Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday April 1, 2017

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 at 93.1 FM in Ottawa and http://www.ckcufm.com/ on the web.

This episode of Saturday Morning can be streamed on-demand at http://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/31738.html. The show begins 72 seconds into the stream.

Extended theme – Songs of Jesse Winchester

Guest – Maria Dunn

Robin Greenstein- Tears and Laughter

Tears and Laughter (Windy)

Tom Russell & Dave Alvin- Blue Wing

The Long Way Around (HighTone)

Townes Van Zandt, Freddy Fender, Rubin Ramos & the Texas Revolution, Doug Sahm & Augie Meyer- Pancho and Lefty

Texas Rain: The Texas Hill Country Recordings (Tomato)

John Stewart- July, You’re a Woman

California Bloodlines (Capitol)

John Sebastian- Stories We Could Tell

The Best of John Sebastian (Rhino)

David Wiffen- More Often Than Not

David Wiffen (Fantasy)

Guy Davis & Fabrizio Poggi- Walk On

Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train (M.C.)

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee- That’s Why I’m Walking

Back to New Orleans (Fantasy)

Penny Lang- I’ve Been Living with the Blues

Penny Lang & Friends Live (She-Wolf)

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee- Climbing on Top of the Hill

The Bluesmen (Castle)

Guy Davis & Fabrizio Poggi- Sonny and Brownie’s Last Train

Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train (M.C.)

Sneezy Waters- Little Bird

Sneezy Waters Live (Sneezy Waters)

Lynne Hanson- Just for Now

Uneven Ground (Song Shop)

Russ Kelley- Sometimes It’s So Simple

Crazy Shades of Blue (Ark Road Music Productions)

Ali McCormick- Dad’s Time

Clean Water (Ali McCormick)

Durham County Poets- Ragman Blues

Chikkaboodah Stew (Durham County Poets)

Ken Whiteley- The Midnight Special

Freedom Blues (Borealis)

Mike Regenstreif & Jesse Winchester (2006)

Kate & Anna McGarrigle & Emmylou Harris- Skip Rope Song

The McGarrigle Hour (Hannibal)

Jerry Jeff Walker- Mississippi You’re On My Mind

Ridin’ High (MCA)

Joan Baez- The Brand New Tennessee Waltz

Blessed Are (Vanguard)

Jesse Winchester- Yankee Lady

Jesse Winchester (Stony Plain)

Cheryl Wheeler- Defying Gravity

Defying Gravity (Philo)

Rosanne Cash- Biloxi

Quiet About It: A Tribute to Jesse Winchester (Mailboat)

Lynn Miles- Wintery Feeling

Winter (Lynn Miles)

Jesse Winchester- Sham-A-Ling-Dong-Ding

Love Filling Station (Appleseed)

Susie Burke & David Surette- I Turn to My Guitar

Waiting for the Sun (Madrina Music)

William Bell- All of Your Stories

This is Where I Live (Stax)

Brenda Lewis- I Wave Bye-Bye

Far & Near (Brenda Lewis)

Jesse Winchester- Just So Much

A Reasonable Amount of Trouble (Appleseed)

John McCutcheon- The Reason I’m Here

Trolling for Dreams (Appalseed)

Sharon Goldman- Song of Songs

Kol Isha (A Woman’s Voice) (Sharon Goldman)

Priscilla Herdman- Gentle Arms of Eden

The Road Home (Redwing Music)

Tim Grimm & the Family Band- These Rollin’ Hills

A Stranger In This Time (Vault)

Lisa Gutkin- From Here On In

From Here On In (Lisa Gutkin)

Eric Bibb- We Had to Move

Migration Blues (Stony Plain)

Jayme Stone, Moira Smiley, Sumaia Jackson, Joe Phillips, & Nick Fraser- Mwen Pas Danse

Jayme Stone’s Folklife (Borealis)

Mike Regenstreif & Maria Dunn at CKCU (2017)

Maria Dunn- Malala

Gathering (Distant Whisper)

Maria Dunn- The Milkman

Gathering (Distant Whisper)

Maria Dunn- I Cannot Tell You

Piece By Piece (Distant Whisper)

Maria Dunn- Music in the Meadow

Gathering (Distant Whisper)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on April 29.

