Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – July 7, 2026: Remembering Jane Voss and Remembering David Clayton-Thomas

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/595/76134.html

Themes: Part 1 – Remembering Jane Voss; Part 2 – Remembering David Clayton-Thomas.

Remembering Jane Voss (1948-2026)

Jane Voss

Jane Voss was a fine singer of her own original material as well as songs drawn from traditional sources and other contemporary songwriters. Most of her albums were collaborations with Hoyle Osborne, her partner in life and music for 50 years.

I first met Jane in the early 1970s when she came to do a gig at the Yellow Door Coffee House in Montreal. Our paths would cross from time to time over the decades, particularly on the folk festival circuit, and I always enjoyed the times I spent with her and Hoyle.

Jane Voss- Free at Last (Let Me Find My Wings) 

Farther Down the Road (Ripple)

Jane Voss & Hoyle Osborne- Gateway Blues (Blues for Bessie)

Get to the Heart (Ripple)

Jane Voss & Hoyle Osborne- Having a Drink with Jane

Sparkle and Shine (Front Hall)

Jane Voss & Hoyle Osborne- Things About Coming My Way

Beyond the Boundaries (Ripple)

Jane Voss & Hoyle Osborne- I Am There

Beyond the Boundaries (Ripple)

Dave Van Ronk- To All My Friends in Far-Flung Places

To All My Friends in Far-Flung Places (Gazell)

Jane Voss- Farther Down the Road

Farther Down the Road (Ripple)

Remembering David Clayton-Thomas (1941-2026)

Mike Regenstreif & David Clayton-Thomas (2006)

David Clayton-Thomas began his music career singing with R&B bands on Yonge Street in Toronto in 1962. In 1966, David went to New York and began singing in basket houses and clubs. Judy Collins heard him one night and told her friend, the drummer Bobby Colomby, about him. Bobby’s band, Blood, Sweat & Tears had pretty much fallen apart after their first album came out and Bobby reformed the group with David as its lead singer. The new Blood, Sweat & Tears with David became a major recording and touring ensemble. David stayed with Blood, Sweat & Tears until 1972 when he relaunched his solo career, returning to Blood, Sweat & Tears sporadically over the years until 2004.

The first time I met David was at a party in Toronto in 1975 after a Rolling Thunder Revue concert. On that trip to Toronto, I was staying with Tex König, a veteran of the Greenwich Village folk scene of the early-‘60s who later moved to Montreal, where we became friends, before he moved to Toronto. David and Tex knew each other from the Greenwich Village basket houses and David gave Tex and me a ride back to Tex’s place in Cabbagetown.

David and I got reacquainted in 2006, when David came to Montreal for a concert at the Montreal Jazz Festival and was my studio guest on Folk Roots/Folk Branches, my program on CKUT in Montreal. In subsequent years, we occasionally kept in touch via email and Facebook.

Blood, Sweat & Tears- Spinning Wheel

Definitive Collection (Columbia)

Blood, Sweat & Tears- Lucretia Mac Evil

Definitive Collection (Columbia)

Blood, Sweat & Tears- Go Down Gamblin’

Definitive Collection (Columbia)

David Clayton-Thomas- Summertime

Combo (Antionette)

David Clayton-Thomas- (Sittin’ on) The Dock of the Bay

Soul Ballads (Antoinette)

David Clayton-Thomas- Sonny’s Dream

Canadiana (Antoinette/ILS)

David Clayton-Thomas- Suzanne

Canadiana (Antoinette/ILS)

David Clayton-Thomas- Holy Moses

A Blues for the New World (Antoinette) 

David Clayton-Thomas- This Town 

Say Somethin’ (Linus)

David Clayton-Thomas- The Circus

Say Somethin’ (Linus)

David Clayton-Thomas- And When I Die

In Concert: A Musical Biography (Justin Time)

Next week: ‘Round Midnight.

--Mike Regenstreif

Michael Peter Smith 1941-2020

Although I’ve known for five or six weeks that this news was coming soon, I am deeply saddened today to learn that Michael Peter Smith died yesterday of colon cancer at age 78.

Let us go to the banks of the ocean
Where the walls rise above the Zuiderzee
Long ago, I used to be a young man
And dear Margaret remembers that for me

–The chorus of “The Dutchman” by Michael Smith

I was introduced to the songwriting of Michael Smith in 1972 when Steve Goodman led off Somebody Else’s Troubles, his second LP, with Michael’s song, “The Dutchman.” The song stunned me with its lyrical and melodic beauty and with how deeply the depth of the Dutchman’s character and his dementia was compassionately revealed. In 1973, when Steve did a four or five-night gig in Montreal, I got to spend some time with him and he told me a little about Michael and did several more of his great songs.

Many years later, probably sometime around the turn of this century, the great songwriter Tom Russell and I were talking about songs and songwriters and we both picked “The Dutchman” as an all-time favorite song. Tom later recorded a great version of “The Dutchman” on his 2003 album, Modern Art.

It was at some folk festival somewhere in the mid-1980s – I went to a lot of festivals in those days – that I first met Michael and saw him perform. I do recall that it was my late close friend Bruce Kaplan, the founder of Flying Fish Records in Chicago, who introduced us around the time that Michael made his first Flying Fish album. Michael was a riveting performer on stage – then and every time I saw him.

I didn’t get many chances to spend time with Michael – maybe a half-dozen or so times over the years – but I think of several occasions in recent years that I so enjoyed his company and being in his audience. In 2003, Michael came to the Champlain Valley Folk Festival in Vermont as part of Fourtold – a group he formed with Anne Hills, Steve Gillette and Cindy Mangsen – where I was one of the MCs. I was thrilled to have Michael participate in the songwriters’ workshop I hosted annually for seven years at Champlain Valley.

In 2005, when the Folk Alliance International conference was held in Montreal, I invited several performers from the conference to perform live on my Folk Roots/Folk Branches show on CKUT and one of my most cherished radio memories is of Michael and Anne Hills singing their beautiful duet version of “The Dutchman” while I sat two or three feet away in the studio.

Our most recent in-person visit was in December 2014 when Sylvie and I were on vacation on the Gulf Coast in Florida and Michael was doing a Sunday afternoon concert in Tampa, about a 40-minute drive from where we were. The concert was superb and it was great to spend some time with him before and after the show. I treasure the photo – which I call “Michaels with Folded Arms” – that Sylvie took during our visit that day.

Sadly, Michael’s passing comes less than six months after Barbara Barrow, his wife of 52 years and frequent singing partner, died from complications of Parkinson’s disease.

During his final weeks in hospice, Michael was cared for by Jamie O’Reilly, his long-time agent and musical collaborator, and by Anne Hills. On Facebook today, Jamie said Michael made this statement 13 days ago: “And then I realized my life was totally complete and everything I asked for in my life was there. Was there for me. And I felt so grateful. I felt so grateful. I had a wonderful true-life adventure.”

I always include an extended feature when I host the Saturday Morning show on CKCU in Ottawa every fourth week and on June 22, 2019 the feature was “Songs of Michael Smith” – 15 of his songs performed by Michael and a bunch of other artists. You can stream the show by clicking on “LISTEN NOW” at this link.

Michael left us with so many great songs and recordings. I don’t imagine that I will ever stop listening to them or stop playing them on my future radio shows. One of his songs I’ll be playing when I next host the Saturday Morning show on August 15 is “We Become Birds.”

 

Do you see birds on trees
How they leave to get a drink or a bite to eat
Fly away and others follow

 

And the whole day goes by
Birds and more birds
We become birds when we die
We fly away but we come back
We become birds when we die

 

When you're put here it's for a reason
Think of all the people the Lord hasn't sent here
I'm so happy I've been given this time here
Don't want to waste my time on this earth

 

And the whole day goes by
Birds and more birds
We become birds when we die
We fly away but we come back
We become birds when we die

 

He won't hand you
A piece of paper with a map on it no sir
He'll whisper something
And at first you might not even hear
It may take time
You may make mistakes
But if you pray
He'll lead you to your direction

 

And the whole day goes by
Birds and more birds
We become birds when we die
We fly away but we come back
We become birds when we die

I know because sometimes I just want to
Lift off
Go right to the mesa and
Have a feast
Eat our bread
Stand in a circle
Hear my grandmother talk about our people

Although I’ve never been one to believe in such things as reincarnation, I do imagine that Michael Smith must now be a bird, perhaps singing on “the banks of the ocean where the walls rise above the Zuiderzee.”

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

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

–Mike Regenstreif

Laura Smith 1952-2020

“Safe home, sweet light, no longer of this world

On wings, safe and sound you are carried

No longer casting shadows, no longer counting days

You are love and you are loved always”

My friend Laura Smith wrote “Sweet Home, Sweet Light” as a farewell song to a brother and an old friend after losing both around the same time in July 2012. Last night, I was deeply saddened to learn, via an email from Ross MacDonald, that Laura “passed away peacefully in her home surrounded by love, joy, music and compassion from her family of friends in Mahone Bay,” and immediately went to her album Everything is Moving to find comfort in her voice, her music, and particularly in the words of that poignant and beautiful song. Laura was 11 days shy of her 68th birthday.

This news was not unexpected. Just a couple of months ago, Laura was diagnosed with incurable pancreatic cancer and elected to receive palliative care at home. With the support of friends and fans from near and far, she was able to spend her final weeks peacefully reading so many messages from those who loved her. On February 15, she spoke so bravely on the phone with Chris White on CKCU’s Canadian Spaces about her “life challenging” situation. But, still, this news was hard.

