Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday August 13, 2022

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 at home and can already be streamed on-demand at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/57252.html

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

The next 12 songs are a tribute to Peter, Paul & Mary’s self-titled debut album, released 60 years ago.

Peter, Paul & Mary- Early in the Morning
Peter, Paul and Mary (Warner Bros.)
Alice Howe- 500 Miles
Americana Railroad (Renew/BMG)
Ken Whiteley- Man of Constant Sorrow
Long Time Travelling (Ken Whiteley)
Louis Armstrong- This Train
Louis and the Good Book (Verve)
Dave Van Ronk- River Come Down (Bamboo)
Down in Washington Square (Smithsonian Folkways)
Peter, Paul & Mary- It’s Raining
Peter, Paul and Mary (Warner Bros.)

Reverend Gary Davis- Samson and Delilah (If I Had My Way)
Live at Newport (Vanguard)
Bethany Yarrow with Peter Yarrow- The Cruel War
Rock Island (Little Monster)
Peter, Paul & Mary- Lemon Tree
Peter, Paul and Mary (Warner Bros.)
Nanci Griffith & Friends- IF I Had a Hammer
Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful) (Elektra) 
Priscilla Herdman- Autumn to May
Stardreamer (Stardreamer Music)
Kronos Quartet with Sam Amidon, Brian Carpenter, Lee Knight & Aoife O'Donovan- Where Have All the Flowers Gone
Long Time Passing: Kronos Quartet & Friends Celebrate Pete Seeger (Smithsonian Folkways)

Hoyt Axton- We’ll Sing in the Sunshine
Mr. Greenback Dollar Man (Surrey)
Gale Garnett- Settle Down
The Many Faces of Gale Garnett (RCA)
Kim Beggs- I Wanna Be a Flower
Steel and Wool (Out of a Paper Bag Productions)
The Goddamsels- Wayward Daughter
Wayward Daughter (The Goddamsels)

Pharis & Jason Romero- Old Bill’s Tune
Tell ‘Em You Were Gold (Smithsonian Folkways)

Joy Zimmerman, Erin McGrane, Danielle Anderson & Eboni Fondren- Hear Our Voices
Hear Our Voices – single (Cultivate Joy)
Colleen Kattau- Hands Off
Besos Kisses (Windlight Studios)

Brendan Nolan- Packing Her Bag
Beneath White Stars: Holocaust Profiles in Song (AlmondSeed Media)
Mella Barnes- Between the Lines
Beneath White Stars: Holocaust Profiles in Song (AlmondSeed Media)
Lenka Lichtenberg- Zas v slunci zlatém/In golden sunlight
Thieves of Dreams (Six Degrees)

Archie Roach- Took the Children Away
The Songs of Charcoal Lane (Bloodlines)
Windborne- Parcel of Rogues
Of Hard Times & Harmony (Wand’ring Feet)
Allison Russell- Little Rebirth
Outside Child (Fantasy)

Adler & Hearne- It’s Summer and We’re Burning
The Ties That Bind Us (Howlin’ Dog)
Guy Davis- Flint River Blues
Be Ready When I Call You (M.C.)
Tiffany Williams- All Those Days of Drinking Dust
All Those Days of Drinking Dust (Blue Redbird)

Mike Regenstreif & David Clayton-Thomas (2006)

Peter Mulvey & SistaStrings- Old Men Drinking Seagram’s
Love is the Only Thing (Righteous Babe)
David Clayton-Thomas- This Town
Say Somethin’ (Linus)

Apple & Setser- It Doesn’t Matter Anymore
Apple & Setser (Bell Buckle)
Chaim Tannenbaum, Kate & Anna McGarrigle & Lily Lanken- Young Love
The McGarrigle Hour (Hannibal)
Last Forever- Duke of Earl
Trainfare Home (StorySound)
Steve Howell & The Mighty Men- Such a Night
Been Here and Gone (Out of the Past Music)

Marc Von Em- Stay
Goodbye, Cloudy Sky (Marc Von Em)
Onna Lou- Qué hiciste con mi querer
Diamante (Onna Lou)
The Hot Sardines- Bei Mir Bist Du Schoen/Diga Diga Do
Live at Joe’s Pub (The Hot Sardines)

Kevin Head & Mike Regenstreif (2013) (Photo: Vanessa Burnett)

Jon Burrowes- Sure I Got the Blues

One More Ride (Jon Burrowes)
Kate & Edith- Make Me a Pallet On Your Floor
Live at Kelso Hall (Kate & Edith)
Kevin Head- Digby Lament
Hear Them Callin’ (Kevin Head)
Mama's Broke- Windows
Narrow Line (Free Dirt)
Dan Navarro- Horizon Line
Horizon Line (Red Hen)

Tom Paxton, Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer- Grandpa Danced the Charleston
All New (Community Music)
Moore & McGregor- Dancing Shoes
Dream with Me (Ivernia)
Missy Burgess- Dance Me Slow
Play Me Sweet (Missy Burgess)
Nanci Griffith- Spin on a Red Brick Floor
One Fair Summer Evening (MCA)

Happy Traum- Santa Cruz Blues
There’s a Bright Side Somewhere (Lark’s Nest Music)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on September 10. I also host Stranger Songs on CKCU every Tuesday from 3:30-5 pm. And, I’ll be hosting Canadian Spaces on Saturday August 27 from 10 am-noon.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Ottawa Folk Festival (and hangin' out with Ramblin' Jack Elliott)

It’s been two weeks, but I finally have a chance to make a couple of comments about the Ottawa Folk Festival (it’s been a very busy two weeks at work).

As I noted in my preview post earlier this month, this was a transitional year for the festival with a new artistic director, Dylan Griffith, and a new management team headed up by Ana Miura. Overall, I think, they did a very admirable job. Although some of the music was a departure from the standard folk festival fare, the festival managed to retain the all-important folk festival spirit – particularly during the daytime and most particularly during heavy rains that wiped much of Sunday’s programming (and most of Sunday’s crowd).

I quite liked Arrested Development, the hip hop group that headlined Friday night’s main stage concert. Their collaborative arrangements, their lyrics and their messages did not seem at all out of place at a folk festival. And seeing them interact with other artists on Saturday workshop stages confirmed that for me.

I don’t think, though, that Arrested Development brought in the hip hop audience to the festival. Looking around, it seemed like the kind of mostly middle aged and older folk who have been going to folk festivals for decades. If there was an increased number of young people this year at the festival, I think it was on Saturday.

To me, the heart and soul of a folk festival is the daytime workshop stages and there was something I wanted to see on at least one stage at just about every hour on Saturday (and scheduled on Sunday). At the last minute, I was asked to sit in as host of the Canadian Spaces session on Saturday afternoon because Chopper McKinnon, the long-time host of CKCU’s Canadian Spaces show was having cataract surgery. I had a great time with Lynn Miles, Chris MacLean, Jon Brooks and Meredith Luce.

I was really looking forward to spending some time with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott at the festival – off stage and on. I was scheduled to host an hour-long “conversation” with Jack on Sunday afternoon.

Jack was only scheduled at the festival on Sunday, so it was a pleasant surprise to meet up with him at lunch time on Saturday and spend a half-hour or so reminiscing. I was also happy to see Jack looking fit and strong as he had triple-bypass surgery a few months back and had just turned 79.

I mentioned the rain on Sunday. Well, the indoor stage was pretty much the only daytime stage that was viable on Sunday, so the schedule was re-jigged so that some of the highlights from the day’s workshop sessions could happen. My “conversation” with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, originally scheduled for noon to 1:00 pm was rescheduled for 1:00-2:00, so I got to spend an extra hour catching up with Jack in the green room.

Our actual on-stage time flew by. It was meant to be an oral history session looking at Jack’s long career. We covered a lot of ground, but I almost felt like we were just getting started when the time was up. Jack and I both had a great time doing it and the feedback from the hundreds of people packed into the indoor hall was tremendous.

The Sunday night main stage concerts were rescheduled for either the indoor stage or the dance tent. Ramblin’ Jack Elliott’s took place in the dance tent and was one of the best shows I’ve seen him do in decades.

Rather than the thousands that would have been expected, Sunday’s crowd was probably in the hundreds thanks to the day’s steady rain and heavy showers. But the festival staff and volunteers did a great job of making what could happen, happen; and the audience pulled together beautifully. There was great stuff going on all day on the indoor stage, and in the food court tent, and all the artists scheduled for a Sunday main stage concert got to go on.

In addition to the artists I’ve already mentioned, some of the many others I really enjoyed included Clarksdale Moan, Carolyn Mark, Jenny Whiteley, Kim Beggs, Lau and the Old Sod Band (who were incredible troopers in the food court tent during the Sunday rain; as was Arthur MacGregor leading singalongs).

