Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday January 18, 2022: Songs of Leonard Cohen – The Middle Years

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 was prerecorded at home and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/54885.html

Theme: Songs of Leonard Cohen – The Middle Years

This edition of Stranger Songs was inspired by the book, Leonard Cohen Untold Stories: From This Broken Hill by Michael Posner, the second of what will be three volumes of Leonard Cohen’s untold stories. From This Broken Hill covers Leonard Cohen’s life from the early-1970s until the late-1980s and the songs of Leonard Cohen on this show were written during that period.

Colleen Rennison- Why Don’t You Try
See the Sky About to Rain (Black Hen)
Holly Near- A Singer Must Die
2018 (Calico Tracks Music)
Leonard Cohen- Lover Lover Lover
New Skin for the Old Ceremony (Columbia)
Tower of Song- Chelsea House #2
In City and in Forest (Tower of Song)
Judy Collins- Take This Longing
Judy Collins Sings Leonard Cohen: Democracy (Elektra/Rhino)
Rufus Wainwright & Amsterdam Sinfonietta- Who By Fire
Rufus Wainwright & Amsterdam Sinfonietta Live (BMG/Modern)

Perla Batalla- Came So Far for Beauty
Bird on the Wire: The Songs of Leonard Cohen (Mechuda Music)
Leonard Cohen- The Window
Recent Songs (Columbia)
Emmylou Harris- Ballad of a Runaway Horse (Ballad of the Absent Mare)
Cowgirl’s Prayer (Asylum)

The Klezmer Conservatory Band- Dance Me to the End of Love
Dance Me to the End of Love (Rounder)
The Once- Coming Back to You
The Once (Borealis)
Jennifer Warnes- Night Comes On
Famous Blue Raincoat: The Songs of Leonard Cohen – 20th Anniversary Edition (Shout! Factory)
Leonard Cohen- The Captain
Various Positions (Columbia)
SONiA disappear fear- Hallelujah
By My Silence (Disappear Records)

Jamie O'Reilly & Michael Smith- Song of Bernadette
Songs of a Catholic Childhood (J. O’Reilly Productions)

Mad Pudding- First We Take Manhattan
Grand Hotel (Sliced Bread)
Leonard Cohen- I’m Your Man
I’m Your Man (Columbia)
Tom Russell- Tower of Song
Selections from Love & Fear plus bonus out-takes (HighTone)

Canadian Brass- Hallelujah
Canadiana (Linus/Canadian Brass)

Next week: London, Longing for Home.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday September 15, 2018

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 … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/39392.html

Extended feature: Songs of Fred Neil.

David Olney- Stand Tall

This Side or the Other (Black Hen)

Finest Kind- Lowlands Low

For Honour & For Gain (Fallen Angle)

Wade Hemsworth with The Mountain City Four (lead vocal: Kate McGarrigle)- The Log Driver’s Waltz

Wade Hemsworth with the Mountain City Four (Peter Weldon)

Bill Garrett & Sue Lothrop- That’s How the Summer Slips Away

Red Shoes (Borealis)

Holly Near- A Singer Must Die

2018 (Calico Tracks Music)

Madeleine Peyroux- Anthem

Anthem (Verve)

Darol Anger & Emy Phelps- Bird on a Wire

Music of Our People (Darol Anger & Emy Phelps)

Leonard Cohen- The Stranger Song

Songs of Leonard Cohen (Columbia/Legacy)

Noah Zacharin- One Time in 20

A Startle of Wings (Noah Zacharin)

Orit Shimoni- Where to Begin

Lost and Found on the Road to Nowhere (Orit Shimoni)

Jory Nash- She Gets Her Courage from Alcohol

Wilderness Years (Thin Man Records)

Joyce Luna- Every Road We Take

Every Road We Take (Joyce Luna)

Jon Brooks- All Life’s Meaning

No One Travels Alone (Borealis)

The next 15 songs were written or adapted by Fred Neil (1936-2001).