Find me on Twitter. @MikeRegenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Guy Davis & Fabrizio Poggi – Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train

GUY DAVIS & FABRIZIO POGGI

Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train

M.C. Records

guydavis.com

mc-records.com

The magnificent blues duo of singer/harmonica master Sonny Terry and singer/guitarist Brownie McGhee were the first really old musicians I ever got to know. 

Let me qualify what I mean by “really old.” They were 10 to 15 years older than my parents and 10 to 15 years younger than my grandparents. But most of the artists I was encountering in coffeehouses when I was 15 or 16 were in their 20s and 30s and Sonny and Brownie were in their 50s (younger than I am now) – so they seemed “really old.”

Sonny and Brownie started working as duo in the early-1940s and had been playing together for nearly three decades by the time I met them sometime in 1969 or ’70. Sonny and Brownie were playing a five-night gig at the Back Door – a great, but short-lived folk club in Montreal – and I think I went at least three or four of those nights. I remember their sets as being fantastic. I particularly loved songs like “Rock Island Line” that they would sing together. And I remember being fascinated watching the muscles in Brownie’s arms move as he played guitar.

On one of those nights, I screwed up my courage and asked if I could talk to them about Woody Guthrie. I had become fascinated with Woody and had been listening to his records and reading everything I could about him. I had seen their names associated with Woody and I recognized that the amazing and distinctive harmonica player I was listening to at the Back Door was the same harmonica player I heard on some of the Woody Guthrie records I had. Sonny and Brownie were both most gracious in talking with the curious kid that I was. Speakiing with them was an incredible experience that taught me so much more than I realized at the time.

By the mid-1970s, I was producing concerts in Montreal and was honored to present a couple of shows with Sonny and Brownie.

On Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train, Guy Davis, one of the finest blues artists of my generation, combines with the excellent Italian harmonica player Fabrizio Poggi for what Guy describes as “a love letter to Sonny and Brownie.”

Indeed, the entire album is a loving homage to the inspiring folk-blues masters. Guy and Fabrizio include several of Sonny and Brownie’s original songs and a bunch of other songs drawn from their extensive repertoire. Of special note, though, is the opening title track. Guy says he improvised “Sonny and Brownie’s Last Train”during the recording session. The song lets us know how he feels about Sonny and Brownie and about how unique and special they were.

  

Brownie McGhee (left) and Sonny Terry

While I enjoyed the entire 12-song set from start to finish, some of my favorite numbers included Brownie’s “Walk On,” which, as much as any song, could be called his signature song (I remember driving with him once in Montreal and his car’s California license plate read “Walk On”); “Take This Hammer” and “Midnight Special,” two songs Sonny and Brownie got from their friend Lead Belly; “Step It Up and Go,” a bouncy tune favored by a lot of the Piedmont style bluesmen of their generation; and a sweet version of “Freight Train” that hues closer to Elizabeth Cotton’s original than to Sonny and Brownie’s variant.

As the guitarist, Guy recalls Brownie while Fabrizio on harmonica recalls Sonny for those of us who were lucky enough to have seen Sonny and Brownie on stage (see the drawing on the CD cover). I’ll note, though, that Guy is the only singer tackling songs on which both Brownie and Sonny variously took the lead vocals. I’ll also note that Guy is playing both harmonica and guitar on “Shortnin’ Bread” (while Fabrizio plays kick drum) while on the title track, both Guy (right channel) and Fabrizio (left channel) are playing harmonica.

Guy and Fabrizio’s Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train sent me back to the subjects of the homage. Over the past week as I’ve listened to and enjoyed Guy Davis and Fabrizio Poggi doing these songs, I’ve also been listening to and enjoying albums by Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train was released in the U.S. on March 24. It will be released here in Canada on March 31.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif