Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday April 25, 2023: Willie Nelson at 90

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 recorded and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/60138.html

Theme: Willie Nelson at 90.

Willie Nelson will turn 90 on April 29th and as Bob Dylan wrote in his book, The Philosophy of Modern Song, “Willie Nelson could, as they say, sing the phone book and make you weep – he could also write the phonebook.”

Willie Nelson- My Own Peculiar Way

My Own Peculiar Way (RCA)

Patsy Cline- Crazy

The Unforgettable Patsy Cline (PolyTel)

Lucinda Williams- Funny How Time Slips Away

Funny How Time Slips Away: A Night of ‘60s Country Classics (Highway 20)

The Little Willies- Night Life

The Little Willies (Milking Bull)

Willie Nelson- Mr. Record Man

Absolutely the Best, Volume 1 (Fuel 2000)

Bobby Bare- One Day at a Time

Constant Sorrow (RCA)

k.d. lang & the reclines- Three Days

Absolute Torch and Twang (Sire)

Colleen Peterson- Sad Songs and Waltzes

Beginning to Feel Like Home (Capitol)

Willie Nelson- Hello Walls

Absolutely the Best, Volume 1 (Fuel 2000)

Willie Nelson- Time of the Preacher

Red Headed Stranger (Columbia/Legacy)

Doc & Merle Watson- I Couldn’t Believe it was True

Elementary Doctor Watson (Tomato)

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott- Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain

Kerouac’s Last Dream (Appleseed)

Willie Nelson- Red Headed Stranger

Red Headed Stranger (Columbia/Legacy)

Willie Nelson- Don’t Get Around Much Anymore

Stardust (Columbia)

Kerri Powers- Always On My Mind

Words on the Wind (Must Have Music)

Emmylou Harris- Sister’s Coming Home

Blue Kentucky Girl (Warner Bros./Rhino)

Willie Nelson- Me and Paul

Wanted! The Outlaws (RCA)

Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel- Hesitation Blues

Willie and the Wheel (Bismeaux)

Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes- I Just Drove By

Just One Love (Justice)

Kinky Friedman & Willie Nelson- Bloody Mary Morning

The Loneliest Man I Ever Met (Avenue A)

Judy Collins & Willie Nelson- When I Go

Strangers Again (Wildflower/Cleopatra)

Wynton Marsalis Septet featuring Willie Nelson- Milk Cow Blues

United We Swing: Best of the Lincoln Centre Galas (Blue Engine)

Willie Nelson & Bonnie Raitt- Getting Over You

Across the Borderline (Columbia)

Townes Van Zandt & Willie Nelson- Marie

Texas Rain: The Texas Hill Country Recordings (Tomato)

Mary Kay Place & Willie Nelson- Something to Brag About

The Ahern Sessions 1976-1977 (Raven)

Next week: Stompin’ at the Savoy.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday August 24, 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 was prerecorded at home and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/53196.html

Theme: Rare Collaborations – each song features artists collaborating with an artist or artists they don’t or didn’t usually work with.

The Band & The Staple Singers- The Weight
The Last Waltz (Capitol)

Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Emmylou Harris, Loudon Wainwright III- Green Green Rocky Road
The McGarrigle Hour (Hannibal)
Jean Ritchie & Oscar Brand- Paper of Pins
The Riverside Folklore Series, Volume Three: Singing the New Traditions (Riverside)
Priscilla Herdman & Utah Phillips- I Remember Loving You
Darkness into Light (Flying Fish)
Eric Bibb & Odetta- ‘Tain’t Such a Much
Friends (Telarc)
Perla Batalla & David Hidalgo- Ballad of the Absent Mare
Bird on the Wire: The Songs of Leonard Cohen (Mechuda Music)

Barbara Dane & The Chambers Brothers- Study War No More (Down By the Riverside)
Hot Jazz, Cool Blues & Hard-Hitting Songs (Smithsonian Folkways)

Stringband & Stan Rogers- Tugboats
The Indispensable 1972-2002 (Nick)
Tom Russell & Iris DeMent- Big Water
The Long Way Around (HighTone)
Kimmie Rhodes & Townes Van Zandt- I’m Gonna Fly
West Texas Heaven (Justice)
Josh White, Jr. & Guthrie Thomas- Don’t Mean a Thing
Delicate Balance (Silverwolf)
Dave Alvin & Christy McWilson- Here in California
West of the West (Yep Roc)

Odetta & Dr. John- Please Send Me Someone to Love
Blues Everywhere I Go (M.C.)
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee & Chris Barber's Jazz Band- Betty and Dupree
London, 1958 (Jasmine)
Geoff Muldaur's Futuristic Ensemble & Martha Wainwright- There Ain’t No Sweet Man That’s Worth the Salt of My Tears
Private Astronomy: A Vision of the Music of Bix Beiderbecke (Edge Music)
Members of The Duke Ellington Orchestra & B.B. King- Don’t Get Around Much Anymore
The Stereophonic Sound of Duke Ellington (Bright Orange)

Dave Van Ronk & Christine Lavin- Two Sleepy People
Hummin’ to Myself (Gazell)
Michael Jerome Browne & Roxane Potvin- Remember When
That’s Where It’s At! (Borealis)
Big Daddy Wilson & Shaneeka Simon- Meatballs
Hard Time Blues (Continental Blue Heaven)