In the 1990s, Laura’s recordings were staples on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio show I hosted on CKUT in Montreal. Her reimagined version of the traditional “My Bonny” was one of the most requested songs on the show. I met Laura for the first time in 1997 when she was my guest on the show. It took only one conversation to form a bond of friendship with her. After I moved to Ottawa, I was honoured, in 2013 and 2015, that Laura asked me to MC both of her concerts at the National Arts Centre.

Chris White, Laura Smith & Mike Regenstreif at the National Arts Centre (2013)

Laura overcame a number of difficult struggles in her life – struggles that she faced with much grace and dignity. Although she has left this earthly life, she will live on in the beautiful, elegant and timeless songs she left behind.

“Safe home, sweet heart, no longer beating here

Your life is but a whisper to my sorrow

But time does not confine you now, my spirits I must raise

You are love and you are loved always

You are love, you are love, you are loved always

Safe home, sweet light, no longer shining here

Though your joy is now a beacon for the weary

Never more to shed a tear, never more to feel alone

You are love and you are loved, you’re home

You are love and you are loved, you’re home…home…

Home”

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

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

–Mike Regenstreif

Eric Bibb – Migration Blues

ERIC BIBB

Migration Blues

Stony Plain

ericbibb.com

stonyplainrecords.com

As I’ve said often before, Eric Bibb is one of the most inspired, and inspiring, of contemporary blues and folk artists. Eric has been quite prolific over the past two decades, releasing many studio albums, live albums and collaborative albums and the quality of his work has been consistently high. My best-of-the-year lists here on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches blog have included an Eric Bibb album for six of the past eight years – and they were on my lists many times before that when the Montreal Gazette was publishing my annual picks.

Migration Blues, a topical and timely set of songs about the migration of peoples and individuals – from country to country or place to place – is one of Eric’s most powerful and compelling collections.

Before discussing any of the songs, I’ll mention that this is an intimate recording. In addition to Eric, who variously plays various guitars and six-string banjo, the core musicians are multi-instrumentalist Michael Jerome Browne of Montreal on various banjos, various guitars, fiddle and mandolin; and harmonica master JJ Milteau of France. The three virtuoso musicians – whether all three or two at a time – are a seamless unit.

The album opens with Eric’s “Refugee Moan,” a haunting song sung from the perspective of a refugee praying for a way out of his war-torn country to find a home somewhere peaceful. The song is a universal plea that could apply to refugees from any of the conflicts that have plagued our world in recent decades – even recent centuries.

Other songs about refugees include “Prayin’ for Shore,” a heartbreaking account of refugees – such as the millions who have left Syria over the past six years, or the Vietnamese boat people of a generation ago, or the displaced Jewish Holocaust survivors attempting to reach pre-state Israel after the Second World War – who cross treacherous waters in flimsy boats because they have no other choice; and “Four Years, No Rain,” co-written by Michael and B.A. Markus, which reflects how combinations of war, drought and even terrorism affect refugees.

“Delta Getaway,” co-written by Eric and JJ, reflects the experience of a pre-war blues artist from Mississippi who witnessed a lynching and feared for his life in the Jim Crow South setting out to make his way north to Memphis and on to Chicago. A similar theme is voiced later in the album on “With a Dolla’ in My Pocket” and, to an extent, on “Blacktop,” an older song co-written by Michael and B.A. Markus and sung as a duet by Eric and Michael.

“Diego’s Blues,” co-written by Eric and Michael, tells the origin story of the son of a Mexican woman and African American man. Diego’s mother was one of the many Mexican migrants who’d arrived in the Delta in the 1920s to find work in an area experiencing a labor shortage because of the migration of African Americans leaving the rural South for the urban North hoping to escape Jim Crow; while “We Had to Move” – inspired by the story of James Brown’s family – describes the reasons why the people in one particular African American neighborhood were forced to migrate somewhere else.

Michael Jerome Browne, Mike Regenstreif & Eric Bibb (2005)

There are three powerful instrumentals on the album. In the title track, co-written by Eric, Michael and JJ, you can virtually feel the footsteps of people on the move in the sounds of the instruments. In “La Vie c’est un oignon,” Michael’s fiddle and JJ’s harmonica wordlessly tell the story of the forced migration of 18th century Acadians from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Prince Edward Island to Louisiana where they became Cajuns; and in the short “Postcard from Booker,” Eric plays a guitar owned by the late blues artist Booker (Bukka) White in a tribute that perhaps reflects the traveling life that White led as a musician.

In addition to the songs written or co-written by Eric, Michael and JJ, there are also superb versions of Woody Guthrie’s “This Land is Your Land” (including the often unsung political verses) and Bob Dylan’s “Masters of War,” two songs which remain as powerful today as when they were written more than 75 and 50 years ago.

The album ends quietly with a beautiful version of the traditional African American spiritual “Mornin’ Train,” featuring Eric on vocals and guitar with Ulrika Bibb singing harmony and Michael setting the pace with his banjo.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif