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.
Folk-rooted and folk-branched reviews, commentaries, radio playlists and suggestions from veteran music journalist and broadcaster Mike Regenstreif.
Wednesday, June 25, 2025
Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – July 1, 2025: Songs for Canada Day
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.
Wednesday, October 16, 2024
Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – October 22, 2024: Remembering Nick Gravenites, Kris Kristofferson, JD Souther, and Billy Edd Wheeler
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.
Billy Edd Wheeler – who died on September 16 at age 91 – was a singer, songwriter and playwright from West Virginia whose songs were widely covered by folk, country, pop and rock artists. Long before the environmental movement began, Billy Edd Wheeler was writing songs about the terrible effects of coal mining on the land and on the lives of coal miners.
Nick Gravenites was a blues artist, songwriter and record producer who died on September 18 at age 85. He grew up in Chicago and met Paul Butterfield and Mike Bloomfield there when they were all students.
JD Souther – who died on September 17 at age 78 – was a singer, songwriter and actor, known for his own albums and for writing or co-writing songs for such artists as Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor and The Eagles.
Kris Kristofferson – who died on September 28 at age 88 – was a singer, a highly influential songwriter, and an actor. I knew Kris a little bit. In 2007, he participated in a panel discussion that I moderated on Woody Guthrie at the Ottawa Folk Festival, and, in 2017, we had a nice visit before Kris performed at the International Folk Music Awards ceremony in Kansas City when I was inducted into the Folk DJ Hall of Fame created by Folk Alliance International. The photo of Kris was taken that night.
Tuesday, May 14, 2024
Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday May 18, 2024
Saturday Morning is an eclectic roots-oriented program on CKCU, 93.1 FM, in Ottawa on Saturday mornings from 7 until 10 am (Eastern time) and available for on-demand streaming anytime. I am one of the four rotating hosts of the Saturday Morning show.
Thursday, April 18, 2024
Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – April 23, 2024: Songs of Shel Silverstein
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.
Shel Silverstein – who died of a heart attack in 1999 at age 68 – was a renaissance man: an author, poet, cartoonist, singer-songwriter, musician, and playwright.
Friday, May 5, 2023
Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday May 16, 2023: Remembering Gordon Lightfoot
Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.
One of our greatest singer-songwriters – whose songs have done much to help define Canadian identity and culture – Gordon Lightfoot passed away on May 1st at age 84.
Tuesday, April 18, 2023
Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday April 22, 2023
Saturday Morning is an eclectic roots-oriented program on CKCU in Ottawa heard on Saturday mornings from 7 until 10 am (Eastern time) and available for on-demand streaming anytime. 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.
Wednesday, March 1, 2023
Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday March 7, 2023: Songs of Kris Kristofferson
Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.
Kris Kristofferson performs at The International Folk Music Awards (2017) |
Kris Kristofferson – who recently retired from performing and recording – had tremendous success as a singer and songwriter, and, as an actor.
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Mike Regenstreif, Nora Guthrie, Kris Kristofferson & Jimmy LaFave (2007) |
Anne Hills- Here Comes That Rainbow Again
Saturday, January 21, 2023
Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday January 28, 2023
Saturday Morning is an eclectic roots-oriented program on CKCU in Ottawa heard on Saturday mornings from 7 until 10 am (Eastern time) and available for on-demand streaming anytime. 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.
Saturday, September 10, 2022
Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday September 13, 2022: Songs of Gordon Lightfoot
Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.
Saturday, August 13, 2022
Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday August 16, 2022: It's Lake Time
Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU in Ottawa on Tuesdays 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 and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/57296.html
Theme: It’s Lake Time.
All the songs on this show have something or other to do with lakes.
