappella – her voice slipping and sliding effortlessly around the melody – before Kohut, Rice and Sibelod move in under her.

Another favourite cover is John Prine’s “Angel from Montgomery,” a song that draws on an old woman’s somewhat bitter memories and feelings. It’s a song that almost demands a woman’s voice and Bonnie nails it.

I'm now on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

I'm also on Facebook. www.facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif