Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday October 25, 2022: Songs of Yip Harburg & Hoagy Carmichael

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/595/58052.html

Theme: Songs of Yip Harburg (1896-1981) and Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981).

Part 1 – Songs of Yip Harburg. E.Y. “Yip” Harburg – who died in 1981 at age 84 – was a lyricist who collaborated with several composers. This show includes some of Harburg’s collaborations with Jay Gorney, Harold Arlen, Earl Robinson and Burton Lane.

Yip Harburg (circa 1950)

Deborah Holland- Brother, Can You Spare a Dime

The Panic is On: Songs from the Great Depression (Gadfly)

Ella Fitzgerald- Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is Dead

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook (Verve)

Stephen Mendel- If I Only had a Brain

Sing Me a Story (Stephen Mendel)

Ian Tyson- Somewhere Over the Rainbow

All the Good ’Uns Vol. 2 (Stony Plain)

The Juggernauts- Lydia, the Tattooed Lady

Live Lunch (The Juggernauts)

Chaim Tannenbaum- It’s Only a Paper Moon

Chaim Tannenbaum (StorySound)

Josh White- Free and Equal Blues

From New York to London: The Classic Recordings (Jasmine)

Happy Traum- How are Things in Glocca Morra?

There’s a Bright Side Somewhere (Lark’s Nest Music)

Part 2 – Songs of Hoagy Carmichael. Hoagland Howard “Hoagy” Carmichael – who died in 1981 at age 82 – was among the most successful songwriters of the Tin Pan Alley era.

Hoagy Carmichael (1947)

Ray Charles- Georgia on My Mind

Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles (Concord)

Jane Voss & Hoyle Osborne- Bread and Gravy

Beyond the Boundaries (Ripple)

Amos Garrett- New Orleans

Amosbehavin’ (Stony Plain)

Maria Muldaur with Hoagy Carmichael- Rockin’ Chair

Sweet Harmony (Reprise)

David Clayton-Thomas- Stardust

Combo (Antionette)

Dave Van Ronk & Christine Lavin- Two Sleepy People

Hummin’ to Myself (Gazell)

Martha Seyler & Robert Resnik- Skylark

Martha Sings & Robert Plays (Martha Seyler & Robert Resnik)

Cindy Church, George Koller & Joe Sealy- I Get Along Without You Very Well

The Nearness of You: A Tribute to the Music of Hoagy Carmichael (Seajam)

Judy Henske- Baltimore Oriole

The Elektra Albums (Ace)

Loudon Wainwright III with Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks- Heart and Soul

I’d Rather Lead a Band (Search Party) 

Jeff Healey- Hong Kong Blues

The Best of the Stony Plain Years: Vintage Jazz, Swing and Blues (Stony Plain)

Junior Brown- Riverboat Shuffle

Mixed Bag (Curb)

Hoagy Carmichael- Lazybones

Stardust Melody (Bluebird)

Leon Redbone- Lazy River

Up a Lazy River (Rounder)

Geoff Muldaur & Amos Garrett- Washboard Blues

Geoff Muldaur & Amos Garrett (Flying Fish)

Cindy Church, George Koller & Joe Sealy- In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening

The Nearness of You: A Tribute to the Music of Hoagy Carmichael (Seajam)

Next week: Radio.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Geoff & Maria Muldaur – Pottery Pie; Sweet Potatoes

GEOFF & MARIA MULDAUR

Pottery Pie

Omnivore Recordings

omnivorerecordings.com/shop/pottery-pie/

Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band were early favorites of mine when I was first getting into music and record collecting as a kid in the 1960s so I was already familiar with (and a fan of) the husband and wife team of Geoff & Maria Muldaur – stalwarts of the Kweskin band – when they recorded Pottery Pie in 1968, the first of two LPs they would release as a duo. Remarkably, Pottery Pie and the other LP, Sweet Potatoes, have just recently been reissued for the first time in North America.

Geoff and Maria alternated lead vocals on Pottery Pie, an album that seemed to point in directions both would go on to explore later on. Geoff’s version of “Death Letter Blues,” for example, is the kind of track he’d record some years later as a member of Paul Butterfield’s Better Days, while Maria’s version of “Me and My Chauffeur Blues,” presaged the tribute to Memphis Minnie she would produce years later.

Geoff’s other highlights on Pottery Pie include a great version of “New Orleans Hopscop Blues,” originally recorded by Bessie Smith, that combines an updated classic blues feel with a New Orleans-style horn arrangement, and a soulful rendition of “Prairie Lullaby,” a classic recorded by Jimmie Rodgers in 1932, that features great playing by Bill Keith on pedal steel and an uncredited fiddler (who I suspect may have been Maria).

And I must mention Geoff’s fun version of “Brazil,” a classic Brazilian jazz tune that would go on to give Terry Gilliam’s film its name when he used this recording in the movie.

Among Maria’s highlights is her sexy definitive version of Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” and the traditional gospel song “Trials, Troubles, Tribulations” with nice harmonies from Betsy Siggins.

But my absolute favorite track on Pottery Pie is Maria’s gorgeous version of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia On My Mind,” with a sublime electric guitar solo by Amos Garrett, perhaps the first of many notable guitar solos Amos would play on albums with both Muldaurs.

GEOFF & MARIA MULDAUR

Sweet Potatoes

Omnivore Recordings

omnivorerecordings.com/shop/sweet-potatoes/

While Pottery Pie seemed to be equal parts Geoff and Maria, Geoff dominates Sweet Potatoes, their second and final LP, released in 1972. It’s a charming album, but just a tad disappointing that only three of the 10 songs featured Maria.

