Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday February 25, 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.

CKCU can be heard live at 93.1 FM in Ottawa and https://www.ckcufm.com/ on the web.

This episode of Saturday Morning was recorded and can already be streamed on-demand at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/59512.html

Odetta- Mr. Tambourine Man

Odetta Sings Dylan (RCA)

Ben Sures- Cry Like a Flood

The Story That Lived Here (Ben Sures)

Kat Goldman- Gypsy Girl

Gypsy Girl (Kat Goldman)

Jason Lang- Firewater

Handled with Care (Famgroup/Genison Music)

Ken Pearson, Penny Lang & Mike Regenstreif (1976) photo: Felicity Fanjoy

Penny Lang- It’s Not Easy

Stone + Sand + Sea + Sky (Borealis)

Jason Lang- Senses of Your Leave

Handled with Care (Famgroup/Genison Music)

Ramblin' Jack Elliott & Mike Regenstreif (2006)

Ramblin' Jack Elliott- South Coast

South Coast (Red House)

Hoyt Axton- Evangelina

The A&M Years (A&M)

Mark Rubin – Jew of Oklahoma- Good Shabbes

The Triumph of Assimilation (Rubinchik)

Bonnie Raitt- Just Like That

Just Like That (Redwing)

Mike Regenstreif & Jesse Winchester (2006)

Jesse Winchester- That’s What Makes You Strong

Gentleman of Leisure (Sugar Hill)

Emily White- Stone in Your Pocket

Songs You Didn’t Know I Wrote About You (Squeezed Fresh Productions)

Benny Bleu- Lost Goose

March of the Mollusk (Benny Bleu Haravitch)

Taivi- Ukraiyna

Ukraiyna – single (Taivi)

John McCutcheon- Ukrainian Now

Ukrainian Now – single (Appalsongs)

Artists for Action- Which Side Are You On? *

Which Side Are You On? – single (Figs D Music)

Mike Regenstreif & Eric Bibb (2005)

Eric Bibb- Masters of War

Migration Blues (Stony Plain)

*The Artists for Action singers and musicians are, in alphabetical order, Black Umfolosi, Ray Bonneville, Bruce Cockburn, Chris Corrigan, Guy Davis, Ani DiFranco, Maria Dunn, Adam Hill, Bob Jensen, James Keelaghan, Richard Knox, Lucy MacNeil, Tony McManus, Moulettes, Oysterband, Richard Perso, Heather Rankin, Martin Simpson, and Jon Weaver.

The Vanier Playboys- Reach Out and Touch a Hand

Deux (The Vanier Playboys)

Ball & Chain & The Wreckers- More

Satisfied (Ball & Chain)

Mike Regenstreif & Lynn Miles (2013)

Lynn Miles- Hockey Night in Canada

Black Flowers Vol. 3 (Lynn Miles)

Moore & McGregor- Don’t Let Us Get Sick

Dream with Me (Ivernia)

Eric Kilburn- Waiting at Your Door

Reckonings (Wellspring)

Shelley Posen- Long, Long Tunnel

Old Loves (Well Done Music)

Doug Cox & Linda McRae- Ready for the Times to Get Better

Beyond the Great Pause (42 RPM)

Annie Capps- Two Different Things

How Can I Say This? (Yellow Room)

Jaimee Harris- Love is Gonna Come Again

Boomerang Town (Thirty Tigers)

Danny Britt- Friends and Memories

All Over the Map (Red Dawg Music)

Taraf Syriana- Abdul Karim’s Tango

Taraf Syriana (Lulaworld)

Reggie Garrett- Stagecoach Mary

York’s Lament & other stories (WonderDog)

Dom Flemons- Steel Pony Blues

Dom Flemons Presents Black Cowboys (Smithsonian Folkways)

Odetta- Rock Island Line

Lookin’ for a Home: Thanks to Leadbelly (M.C.)