Woody Guthrie & Lead Belly (1940s)

Woody Guthrie, Lead Belly, Sonny Terry & Cisco Houston- We Shall Be Free
Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection (Smithsonian Folkways)
The Klezmatics & Susan McKeown- From Here On In
Wonder Wheel: Lyrics by Woody Guthrie (Jewish Music Group)
Tom Rush, Arlo Guthrie, Eric Andersen & Judy Collins- Will the Circle Be Unbroken
Judy Collins Wildflower Festival (Wildflower)

Connie Kaldor & Roy Forbes- Saskatoon Moon
Wood River (Coyote)

Next week: Remembering Nanci Griffith (1953-2021)

Find me on Twitter. www.twitter.com/mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Various Artists – The Beautiful Old: Turn-of-the-Century Songs

VARIOUS ARTISTS

The Beautiful Old: Turn-of-the-Century Songs

Doubloon Records

thebeautifulold.com

Popular music began to change in the 1920s with the advent of radio and phonograph records. Before records, in the 1800s and early-1900s, it was the sale of sheet music that led to hit songs. People bought sheet music so they could play the songs in their living rooms, or parlors. Songs from that era are often referred to as parlor music.

On The Beautiful Old: Turn-of-the-Century Songs, producers Paul Marsteller and Gabriel Rhodes have assembled a lovely compilation of parlor songs from between 1805 and 1918 – including a couple of instrumentals – performed by a stellar collection of singers and musicians. The songs are performed strictly on instruments that could have been used back in the day. Despite the fact that the performers span several generations, several genres of music and come from a couple of continents, there is a seamless quality to the production – thanks, no doubt, to the lovely arrangements and excellent performances.

Among my favorite selections are Richard Thompson and Christine Collister’s perfectly charming version of “The Band Played On,” which opens the CD; Jimmy LaFave’s heartfelt rendering of “Long Time Ago”; and Eric Bibb’s uncharacteristic take on “Just A-Wearyin’ For You,” a song once performed by Paul Robeson, his legendary godfather.

Another favorite is Carrie Elkin’s version of “The Dying Californian.” When Kimmie Rhodes adds her lovely harmony to Carrie’s voice I’m reminded of hearing Kate and Anna McGarrigle sing some of the parlor songs they were raised on.

Kimmie Rhodes – whose West Texas Heaven remains one of my all-time favorite country albums – turns in three great performances as lead vocalist. And, if I have a new discovery thanks to this album, it’s Kimmie’s daughter, Jolie Goodnight, who sings two songs including the folksong, “Silver Dagger.”

I also couldn’t help but smile listening to Dave Davies of the Kinks sing “After the Ball” or be moved by Christine Collister’s touching rendition of “Home Sweet Home.”

Of special note among the instrumentalists are pianist Garth Hudson of The Band and producer and multi-instrumentalist Gabriel Rhodes (Kimmie’s son).

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Folk Uke – Reincarnation

FOLK UKE

Reincarnation

Folk Uke

folkuke.com

I’m not sure how long they’ve actually been playing together but Folk Uke has been on my radar since 2005 when they released their first CD – just called Folk Uke – and it generated some significant airplay on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio program. The duo of Cathy Guthrie and Amy Nelson blended their voices so simply and so beautifully, you’d swear they were sisters (I have heard Cathy singing with her real sisters and that sounds pretty great, too).

Although they’re not siblings, both Cathy and Amy do come from musical families. Cathy is one of several musically talented children of old friend Arlo Guthrie (and grandchildren of Woody Guthrie) and Amy’s dad is Willie Nelson. Both fathers have contributed some back-up playing to both Folk Uke CDs.

Folk Uke’s style is seemingly simple -- mostly built around their voices which harmonize and intertwine so closely it’s hard to really tell who’s who, and their ukuleles (with Amy also playing guitar). Most of the back-up arrangements are low-key keeping most of the attention most of the time on Cathy and Amy. But they simply ooze charm throughout most of the set, whether singing sweet love songs Harry Nilsson’s “He Needs Me” and “Reincarnation” or put-downs and break-up songs like “My Little Singer,” “Quattro Momento” and “Filthy Floors.”

Cathy and Amy also show they can be artistically fearless by taking a bitterly ironic approach – which risks misinterpretation – to the subject of domestic violence in “I Miss My Boyfriend.” While they sing from the perspective of a woman missing her abusive boyfriend, Shooter Jennings speaks from jail as the violent boyfriend.

Folk Uke’s harmonies and stripped down approach is a delight to hear.

BTW, along with Cathy and Amy, some other progeny of musical parents contributed to this album. Cathy’s brother, Abe Guthrie, played piano and bass and co-produced the sessions; Shooter Jennings, who plays the role of the incarcerated boyfriend in “I Miss My Boyfriend,” is Waylon Jennings’ son; Casey Kristofferson, who co-wrote “Blessed and Cursed” is the daughter of Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge; and Gabriel Rhodes, who was one of the album’s recording engineers, is the son of Kimmie Rhodes.

--Mike Regenstreif