That said, some of my favorites of Geoff’s leads include “Havana Moon,” a very atypical Chuck Berry tune given a bluesy arrangement featuring Paul Butterfield on harmonica, and “Dardanella,” a New Orleans jazz standard whose intricate arrangement points at the kind of work Geoff would do decades later with his album of Bix Biederbecke material.

Another favorite is the languid but delightful version of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Lazy Bones,” with a lead vocal and patented guitar solo by Amos Garrett, that certainly presaged the duo album they recorded on Flying Fish after playing together in Paul Butterfield’s Better Days.

Maria’s three lead vocals are also highlights of Sweet Potatoes. These include “Blue Railroad Train,” a Delmore Bothers song that Doc Watson introduced to the folk revival in the mid’60s, and the title track, a lovely little number on which she’s accompanied by pianist Jeff Gutcheon, the song’s composer.

But my absolute favorite is Maria’s beautiful version of “Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be),” a jazz standard sung decades earlier by Billie Holiday. This version features another dreamy guitar solo by Amos as well as strings and woodwinds – including Geoff on clarinet. 

I should note also that the cover painting for Sweet Potatoes was by the great folk and blues performer and visual artist Eric Von Schmidt.

These two albums are much more than footnotes in the discographies of two artists would go on to give us – and still continue to give us a half-century later – much great music.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Jeff Healey – The Best of the Stony Plain Years: Vintage Jazz, Swing and Blues

JEFF HEALEY

The Best of the Stony Plain Years: Vintage Jazz Swing and Blues

Stony Plain

stonyplainrecords.com

As I noted five years ago in my review of Jeff Healey’s Last Call, “The late Jeff Healey (1966-2008) was – with great reason – one of Canada’s most popular blues-rock guitarists and an exciting bandleader. He was also an expert on the hot jazz and swing of the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s – I remember some great radio shows he hosted on the CBC playing old 78s – and, in the last decade or so before cancer took his life, went public as a traditional jazz singer, trumpet player and guitarist, touring and recording a series of fine albums with the Jazz Wizards, a group distinct from his blues-rock band. As much as I enjoyed hearing Jeff play blues-rock, I much preferred hearing him in the jazz context.”

The Best of the Stony Plain Years: Vintage Jazz Swing and Blues compiles 11 terrific tracks from Healey’s traditional jazz albums – including Last Call – and adds “Sweet Georgia Brown,” a previously unreleased track included on a Stony Plain sampler in 2006.

I’ve got Healey’s jazz albums (and the Stony Plain sampler) on my shelves so there was nothing new for me on this CD. Still, it’s a terrific reminder of the real joy Healey had playing the music he loved.

Among my favorites – I do really like the whole CD – are “The Wild Cat,” an instrumental featuring Healey on guitar and Drew Jurecka on violin sounding like Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli in their prime (with modern day sound quality); “Sing You Sinners,” a swinging gospel spoof recorded live at Hugh’s Room in Toronto with British trombone legend Chris Barber sitting in with the Jazz Wizards; a version of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Hong Kong Blues,” that’s all Jeff on vocals and two guitars; and the rousing finale of “Sweet Georgia Brown,” another tune with Barber from the same Hugh’s Room show as “Sing You Sinners.”

This collection clocks in at 53 minutes but leaves me wanting more. I think I’ll go pull out the original albums.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Ray Charles -- Live in Concert

RAY CHARLES

Ray Charles Live in Concert

Concord

concordmusicgroup.com

I saw Ray Charles live four or five times, mostly in concert halls like Place des Arts in Montreal. The shows were great – like, how could a Ray Charles show not be great? – but, they had settled into a kind of greatest hits routine formula in the last couple of decades of his touring career. But, what a formula it was. Charles’ genius lay in his organically combining so many different styles at the roots of American music – gospel, blues, jazz, R&B, country, even traditional folk music – into his singular, soulful style.

The first Ray Charles show I ever saw was, to my memory, the best and the most unusual. Unusual, to me, at least, in its setting in a huge hotel ballroom with the audience of thousands seated 10 or so to a table. It was New Year’s Eve in Miami Beach as 1976 gave way to 1977. My friend Paul Levine and I had driven down to Florida from Montreal on a whim for a winter vacation and were happy to find something we were excited to do on New Year’s Eve. The table service was weird. You couldn’t order a single drink at your table; only full bottles of expensive liquor. I’d never seen anything like that before, or since. It was a loud, obnoxious place filled with a loud, obnoxious crowd. But, when Ray Charles and his orchestra came on, he commanded the place and blew the roof off.

Listening to the expanded (19 tracks, the original LP was 12) reissue of Ray Charles Live In Concert, recorded in 1964, I’m hearing a show that reminds me much more of that Miami Beach show from a dozen years later, than the 1980s and ‘90s performances I saw at Place des Arts.

The recorded concert is a big band affair with Ray at the piano (and, occasionally, organ) with fabulous rhythm and horn sections, and the Raylettes, who add their gospel-infused, call-and-response vocal harmonies to a few songs.

The program ranges from swinging jazz instrumentals like “One Mint Julep,” to R&B classics like “What’d I Say,” to reimagined country songs like “You Don’t Know Me,” and humorous vaudeville tunes like “Two Ton Tessie.”

Among my very favorite tracks are Charles’ versions of “In the Evening (When the Sun Goes Down)” adapted from Lead Belly’s adaptation of Leroy Carr’s original from the 1920s; a lovely version of “That Lucky Old Sun”; and a stunning seven-minute performance of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia On My Mind,” in which Charles’ organ beautifully replaces the orchestral strings from his studio recording.

I’m glad I got to see Ray Charles live on several occasions and I’m very happy to be able to relive the experience via this CD.

--Mike Regenstreif