Preservation Hall Jazz Band & Ani DiFranco- Freight Train

Preservation (Preservation Hall)

Julian Taylor- 100 Proof

Beyond the Reservoir (Howling Turtle)

Mavis Staples & Lucky Peterson- Wade in the Water

Spirituals & Gospel (Gitanes)

Dave Rudolf- Mary Don’t You Weep

Traditional (MoneyTree)

Reggie Harris- Sheep, Sheep/Little David

Ready to Go (Reggie Harris Music)

The Klezmatics & Joshua Nelson- Didn’t It Rain

Brother Moses Smote the Water (Piranha)

Last Forever with John Cohen- Dillard Chandler

No Place Like Home/Last Forever (2nd Story Sound)

John Cohen- The Story That the Crow Told Me

Stories the Crow Told Me (Acoustic Disc)

Grateful Dead- Uncle John’s Band

Workingman’s Dead (Warner Bros./Rhino)

The Dumptrucks- Friend of the Devil

Selections (Laughing Cactus)

The Persuasions- Ripple

Might as Well: The Persuasions Sing Grateful Dead (Grateful Dead)

CornMaiz Stringband- Jubilee

Fresh-Picked Kentucky Music (CornMaiz Stringband)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on March 25. I also host Stranger Songs on CKCU every Tuesday from 3:30-5 pm. 

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Too Sad for the Public – Vol. 1 – Oysters Ice Cream Lemonade: American Folk Fantasies Written and Arranged by Dick Connette

TOO SAD FOR THE PUBLIC

Vol. 1 – Oysters Ice Cream Lemonade: American Folk Fantasies Written and Arranged by Dick Connette

StorySound Records

dickconnette.com

storysoundrecords.com

For 20 years, since the release of the first CD by Last Forever, I’ve greatly admired the work of composer/songwriter/producer Dick Connette. In Last Forever, he teamed with the late vocalist Sonya Cohen to produce several albums of completely reimagined traditional songs and original songs steeped in tradition. I continue to find great musical riches whenever I return to the Last Forever albums – which I have done often.

Much of the material on Vol. 1 – Oysters Ice Cream Lemonade: American Folk Fantasies Written and Arranged by Dick Connette, his new project – recorded under the group name ‘Too Sad for the Public’ – continues in the vein of Last Forever with original songs based on traditional themes and a couple of fascinating covers of pop songs. The lead vocals are in the capable hands of Suzzy Roche (four songs), Rachelle Garniez (one song), Ana Egge (two songs) and Gabriel Kahane (one song).

All of the vocal songs on the album are entirely praiseworthy. Perhaps my favorite, if I had to pick just one, is “Black River Falls,” sung by Suzzy. The melody and chorus are based on Karen Dalton’s version of the traditional folksong “Same Old Man,” and the verses, each of which stands on its own, are based on Michael Lesy’s book. Wisconsin Death Trap.

Other favorites include “Old Alabama,” sung by Ana, which takes its inspiration from several traditional songs, most notably “Old Country Rock,” a country blues first recorded by William Moore in 1928 (the group name, Too Sad for the Public, comes from a repeated line in this song); and “Orphée in Opelousas,” sung by Gabriel, Dick’s reimagination of the Orpheus legend from Greek mythology which he sets in Louisiana to a score based on traditional Cajun songs.

I also love what he’s done with the two covers. “He’s a Bad Boy,” sung by Suzzy, was written by Carole King and Gerry Goffin in the early-1960s. As John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers (and Sonya Cohen’s father) pointed out to Dick, the song is a teenage variation on “Stagger Lee.”

“Young Loves to Love,” sung by Ana, is a medley of two early Van Morrison songs – “Brown Eyed Girl” and “Sweet Thing.” The latter song came from Astral Weeks (my second favorite Morrison album) and the arrangement is reminiscent of it – and prominently features the nylon-string guitar playing of Jay Berliner, whose playing was a key component of Astral Weeks.  

The other theme that runs through the album is a tribute to the late Chuck Brown, a Washington, D.C. guitarist who was known as “The Godfather of Go-Go,” a form of funk music. This is first heard in “Liberty City,” a Jaco Pastorius tune that Brown quoted in one his own tunes. Dick offers three short passages from “Liberty City” as strategic interludes during the album. Then, as the penultimate track, there is the 12-minute go-go instrumental “Chuck Baby,” a direct tribute to Brown, whose intensity never stops swirling and building.

While the go-go tracks might initially seem an odd coupling with the folk-inspired material, Dick Connette and the musicians of Too Sad for the Public bring it all together in a way that just seems right.

Dick variously plays harmonium, piano, bass and bass drum throughout the album. In addition to the singers, he is joined by a core group of five musicians – including Chaim Tannenbaum on harmonica –and 12 other contributing musicians. Dick’s arrangements are masterful from the opening notes of the first track until the end of the album.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Last Forever – Acres of Diamonds; Trainfare home

LAST FOREVER

Acres of Diamonds

StorySound Records

storysoundrecords.com

In 1997, I was highly taken with Last Forever, a self-titled album by Last Forever, a project centered around composer-arranger Dick Connette and singer Sonya Cohen that included highly reimagined versions of traditional folksongs like “In the Pines” and “Ain’t Going Down to the Well No More” and new compositions of Dick’s that seemed inspired and informed by folk music. I played the album a lot on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio program.