I also really enjoyed seeing Harvey Glatt receive the Helen Verger Award in recognition of his many decades of leadership on the Ottawa folk music scene (not to mention many other musical genres). The award was exceptionally well deserved.

Dylan Griffith pulled the 2010 festival together in about half a year. I’m looking forward to seeing what he can do with a full year.

Pictured: Mike Regenstreif in conversation with Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Sunday, August 15, 2010, at the Ottawa Folk Festival; Canadian Spaces with Lynn Miles, Meredith Luce, Chris McLean, Jon Brooks and Mike Regenstreif, Saturday, August 14, 2010 at the Ottawa Folk Festival. 

--Mike Regenstreif

Ottawa Folk Festival, August 13-15

By this time next week, we’ll be well into this year’s edition of the Ottawa Folk Festival. It kicks off on Friday evening, August 13, and continues all day and evening on Saturday and Sunday. As I mentioned a year ago, the folk festival has long been my favourite Ottawa festival. Years before I actually started working in Ottawa in 2007, I was making an annual trip to the nation’s capital for the Ottawa Folk Festival.

This is a year of great change for the Ottawa Folk Festival. Chris White, the founding artistic director stepped down last fall after 16 years at the helm. The new artistic director is Dylan Griffith, who came to the Ottawa Folk Festival after four years directing the Dawson City Music Festival in the Yukon.

It seems to be a year of generational change for the festival. Despite the presence of certain older artists, most notably the legendary Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, there is a greater emphasis on younger artists or on artists like Arrested Development, who are drawn from musical genres more likely to appeal to a younger demographic than the traditional folk festival audience.

This is not to say that there’s a lack of the kind of artists that have long been associated with folk festivals. Among them are the Old Sod Band, an instrumental band that includes Ann Downey and Ian Robb of Finest Kind; the Foggy Hogtown Boys, probably Ontario’s finest bluegrass band; Lynn Miles, a world class singer-songwriter from Ottawa who did an amazing set at the festival a few years ago just before headliner Emmylou Harris; and such other notable Canadian singer-songwriters as Jenny Whiteley, Chris MacLean, Jon Brooks and Kim Beggs.

Among the other artists I’m looking forward to hearing are Calexico, the southwestern atmospheric band; country rocker Carolyn Mark; and Ladies of the Canyon, a Montreal trio that I introduced at the Festival Folk sur le canal in Montreal in 2009.

As someone whose first folk festivals included the Estelle Klein-era Mariposa Folk Festivals of the 1970s, I’ve always felt that the daytime workshops are the heart-and-soul of the folk festival experience. The daytime schedule has now been posted and there are a bunch of workshop sessions that I’m really looking forward to.

I’ve had that honour and privilege of hosting many workshops at the Ottawa Folk Festival over the years. Among my favourites was a panel discussion in 2007 with me, Nora Guthrie, Kris Kristofferson and Jimmy LaFave discussing Woody Guthrie and his enduring influence. This year, I’ll be sitting down on stage with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott – long one of folk music’s most influential and enduring legendary figures – to talk about his remarkable career that now stretches over a 60-year period. Jack was already a legend when I first met him back in 1971. The session, called A Conversation with Ramblin’ Jack Elliott, is from noon to 1:00 pm on the indoor hall stage.

Pictured: (Left) Mike Regenstreif, Nora Guthrie, Kris Kristifferson and Jimmy LaFave at the 2007 Ottawa Folk Festival. (Right) Ramblin' Jack Elliott and Mike Regenstreif at the 2006 Pop Montreal Festival.

--Mike Regenstreif

This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history (July 27-August 2)

Folk Roots/Folk Branches with Mike Regenstreif was a Thursday tradition on CKUT in Montreal for nearly 14 years from February 3, 1994 until August 30, 2007 (and around the world via the web for most of those years). Folk Roots/Folk Branches continued for some time as occasional features on CKUT, and is now a blog. Here’s the 48th instalment of “This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches,” a weekly look back continuing through next August at some of the most notable guests, features and moments in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history.

July 27, 1995: Show theme- Train songs.
July 29, 1999: Guest- Julie Adams.
July 28, 2005: Extended features- Tributes to the late John Herald and the late Long John Baldry.
July 27, 2006: Guests- Terry Joe “Banjo” & Dara Weiss.
August 2, 2007: Guests- Kim Beggs & Bob Hamilton.

--Mike Regenstreif