Tim Grimm- The Lake
The Turning Point (Cavalier Recordings)
Connie Kaldor- Canoe Song
Wood River (Coyote)
Ball & Chain- Loon on the Lake
Bare Bones (Ball & Chain)
Willie Dunn- Wounded Lake
Creation Never Sleeps, Creation Never Dies: The Willie Dunn Anthology (Light in the Attic)
Martin Simpson- Lakes of Champlain
Prodigal Son (Compass)
Marty Morrissey & Robert Resnik- The Alphabet Song of Lake Champlain
Old & New Songs of Lake Champlain (Marty Morrissey & Robert Resnik)
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Mike Regenstreif, Bill Garrett & Sue Lothrop (2014) |
Bill Garrett & Sue Lothrop- Au Bord de Lac Bijou
Red Shoes (Borealis)
Happy Traum- Lakes of Pontchartrain
There’s a Bright Side Somewhere (Lark’s Nest Music)
Nanci Griffith- Banks of the Pontchartrain
The Last of the True Believers (Philo)
Gordon Lightfoot- Christian Island (Georgian Bay)
Don Quixote (Reprise)
Stan Rogers- White Squall
From Fresh Water (Fogarty’s Cove/Borealis)
Deborah Robins- The Keweenaw Light
Home Fires (Zippety Whippet)
Ian Tamblyn- Woodsmoke and Oranges
Through the Years [’76-‘92] (North Track)
Lee Murdock- Phantom Ships That Pass in the Night
The Lost Lake Sailors (Depot)
Huxtable, Christensen & Hood- Lake George 1922
Wallflowers (Philo)
David Woodhead- Summers at Rangeley Lake
Sweets and Conundrums (Woodhead Music)
Michael Jerling- Fishtrap Lake
Music Here Tonight (Fool’s Hill Music)
Christopher Shaw- North to Long Lake
Adirondack Serenade (Twining Tree)
Night Sun- This Lake
Home (Night Sun)
Bruce Cockburn- Deep Lake
Speechless: The Instrumental Bruce Cockburn (True North)
Next week: Music of My Montreal.
Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif
--Mike Regenstreif
Saturday, April 10, 2021
Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday April 13, 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 – Episode #10 – was prerecorded at home and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/51586.html
Theme: Train Songs
Eve Goldberg- Waiting for a Train
Ever Brightening Day (Sweet Patootie)
James Talley- Hear That Lonesome Whistle
Journey – The Second Voyage (Cimarron)
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee- Rock Island Line
Blues Masters, Vol. 5 (Storyville)
Preservation Hall Jazz Band & Ani DiFranco- Freight Train
Preservation (Preservation Hall)
Bill Garrett- Northshore Train
Bill Garrett (Borealis)
Happy & Artie Traum- Blow Your Whistle, Freight Train
Hard Times in the Country (Rounder)
Seldom Scene- Steel Rail Blues
Changes (Rounder)
Gordon Lightfoot- Canadian Railroad Trilogy
Songbook (Warner Archives/Rhino)
Craig Duncan- Take the A Train
Bluegrass Swing (Green Hill Productions)
Crowes Pasture- Hobo’s LullabyMike Regenstreif & Arlo Guthrie (1996)
Crowes Pasture (Crowes Pasture)
Mountain City Four- Mean Old Frisco
Mountain City Four (Peter Weldon)
Last Forever- Old 97
No Place Like Home/Last Forever (2nd Story Sound)
Arlo Guthrie- City of New Orleans
Here Come the Kids (Rising Son)
Veronika Jackson- Morning Train
The Woman I Am (Acoustic with Heart Productions)
Rosalie Sorrels- Talkin’ Wolverine 14
Travelin’ Lady Rides Again (Green Linnet)
Andy Cohen- Talkin’ Casey
Tryin’ to Get Home (Earwig)
Anne Hills- I Rode ‘Em All
Tracks (Hand & Heart Music)
Louis Jordan- Choo Choo Ch’Boogie
The Later Years 1953-1957 (JSP)
Jackie Washington- When that Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam’
Midnight Choo Choo (Borealis)Utah Phillips & Mike Regenstreif (2005)
Sue Foley- Cannonball Blues
The Ice Queen (Stony Plain)
Tom Rush- The Panama Limited
Tom Rush/Take a Little Walk with Me (BGO)
Utah Phillips- Wabash Cannonball/Tolono
Good Though! (Philo)
Bruce Cockburn- Train in the Rain
Speechless (True North)
Next week – Celebrating Spring
Find me on Twitter. www.twitter.com/mikeregenstreif
And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif
--Mike Regenstreif