They did a second album in 2000, Trainfare Home, which I loved just as much. I played it a lot on the radio show, reviewed it in Sing Out! magazine (see below), and did phone interviews with Dick and Sonya for the show.

Fifteen years later, Acres of Diamonds is a new and equally wonderful release from Last Forever. It’s an EP-length release – seven songs, 30 minutes – of more wonderfully reimagined folksongs and some new, but seemingly timeless, compositions of Dick’s.

The tour-de-force is the finale – variations on the traditional “Boll Weevil Blues,” an amazing 13-minute performance that begins with a string section playing classical-style variations on the folk music theme before the folk-style instrumentation and Sonya’s lovely, but oh so powerful, voice come in. Eventually, the folk and classical elements blend seamlessly leading to a hair-raising ending of Sonya’s vocalizations on top of a single violin bowing the very highest notes.

Although each of the other songs could well be cited as a highlight, I’ll mention “Lady Franklin’s Lament,” a reimagined version of the traditional ballad in which Sir John Franklin’s wife laments his death while searching for the Northwest Passage through the Arctic Ocean in 1845; “Mr. Olio,” a sad but beautiful set piece about an old vaudevillian co-written by Dick and Loudon Wainwright III; and “Acres of Diamonds,” a catchy, very folkish song, originally written by Dick for Loudon’s High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project.

Every time I’ve listened to this album, I’ve discovered something new in the music, the lyrics, the strikingly original arrangements, the beautiful singing, or the totality of it all. I’ve returned often to the early Last Forever albums over the past 15 years and I expect I’ll be returning often to Acres of Diamonds.

Sonya was born to a folk music family as the daughter of John Cohen of the New Lost City Ramblers and the late Penny Seeger. There’s a photo I recall – I’m sure it was taken by David Gahr – of Sonya being held as a small baby by her uncle, Pete Seeger, as he spoke on stage at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival. Sadly, Sonya died of cancer on October 9, a week before Acres of Diamonds was released. She was just 50 years old.

LAST FOREVER

Trainfare Home

StorySound Records

storysoundrecords.com

StorySound Records has also recently reissued Trainfare Home, the second Last Forever album, originally released by Nonesuch Records in 2000. My review originally appeared in the Spring 2001 issue of Sing Out! magazine:

Dick Connette spent much of his composing career working in neo-classical and avant-garde music before turning his attention to rearranging traditional folk songs and writing new songs inspired by traditional music. Last Forever was formed when he began collaborating with vocalist Sonya Cohen, the daughter of New Lost City Rambler John Cohen and niece of Pete, Peggy and Mike Seeger.

Their first album, released in 1997, was a fascinating blend of old and new music that quickly became a favorite of mine. This sophomore effort from Connette and Cohen is just as fascinating and is one of the best releases of the past year. Like Last Forever’s first album, this one mixes old songs recast in new ways with new songs based on old melodies or lyric phrases.

Among the already-familiar songs is “Louis Collins/Spike Driver Blues,” a medley of two Mississippi John Hurt songs that begins with Cohen’s voice multi-tracked to sound like a choir on a brief refrain from “Louis Collins” before the familiar guitar notes of “Spike Driver Blues” come pouring out of Connette’s spinet and the accompanying violins, saxophone, bass, harmonium, guitar and drums begin to emulate the sound of a train as Cohen sings the lyrics. It’s all so very familiar and so very different at the same time.

           

On most of the original material, Connette draws on traditional elements in his compositions. “Down the Road,” sung from the point of view of an emancipated slave in the 1860s, uses “Feather Bed,” the old jug band song as its melodic starting point. The upbeat arrangement features Connette’s spinet interacting with trombone, banjo and drums. Connette’s “Bachelor’s Hall” borrows the traditional melody from “Pretty Saro” for a drawing room arrangement.

           

One of the most ambitious of the original songs is “Oklahoma,” which encapsulates some of the history of the state stretching from the forced relocation of the Cherokee from Georgia to the devastating bombing by a domestic terrorist in 1995.

           

With the new music they are creating, Connette and Cohen are proving that there is much to learn from, and to be inspired by, in traditional folk music while they create something new and different.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif