Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday May 2, 2023: Stompin’ at the Savoy

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/595/60257.html

Theme: Stompin’ at the Savoy.

The Savoy Ballroom in the Harlem section of New York City was a major music venue from 1926 until 1958, and in the liner notes to Savoy by Taj Mahal, Holger Peterson notes that 13 of the 14 songs on the album would likely have been heard at the Savoy during its long run. And that’s what gave me the idea for this theme. All the songs on this show were performed during that period and might well have been heard at the Savoy at some point.

Taj Mahal- Stompin’ at the Savoy

Savoy (Stony Plain)

Ella Fitzgerald with The Chick Webb Orchestra- A-Tisket, A-Tasket

Swingsation (Verve)

Big Bad Voodoo Daddy- Diga Diga Do

Rattle Them Bones (Savoy Jazz)

Howard Armstrong- Lady Be Good

Louie Bluie (Blue Suit)

Samoa Wilson with The Jim Kweskin Band- He Ain’t Got Rhythm

I Just Want to Be Horizontal (Kingswood)

Taj Mahal- Baby Won’t You Please Come Home

Savoy (Stony Plain)

Catherine Russell & Mike Regenstreif (2007)

Catherine Russell- Is You Is or Is You Ain’t My Baby?

Alone Together (Dot Time)

Taj Mahal- Do Nothin’ Till You Hear From Me

Savoy (Stony Plain)

Barney Bigard & Orchestra- C Jam Blues

The Great Ellington Units (BMG)

Ella Fitzgerald with The Duke Ellington Orchestra- I’m Just a Lucky So-and-So

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook (Verve)

Jackie Washington & Mike Regenstreif (2008)

Jackie Washington- Take the “A” Train

Keeping Out of Mischief (Pyramid)

Nina Simone- Mood Indigo

Let It All Out (Liberty)

Taj Mahal- Caldonia

Savoy (Stony Plain)

Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown- Salt Pork, West Virginia

Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown Sings Louis Jordan (Black & Blue)

Asleep at the Wheel- Choo Ch’Boogie

Having a Party: Live (Goldenlane)

Louis Jordan- Let the Good Times Roll

Louis Jordan and his Tympany Five (JSP)

Taj Mahal- Sweet Georgia Brown

Savoy (Stony Plain)

Dave Van Ronk- Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good to You

Hummin’ to Myself (Gazell)

Oscar Brown, Jr.- One for My Baby (and One More for the Road)

The Voice of Cool (Not Now Music)

Count Basie & His Orchestra- Jumpin’ at the Woodside

The Count Basie Story, Vol. 1 (Columbia)

Cab Calloway- Minnie the Moocher

Are You Hep to the Jive? (Columbia/Legacy)

Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong- Stompin’ at the Savoy

Ella and Louis Again (Verve)

Next week: Remembering Harry Belafonte (1927-2023).

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday February 28, 2023: A Tribute to Josh White

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/595/59557.html

Theme: A Tribute to Josh White (1914-1969).

Josh White was a highly influential blues, folk and jazz singer and guitarist. He made his first recordings in 1928 at about age 14 or 15 and his 1944 recording of “One Meatball” was the first song by a male, African American artist to sell a million copies. Josh White was honored earlier this month by Folk Alliance International with its Legacy Lifetime Achievement Award.

Two songs on this show – “Goodbye Josh” and “A Natural Man” – are tributes to Josh White. The other songs were all part of Josh White’s repertoire.

Josh White- Good Morning Blues

The Josh White Stories, Vols. I & II (Jasmine)

Josh White, Jr.- One Meatball

Live at the Raven Gallery (Silverwolf)

Madeleine Peyroux- Lonesome Road

Careless Love (Rounder)

Mr. Rick- Two Little Fishes

Mr. Rick Sings About God + Booze (Mr. Rick)

Sister Rosetta Tharpe- Joshua Fit the Battle of Jericho

This Train in Concert (Sunset Blvd.)

Josh White- Things About Coming My Way

Spirituals & Blues (Elektra)

Louis Jordan- I’m Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town

The Rock ‘n’ Roll Years 1955-1958 (Jasmine)

Josh White, Jr. with Robin Batteau- You Won’t Let Me Go

Jazz, Ballads & Blues (Ryko)

Peter Yarrow- Goodbye Josh

Peter (Warner Bros.)

Peter, Paul & Mary- Betty and Dupree

See What Tomorrow Brings (Warner Bros.)

Jack Williams- A Natural Man

Walkin’ Dreams (Wind River)

Josh White- Strange Fruit

The Josh White Stories, Vols. I & II (Jasmine)

Crabtree & Mills- Miss Otis Regrets

Flight of Fancy (Free and Easy Music)

Bonnie Dobson- Dink’s Song

Take Me for a Walk in the Morning Dew (Hornbeam)

Odetta- House of the Rising Sun

Livin’ with the Blues (Vanguard)

Dave Van Ronk- St. James Infirmary

…and the tin pan bended, and the story ended… (Smithsonian Folkways)

Josh White- The Story of John Henry

The Story of John Henry: A Musical Narrative (Elektra)

Julian Fauth- Frankie & Johnny

The Weak and the Wicked, the Hard and the Strong (Electro-Fi)

Next week: Songs of Kris Kristofferson.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday February 8, 2022: Boogie Men and Boogie Women

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/595/55121.html

Theme: Boogie Men and Boogie Women

Diana Braithwaite & Chris Whiteley- Boogie Train
Scrap Metal Blues (Electro-Fi)

Big Joe Turner- Boogie Woogie Country Girl
Flip, Flop and Fly 1951-1955 (Rev-Ola)
Willie Dixon- Big 3 Boogie
The Big Three Trio (Columbia)
Jay McShann- The Fish Fry Boogie
Goin’ to Kansas City (Stony Plain)
Jimmy Rushing- Boogie Woogie (I May Be Wrong)
Do You Wanna Jump, Children? 1937-1946 (Jasmine)
Louis Jordan- Choo Choo Ch’Boogie
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Years 1955-1958 (Jasmine)

Lawrence Lebo- Cowboy Swinging Boogie Woogie
Don’t Call Her Larry, Volume 3: American Roots (On the Air)
Driftin’ Doug- Alberta Boogie
A Legend in His Grime (Driftin’ Doug)
Brenda Lewis- Cow Cow Boogie
Far & Near (Brenda Lewis)

The Bebop Cowboys- Cadillac Boogie
Some Kind of Fantasy (Bebop Cowboys)

Mike Regenstreif & Jesse Winchester (2006)

Jesse Winchester- Never Forget to Boogie
A Reasonable Amount of Trouble (Appleseed)
The Andrews Sisters- Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy
Ultimate Edition (Nostalgic Melody Music Production)
Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer with Bill Kirchen- Guitar Boogie
Voice on the Wind (Rounder)
Commander Cody & His Lost Planet Airmen - The Boogie Man Boogie
Commander Cody and His Lost Planet Airmen (Wounded Bird)

Stick McGhee- House Warmin’ Boogie
New York Blues and R&B (JSP)
Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee- You Bring Out the Boogie In Me
Sonny & Brownie (A&M)
Lil Hardin Armstrong- Boogie Me
Chicago: The Living Legends (Riverside)
Jesse Fuller- Memphis Boogie
Jazz, Folk Songs, Spirituals & Blues (Good Time Jazz)

Michael Jerome Browne- Boogie Chillen
Double (Borealis)
Susie Arioli Swing Band featuring Jordan Officer- Jordan’s Boogie
Pennies from Heaven (Justin Time)
Little Miss Higgins- Broadcast Boogie
Two Nights in March (L.M.H. Music)
Sue Foley- Boogie Real Low
Pinky’s Blues (Stony Plain)

Cab Calloway- The Calloway Boogie
Are You Hep to the Jive? (Columbia/Legacy)
Lavay Smith & Her Red Hot Skillet Lickers- Roll the Boogie
Everybody’s Talkin’ ‘Bout Miss Thing (Fat Note)
Brother John Sellers- Dorothea Boogie
Brother John Sellers Sings Blues and Folk Songs (Vanguard)
Big Mama Thornton- Mischievous Boogie
The Story of My Blues: The Complete Singles As and Bs 1951-1961 (Jasmine)

Little Brother Montgomery- Pinetop’s Boogie Woogie
Classic Piano Blues from Smithsonian Folkways (Smithsonian Folkways)

Next week: Part 1 – Remembering Norma Waterson and Tony Barrand; Part 2 – Love Songs

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday July 17, 2021

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

This episode of Saturday Morning was prerecorded at home and can already be streamed on-demand at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/52768.html

 

Murray McLauchlan- Wishes
Hourglass (True North)

Hannah Shira Naiman- Vinegar Pie
Vinegar Pie – single (Rosietta)
Jared Rabin- Hey Mister Doctor
Cold Rain and Snow (Golden Twine Music)
David Holt- Ready for the Times to Get Better
David Holt & The Lightning Bolts (High Windy Audio)
Adeline- Red Prairie Dawn
Adeline (Owl)
Sons of the Never Wrong- Set Us to Prayin’
Undertaker’s Songbook (Sons 3)