Eric Andersen- The Dolphins

Everybody’s Talkin’: A Tribute to Fred Neil (Y&T Music)

Sid Selvidge- A Little Bit of Rain

A Little Bit of Rain (Archer)

Jim Wurster & Omine Eager- Dade County Jail

Everybody’s Talkin’: A Tribute to Fred Neil (Y&T Music)

Caroline Doctorow- Other Side of This Life

Follow You Down (Narrow Lane)

Fred Neil- Yonder Come the Blues

Bleecker & MacDougal (Elektra)

Arlan Feiles- Ba-De-Da

Everybody’s Talkin’: A Tribute to Fred Neil (Y&T Music)

Karen Dalton- Blues on the Ceiling

I’s So Hard to Tell Who’s Going to Love You the Best (Koch)

Vince Martin- Handful of Gimme

Everybody’s Talkin’: A Tribute to Fred Neil (Y&T Music)

Roy Orbison- Candy Man

The All-Time Greatest Hits of Roy Orbison (Monument)

Fred Neil- That’s the Bag I’m In

The Many Sides of Fred Neil (Collector’s Choice)

Valerie C Wisecracker- Bleecker & MacDougal

Everybody’s Talkin’: A Tribute to Fred Neil (Y&T Music)

Judy Collins- Tear Down the Walls

Judy Collins 3 & 4 (Wildflower)

The 18 Wheelers- I’ve Got a Secret

Everybody’s Talkin’: A Tribute to Fred Neil (Y&T Music)

Alison Brown w/Tim O'Brien- Everybody’s Talkin’

Fair Weather (Compass)

Fred Neil- Faretheewell (Fred’s Tune)

The Many Sides of Fred Neil (EMI Collector’s Choice)

El Coyote- Another Day

El Coyote (El Coyote)

The LYNNeS- Recipe for Disaster

Heartbreak Song for the Radio (The LYNNeS)

John Wort Hannam- Acres of Elbow Room

Acres of Elbow Room (John Wort Hannam)

Jimmy LaFave- My Oklahoma Home (It Blowed Away)

Peace Town (Music Road)

Eliza Gilkyson- Dreamtime

Secularia (Red House)

Tom Russell- Rose of San Joaquin

Old Songs Yet to Sing (Frontera)

Vince Halfhide- Memphis Rounder

Vince Halfhide (Vince Halfhide)

Louis Armstrong- Beale Street Blues

Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (Columbia/Legacy)

Nina Simone- Little Liza Jane

At Newport (Colpix)

Reggie Harris- 3:16am

Ready to Go (Reggie Harris Music)

Lawrence Lebo- Old School Girl

Old School Girl (On the Air)

Jordan Officer- One Handed Push-Ups

Three Rivers (Spectra)

The Carnivaleros- Rudy Got Caught Again

Tallsome Tales (Gary Mackender)

Ray Bonneville- Waiting on the Night

At King Electric (Stonefly)

Jennifer Warnes- I Am the Big Easy

Another Time, Another Place (BMG)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on October 13.

Find me on Twitter. @MikeRegenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Ronnie Gilbert 1926-2015

The Weavers, circa 1950

The very sad news came through last night that Ronnie Gilbert has passed away at age 88.

Along with Pete Seeger, Lee Hays and Fred Hellerman, Ronnie was a founding member of the Weavers, the folk music group founded in the late-1940s that inspired and paved the way for all who followed.

The Weavers recordings occupy a valued place in my music library. So, too, do other recordings Ronnie made over the years in a duo with Holly Near, and as a member of HARP with Holly, Arlo Guthrie and Pete.

I got to meet Ronnie and hear her perform a number of times over the years at folk festivals. I particularly remember a delightful time having breakfast with her at the hotel during the Winnipeg Folk Festival sometime in the 1980s. She was very encouraging when I started the Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio show in 1994 and often responded graciously when I'd let her know that I was playing her music on the show.

The last time I saw Ronnie was September 17, 2004 when I was invited to the world premiere of the film, Isn’t This a Time! A Tribute Concert for Harold Leventhal, at the Toronto International Folk Festival. The film was a documentary on the tribute concert held the year before at Carnegie Hall for Harold Leventhal and told the story of Harold’s lifetime involvement in folk music and how he defied and masterminded the end of the McCarthy-era blacklist.

After the screening, there was a brief concert by the surviving members of the Weavers –  Ronnie, Pete, Fred and Erik Darling (who replaced Pete when he left the group in 1958) along with Eric Weissberg, who played bass and sang Lee’s vocal parts. A once-in-a-lifetime occasion for me to experience the Weavers live.

Ronnie was also an actor and practiced as a psychologist for several years. The New York Times has published a good obituary.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif