Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – August 4, 2026: The Leonard Cohen Deep Dive, Part 1

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/595/76527.html

Theme: The Leonard Cohen Deep Dive, Part 1.

The Leonard Cohen Deep Dive, Part 1 is the first show in a series that will be happening every four to six weeks on Stranger Songs until we’ve heard virtually all of Leonard Cohen’s songs and some of his poems.

Fred Holstein- Suzanne

Live at the Earl of Old Town (Eddie Holstein)

Leonard Cohen- Master Song

Songs of Leonard Cohen (Columbia/Legacy)

Kate & Anna McGarrigle & Martha Wainwright- Winter Lady

Leonard Cohen: I’m Your Man (Verve Forecast)

Leonard Cohen- Beside the Shepherd

Six Montreal Poets (Folkways)

Martin Simpson- The Stranger Song 

Vagrant Stanzas (Topic)

Serena Ryder- Sisters of Mercy

If Your Memory Serves You Well (EMI)

Leonard Cohen- Blessed is the Memory

Songs of Leonard Cohen (Columbia/Legacy)

First Aid Kit, Frida Hyvönen, Loney Dear, Jesper Lindell, Annika Norlin, Maja Francis, Nina Zanjani & Maia Hansson-Bergqvist- So Long, Marianne

Who By Fire: Live Tribute to Leonard Cohen (Sony Sweden/Columbia)

Luciana Souza- Hey, That’s No Way to Say Goodbye

Here It Is: A Tribute to Leonard Cohen (Blue Note)

Leonard Cohen- Stories of the Street 

Songs of Leonard Cohen (Columbia/Legacy)

Leonard Cohen- For Wilf and His House

Six Montreal Poets (Folkways)

Judy Collins- Priests

In Concert: Wildflowers at The Town Hall (Cleopatra)

Leonard Cohen- Teachers

Songs of Leonard Cohen (Columbia/Legacy)

Leonard Cohen- One of Us Cannot Be Wrong

Songs of Leonard Cohen (Columbia/Legacy)

Leonard Cohen- Store Room

Songs of Leonard Cohen (Columbia/Legacy)

Johnny Cash- Bird On a Wire

American Recordings (American Recordings)

Judy Collins- Story of Isaac

Who Knows Where the Time Goes (Elektra)

Leonard Cohen- Poem 

Six Montreal Poets (Folkways)

Leonard Cohen- A Bunch of Lonesome Heroes 

Songs from a Room (Columbia/Legacy)

Perla Batalla- The Partisan 

A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda Music)

Perla Batalla- Seems So Long Ago, Nancy 

Bird on the Wire: The Songs of Leonard Cohen (Mechuda Music)

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – May 14, 2024: Songs of Jacques Brel

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/595/65137.html

Theme: Songs of Jacques Brel (1929-1978).

Jacques Brel – who died in 1978 at age 49 from a pulmonary embolism while suffering from terminal lung cancer – was a Belgian singer, songwriter and actor whose theatrical songs are still widely performed, both in French and in English translation.

Jacques Brel- Les Flamandes

The Very Best of Jacques Brel (Select)

Judy Collins- Marieke

Whales & Nightingales (Elektra)

Amanda McBroom- Girl in an Armchair

Chanson: Amanda McBroom Sings Jacques Brel (Gecko)

Fred Holstein- Amsterdam

Fred Holstein: A Collection (Fred Holstein)

Barb Jungr- Jacky

Bob, Brel and Me (Kristalyn)

Jacques Brel- Au Printemps

The Very Best of Jacques Brel (Select)

Mary Coughlan- Hearts

Sentimental Killer (Eastwest)

Judy Collins- Sons of

Whales & Nightingales (Elektra)

Amanda McBroom- My Death

Chanson: Amanda McBroom Sings Jacques Brel (Gecko)

Barb Jungr- The Tender Hearts

Bob, Brel and Me (Kristalyn)

Jacques Brel- Les Bourgeois

The Very Best of Jacques Brel (Select)

Joan Baez- La Colombe – The Dove

Joan (Vanguard)

The Kingston Trio- Seasons in the Sun

Collectors Series (Capitol)

Jennifer Warnes- Old Folks – Les vieux

Just Jennifer (Deram)

Melody Gardot- La Chanson des vieux amants

Sayanora Meu Amor (Decca)

Jacques Brel- Les Singes

The Very Best of Jacques Brel (Select)

Stacey Kent- If You Go Away

Summer Me, Winter Me (Token Productions)

Judy Collins- The Desperate Ones

Bohemian (Wildflower)

Jacques Brel- Le Colonel

The Very Best of Jacques Brel (Select)

Barb Jungr- To See a Friend Break Down and Cry

Bob, Brel and Me (Kristalyn)

Amanda McBroom- You Don’t Forget the Past

Chanson: Amanda McBroom Sings Jacques Brel (Gecko)

Jacques Brel- Le Moribond

The Very Best of Jacques Brel (Select)

Next week: Still More Songs of Bob Dylan.

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – November 14, 2023: Songs of Utah Phillips

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/595/62730.html

Theme: Songs of Bruce “Utah” Phillips (1935-2008).

Utah Phillips & Mike Regenstreif (1976) photo: Felicity Fanjoy

Utah Phillips- The Telling Takes Me Home

The Telling Takes Me Home (Philo)

Saul Broudy- Starlight on the Rails

Singing Through the Hard Times: A Tribute to Utah Phillips (Righteous Babe)

Pop & Bodie Wagner & Dakota Dave Hull- Old Buddy, Goodnight

Singing Through the Hard Times: A Tribute to Utah Phillips (Righteous Babe)

Steve Gillette & Cindy Mangsen- Going Away

Live in Concert (Compass Rose)

The Sorry Muthas Wolverine 14

Greatest Hits Vol. 3 (Wampus Cat)

Utah Phillips- Phoebe Snow

Good Though! (Philo)

Finest Kind- The Goodnight-Loving Trail

Lost in a Song (Fallen Angle)

Rosalie Sorrels- Rock Me to Sleep

Travelin’ Lady (Sire)

John Gorka- I Think of You

So Dark You See (Red House)

Penny Lang- If I Could be the Rain

Stone + Sand + Sea + Sky (Borealis)

Kate Wolf- Clearing in the Forest

The Wind Blows Wild (Rhino)

The Short Sisters- Rock Salt and Nails

Love and Transportation (Black Socks Press)

Utah Phillips & Mike Regenstreif (2005)

Utah Phillips- Frisco Road

Good Though! (Philo)

Finest Kind- He Comes Like Rain

Singing Through the Hard Times: A Tribute to Utah Phillips (Righteous Babe)

Bruce Brackney- Hood River, Roll On

Singing Through the Hard Times: A Tribute to Utah Phillips (Righteous Babe)

Jody Stecher & Kate Brislin- Walking Through Your Town in the Snow

Heart Songs: The Old Time Country Songs of Utah Phillips (Rounder)

Priscilla Herdman & Utah Phillips- I Remember Loving You

Darkness into Light (Flying Fish)

Fred Holstein- Nevada Jane

Fred Holstein: A Collection (Fred Holstein)

Rosalie Sorrels- Ashes on the Sea

Strangers in Another Country: The Songs of Bruce “Utah” Phillips (Red House)

Margaret Christl & Simon Christl- The Green Rolling Hills of West Virginia

House of Song (Margaret Christl)

Utah Phillips- Eddy’s Song

The Telling Takes Me Home (Philo)

Magpie, Dan Schatz, Emma's Revolution- Singing Through the Hard Times

Singing Through the Hard Times: A Tribute to Utah Phillips (Righteous Babe)

Next week: Songs and Conversation with Noel Paul Stookey.

--Mike Regenstreif 

Bonnie Koloc -- Beginnings

BONNIE KOLOC
Beginnings
Mr. Biscuit
bonniekoloc.com

I first met Steve Goodman back in 1973 or ’74 when he did a four-night stand at the soon-to-be-defunct Karma Coffee House in Montreal. Hanging out with him then, we talked a lot about music and it was from Steve that I first heard of Bonnie Koloc. She was one of the best singers around, he told me.

I took Steve’s advice and sought out Bonnie’s early LPs – and what she’s done since – and she’s never failed to draw me in with her gorgeous voice and intelligent folk-pop (with touches of blues and jazz) approach.

Bonnie’s first LP came out in 1971 but she was already well-established as one of top performers on the Chicago folk club scene that included such peers as Steve, John Prine and Fred Holstein. But the music on Beginnings – released for the first time more than 40 years after it was recorded – dates from two 1969 live sets recorded by Rich Warren, then the student host of a folk music show on his college’s radio station. (For many years now, Rich has been the host of the legendary Midnight Special program on WFMT in Chicago.)

Listening to Beginnings, it’s quite obvious that Bonnie was already a great singer and performer; in fact, I would say it’s more even more obvious here than on some of her early LPs with their studio polish.

The sweetly sad “Rainy Day Lady” is Bonnie’s only original among the 16-song, hour-long set mostly devoted to her superb interpretations of tunes drawn from such well-known writers as Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell as well as from local artists like Eddie Holstein and Steve Goodman (who was still completely unknown beyond the Chicago folk scene).

Among my favourites on the CD are Bonnie’s versions of Dylan’s “Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues (despite a couple of lyrical deviations)” and “Just Like a Woman”; Goodman’s “Song for David”; Eddie Holstein's "Victoria's Moring"; and one of the best interpretations I’ve ever heard of Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now.”

She also does fine versions of such classics as Billie Holiday’s “God Bless the Child,” George Gershwin’s “Summertime” and Bessie Smith’s “You’ve Been a Good Old Wagon.”

Bonnie is supported throughout the album by the excellent playing of guitarist Ray Frank and bassist George Stevens. John Mathis plays flute on three songs and two others feature a guy named Bob (from the bar) on harmonica.

--Mike Regenstreif