Marc Nerenberg- Trouble in Mind
Times Ain’t Nuthin’ Like They Used to Be (Marc Nerenberg)
Michael J. Miles with Jackie Allen- When Things Go Wrong
New Century Suite (Right Turn On Red Music)
Harrison Kennedy- Takin’ It Back
Who U Tellin’? (Electro-Fi)

Allison Russell- Persephone
Outside Child (Fantasy)
Allison Russell- 4th Day Prayer
Outside Child (Fantasy)

Po’ Girl- Ain’t Life Sweet
Home to You (Nettwerk)
The Lucky Sisters- Stone + Sand + Sea + Sky
So Lucky (Patio)
Durham County Poets & Michael Jerome Browne- Diamonds on the Water
Grimshaw Road (Durham County Poets)
Penny Lang- High Muddy Water
Stone + Sand + Sea + Sky (Borealis)
The Greenbriar Boys- Roll On John
Big Apple Bluegrass (Vanguard)

Tom Russell- Tonight We Ride
Old Songs Yet to Sing (Frontera)
Ian Tyson- Gallo del Cielo
Old Corrals and Sagebrush & Other Cowboy Culture Classics (Stony Plain)

Reggie Harris- Standing in Freedom’s Name
On Solid Ground (Reggie Harris Music)
Tom Prasada-Rao- A Change is Gonna Come
A Change is Gonna Come – single (Simple Gift)
Eliza Gilkyson & Jimmy LaFave- Down by the Riverside
Secularia (Red House)

The Easy Riders featuring Terry Gilkyson- The Green Leaves of Summer
Folk Songs You’ll Like (Jasmine)
Al Grierson- The Petals
The Petals (Folkin’ Eh)

Annie Gallup- Little Theater
Oh Everything (Galway Bay Music)
Kate McDonnell- Pilgrim
Ballad of a Bad Girl (Dog Eared Discs)
Chris Ronald- City Girl
Light & Dark (Borealis)
Erin Ash Sullivan- Train from Gary
We Can Hear Each Other (Willoughby)
Amy Speace with The Orphan Brigade- Shotgun Hearts
There Used to Be Horses Here (Windbone)

Bùmarang- Shot of Jamie
Echo Land (Fallen Tree)

Mark Schatz & Bryan McDowell- There Ain’t Nobody Here but Us Chickens
Grit & Polish (Patuxent Music)
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown- Salt Pork, West Virginia
Clarence “Gatemouth” Brown Sings Louis Jordan (Black & Blue)
Buster Poindexter & Soozie Tyrell- Saturday Night Fish Fry
Buster’s Happy Hour (Rhino)
Louis Jordan- Choo Choo Ch’Boogie
The Rock ‘n’ Roll Years 1955-1958 (Jasmine)

Guy Davis & Mike Regenstreif (2006)

Guy Davis- Badonkadonk Train
Be Ready When I Call You (M.C.)
Maria Muldaur with Tuba Skinny- Delta Bound
Let’s Get Happy Together (Stony Plain)
Odetta- Empty Pocket Blues
Sometimes I Feel Like Cryin’ (RCA)
Barbara Dane- Ain’t Nobody Got the Blues Like Me
Trouble In Mind (Dreadnaught)

Kelly's Lot- Jealous Hearted Blues
Where or When (Kelly Zirbes)
Rob Lutes- That Bird Has My Wings
Come Around (Lucky Bear)
Donna Herula- I Got No Way Home
Bang at the Door (Donna Herula)
Jon Shain & FJ Ventre- Den Bosch Blues
Never Found a Way to Tame the Blues (Flyin’)

Socalled with The Kaiser Quartett- Oy Avram
Di Frosh and other Yiddish Songs (Membran)
Mark Rubin – Jew of Oklahoma- Yiddish Banjo Suite
The Triumph of Assimilation (Rubinchik)

Robin & Linda Williams- A Better Day A-Coming
A Better Day A-Coming (Oakenwold Recordings)
Noel Paul Stookey- Revolution (1X1)
Just Causes (Neworld)

Dave Clarke- In the Falling Dark
The Healing Garden (Crossties)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on August 14. I also host Stranger Songs on CKCU every Tuesday from 3:30-5 pm.

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

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Rory Block – Shake ‘Em On Down: A Tribute to Mississippi Fred McDowell

RORY BLOCK

Shake ‘Em On Down: A Tribute to Mississippi Fred McDowell

Stony Plain

roryblock.com

Rory Block has been one of the finest revivalists of traditional, acoustic-based blues for decades now – both on stage and in a now-formidable body of recorded work. Whether in interpreting the songs and stylings of earlier generations of blues masters, or in adding to the tradition with her well-crafted original material, almost everything she’s done over the years (save perhaps a brief foray into pop music in the mid-‘70s) has been first-rate.

I had the pleasure of producing her first Montreal concerts at the Golem in the 1980s and visiting with her on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio show when she returned to the city to perform at the jazz festival in 2000.

In recent years, Rory has been turning her attention to a series of compelling tribute albums honouring some of the earlier blues masters whose music and/or personalities have inspired her.

The first in the series, The Lady and Mr. Johnson, released in 2006, cemented her reputation as perhaps the foremost contemporary interpreter of the songs of Robert Johnson, the most influential of the Delta blues masters of the 1930s.

The second, Blues Walkin’ Like a Man: A Tribute to Son House, released in 2008, paid tribute to Son House, a Delta blues artist who had influenced Johnson and who, unlike Johnson, survived into old age, allowing for his rediscovery in the 1960s folk and blues revival, and allowing for young aficionados like Rory to meet and learn directly from him

She’s now released the third in the series, Shake ‘Em On Down: A Tribute to Mississippi Fred McDowell, which also pays tribute to a blues elder that she had the opportunity to meet and learn directly from in the 1960s.

Mississippi Fred McDowell was an interesting blues elder in the 1960s in that he never recorded in the 1920s, ‘30s and ‘40s like so many of his contemporaries. Despite decades of music making in Tennessee and Mississippi, he was first discovered and recorded by folklorist Alan Lomax in 1959. Those 1959 tracks are available as The First Recordings on Rounder as part of its Alan Lomax Collection.

But, as an active recording and performing artist throughout the 1960s (he died in 1971), McDowell was an important and influential presence in the folk and blues scene.

To my mind, Shake ‘Em On Down is the most personal of Rory’s tribute albums to date in that she includes four of her own songs alongside eight written by, or from the repertoire of, Mississippi Fred McDowell.

She opens the album with two of her original pieces. She wrote and sings the first, “Steady Freddy,” in McDowell’s style and from his (imagined) perspective recounting essential details from the history of his life in music leading up to his discovery by Lomax and his first forays into touring beyond his home region. Rory uses her poetic-blues license to take McDowell’s famous statement, “I do not play no rock ‘n’ roll,” and turn it into long-standing advice from his mother who tells him, “Don’t ‘cha play no rock ‘n’ roll.”

In the second song, “Mississippi Man,” Rory recounts her own first encounter, at age 15, with McDowell.

The other two original pieces, later on the CD, include “Ancestral Home,” which combines musical influences from McDowell’s guitar playing and African music, to imagine McDowell singing about his ancestors stolen from Africa by slave traders, and “The Breadline,” a song based on McDowell guitar riffs and lyrically inspired by both the Great Depression that McDowell lived through and the contemporary hard times of the past several years.

Among the highlights of Rory’s interpretations of McDowell’s material are great versions of the infectious “Kokomo Blues,” the title track, “Shake ‘Em On Down,” a role-reversal version of “The Girl That I’m Lovin’” that she sings as “The Man That I’m Lovin’” and an inspired take on the gospel song, “Woke Up This Morning.”

The only thing that I would question is the inclusion of “Good Morning Little School Girl,” which she sings as “school boy.” I’ve got a lot of versions of the song in my library – by such blues elders as McDowell, Lightnin’ Hopkins and Muddy Waters, and by other revivalists including Taj Mahal, Jim Kweskin and Johnny Winter – and as much as I respect all of those artists, and many others who have done versions over the years, the song has creeped me out for decades. Essentially, it is a pedophile’s come-on to an innocent kid.

To be fair, Rory addresses the issue in her liner notes saying “the song is a prime example of a message we would object to in today’s world due to heightened sensitivity regarding child predation.” She goes on to make the point that we shouldn’t apply today’s standards to people who lived in earlier times under different standards of morality.

I agree with Rory when it comes to appreciating artists and their recordings from earlier eras. But, I’d just as soon wish that my own contemporaries – like Rory – and younger artists not revive such songs. About 60 years ago, Louis Jordan, one of my favourite artists of that period, recorded a song called “Gal, You Need a Whippin’,” and while the contemporary morality of 1949 or ’50 may have allowed him to express such sentiments – tongue-in-cheek or not – then, I don’t want to hear anyone sing that song today. I would say the same about “Good Morning Little School Girl.”

That quibble aside, Shake ‘Em On Down: A Tribute to Mississippi Fred McDowell, is a great album.

--Mike Regenstreif