Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – May 13, 2025: A Tribute to The Klezmatics

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU, 93.1 FM, in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

This episode of Stranger Songs was recorded and can be streamed on-demand, now or anytime, by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/70184.html

Theme: A Tribute to The Klezmatics as they mark their 40th year as a band.

The show features music by The Klezmatics, including some of their many collaborations with other artists, as well as some non-Klezmatics recordings by members and former members of the band.

The Klezmatics- Man in a Hat

Live at Town Hall (Klezmatics Disc)

The Klezmatics- Ale Brider

Shvaygn = Toyt: Heimatklänge of the Lower East Side (Rounder)

The Klezmatics with Alan Bern- NY Psycho Freylekhs

Rhythm + Jews (Rounder)

Alicia Svigals- Dem Trisker Rebns Khosid

Fidl (Traditional Crossroads)

The Klezmatics featuring Margot Leverett- Bobe Tanz

Live at Town Hall (Klezmatics Disc)

Margot Leverett & The Klezmer Mountain Boys- Lonesome Fiddle Blues & Sid’s Bulgars

Margot Leverett & The Klezmer Mountain Boys (Traditional Crossroads)

The Klezmatics- Dzhankoye

Shvaygn = Toyt: Heimatklänge of the Lower East Side (Rounder)

The Klezmatics- Bukoviner Freylekhs

Rhythm + Jews (Rounder)

Itzhak Perlman & The Klezmatics- Fisherlid

In the Fiddler’s House (Angel)

The Klezmatics- Come When I Call You

Wonder Wheel: Lyrics by Woody Guthrie (Jewish Music Group)

The Klezmatics- Mermaid’s Avenue

Wonder Wheel: Lyrics by Woody Guthrie (Jewish Music Group)

The Klezmatics- Holy Ground

Wonder Wheel: Lyrics by Woody Guthrie (Jewish Music Group)

Lisa Gutkin- Gonna Get Through This World

From Here On In (Lisa Gutkin)

Natalie Merchant with The Klezmatics- The Dancing Bear

Leave Your Sleep (Nonesuch)

Chava Alberstein & The Klezmatics- Di Krenitse (The Well)

The Well (Rounder)

Susan McKeown & Lorin Sklamberg- Heart’s Blood: Fort a yidele fort arroys (A Young Man Rode Out)/The Cruel Brother

Saints & Tzadiks (World Village)

Sasha Lurje & Lorin Sklamberg- A idisher kvartet

Jac Weinstein’s Helsinki Yiddish Cabaret (Global Music Centre)

The Klezmatics with Joshua Nelson & Kathryn Farmer- Oh Mary Don’t You Weep

Brother Moses Smote the Water (Piranha)

Frank London's Klezmer Brass Allstars featuring Michel “Mesach” Nestor- Unity (Carnival in Crown Heights) 

Chronika (Borscht Beat) 

Frank London with Karim Sulayman- Amore en

Ghetto Songs (Felmay)

The Klezmatics- Shushan Purim

Apikorsim/Heretics (World Village)

Next week: Variations on Hallelujah.

--Mike Regenstreif

Nefesh Mountain – Beneath the Open Sky

Nefesh Mountain

Beneath the Open Sky

www.nefeshmountain.com

(A version of this review was published in the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin.)

Although there are a significant number of Jewish virtuoso bluegrass musicians, the genre itself has rarely been a vehicle for specifically Jewish-themed music. Margot Leverett and the Klezmer Mountain Boys was a great band that combined klezmer and bluegrass traditions but Nefesh Mountain – the husband and wife duo of multi-instrumentalist Eric Lindberg and singer Doni Zasloff – are making Jewish music within a traditional bluegrass framework.

Songs like “Halleluyah,” which I suspect will eventually become a staple in non-Orthodox musical prayer services, and “On and On (L’Dor Vador),” about the continuity of generations, easily flow back and forth from English to Hebrew lyrics, while the traditional bluegrass gospel standard, “Bound for the Promised Land,” is stripped of its Christian references and rewritten by Nefesh Mountain as wishful expression for peace in the Holy Land. One of the most joyous songs is their bluegrass setting of “Oseh Shalom,” and after an intense collection of full band bluegrass tunes, they end the CD quietly with a lovely version of Irving Berlin’s “Russian Lullaby.”

Joining Lindberg and Zasloff on these songs are several A-list bluegrass musicians including banjo maestro Tony Trischka, Jerry Douglas on Dobro, mandolinist Sam Bush and guitarist David Grier.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

The Klezmatics -- Live at Town Hall

This review is from the December 12, 2011 issue of the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin.

The Klezmatics

Live At Town Hall

Klezmatics Disc

klezmatics.com

The New York City-based Klezmatics, without doubt one of the most creative and influential of contemporary klezmer bands, celebrate their 25th anniversary this year with the release of a two-CD set recorded at their exciting 20th anniversary concert in 2006. The current line-up of the band was joined by their former clarinetists Margot Leverett and David Kraukauer, and a stellar bunch of 24 other guest singers and musicians, to play some of the best music from their nine previous albums in what really was a once-in-a-lifetime extravaganza.

Live At Town Hall opens with the exuberant, joyfully over-the-top “Man in a Hat,” a Yiddish-English celebration of Manhattan, sailors, world travel and lust. Lead singer Lorin Sklamberg sings the double entendre lyrics with an elastic facility few singers in any genre of music can match. Meanwhile the band – virtuoso players all – wails in triple time.

From there we journey through a marvellous set that includes several extended medleys and suites.

Among the many highlights are four songs featuring special guest singers.

Joanne Borts and Sklamberg sing a duet on “Di Krenitse,” an Itzik Fefer poem set to music by Israeli singer Chava Alberstein. The arrangement draws on both klezmer and cabaret styles.

“Elijah Rock,” an African American spiritual which references biblical prophets Elijah, Moses and Ezekiel, features singer Joshua Nelson and an arrangement that could raise the roof on Preservation Hall in New Orleans.

Adrienne Cooper is featured on a powerful version of “I Ain’t Afraid,” a Holly Near song with added Yiddish lyrics by Cooper and Michael Wex, which the Klezmatics turned into a post-9/11 anthem extolling both defiance to terrorism and reconciliation of peoples.

And Susan McKeown, the superb Irish traditional singer, joins the band on “Gonna Get Through This World,” one of several songs drawn from the Klezmatics’ two albums of the Woody Guthrie Jewish-themed lyrics they set to music.

Other highlights include several other songs from the Guthrie project including “Holy Ground,” sung beautifully by Sklamberg with a choir of other Klezmatics and guests adding gorgeous harmonies, and just in time for right now, the celebratory “Hanuka Gelt.”

Along with Sklamberg, who plays accordion, guitar and piano in addition to his lead vocals, the core Klezmatics include Frank London on trumpet, horns, keyboards and percussion; violinist Lisa Gutkin; Matt Darriau on clarinet alto saxophone and kaval; Paul Morrissett on bass and tsimbl; and drummers David Licht and Richie Barshay. They are not just one of the best bands in klezmer music, they’re one of the best bands in any kind of music.

--Mike Regenstreif

Bluegrass radio show

Sunday December 20, 2009 – 7:00-8:00 pm

I made a rare return to live radio to guest-host Bluegrass Ramblings hours on CKUT (90.3 FM in Montreal).

This program is available as a podcast (for two months) for streaming or downloading at

http://secure.ckut.ca/64/20091220.19.01-20.00.mp3

The program begins five seconds into the download.

STEVE MARTIN w/TIM O’BRIEN & EARL SCRUGGS- Daddy Played the Banjo
The Crow (Rounder)
CHARLIE HADEN featuring JACK BLACK- Old Joe Clark
Charlie Haden Family & Friends: Rambling Boy (Decca)
TONY TRISCHKA w/MICHAEL DAVES- Fox Chase
Territory (Smithsonian Folkways)
RHONDA VINCENT- Christmas Time at Home
Beautiful Star: A Christmas Collection (Rounder)

LAKE OF STEW- Darlin Starlin’
Sweet as Pie (Woodhog)
LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III- Way Up in NYC
High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project (2nd Story)
GEOFF MULDAUR & THE TEXAS SHEIKS- Poor Boy, Long Ways from Home
Geoff Muldaur & the Texas Sheiks (Tradition & Moderne)
HULL & LARSON- Santa Claus is Coming to Town
The Goose is Getting Fat (Arabica)

DOC WATSON- Slidin’ Delta
Americana Master Series: Best of the Sugar Hill Years (Sugar Hill)
CAROLINE HERRING- See See Rider
Golden Apples of the Sun (Signature Sounds)
LAURIE LEWIS & TOM ROZUM- Hot Buttered Rum
Winter’s Grace (Signature Sounds)

CHRIS COOLE- Wish We Had Our Time Again
Old Dog (Chris Coole)
SHEARWATER BLUEGRASS- Snows of December
Shearwater (Shearwater)
MARGOT LEVERETT & THE KLEZMER MOUNTAIN BOYS w/TONY TRISCHKA- Calgary Reel
2nd Avenue Square Dance (Traditional Crossroads)
JOEL MABUS- Children Go Where I Send Thee
How Like the Holly (Fossil)

SAM BUSH- Sleigh Ride
A Family Christmas (Putumayo)

--Mike Regenstreif

CKUT Bluegrass & Country hours

Sunday September 6, 2009 – 7:00-9:00 pm

I made a rare return to live radio to guest-host the Bluegrass Ramblings and Country Classics hours on CKUT (90.3 FM in Montreal).

This program is available as a podcast (for two months) for streaming or downloading at

http://secure.ckut.ca/64/20090906.19.01-21.02.mp3

The program begins four seconds into the download.

CATIE CURTIS & MARY GAUTHIER- Hello Stranger
Hello, Stranger (Compass)
CHARLIE HADEN featuring THE HADEN TRIPLETS- Single Girl, Married Girl
Charlie Haden Family & Friends: Rambling Boy (Decca)
STEVE MARTIN- Hoedown at Alice’s
The Crow (Rounder)

Loudon Wainwright III performs Thursday, October 1, 8:00 pm, at the Ukrainian Federation, 5213 Hutchison, during Pop Montreal. Call Hello Darlin’ Productions at 514-524-9225 for info or tickets.

LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III- High Wide & Handsome
High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project (2nd Story)
LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III- The Deal
High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project (2nd Story)
LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III- If I Lose
High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project (2nd Story)
LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III- Awful Hungry Hash House
High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project (2nd Story)

Peggy Seeger opens this season’s Wintergreen Concert Series on Friday, September 11, 8:00 pm, at Petit Campus, 57 Prince Arthur East. Call Hello Darlin’ Productions at 514-524-9225 to reserve tickets.

PEGGY SEEGER- Jenny’s Gone Away
Heading for Home (Appleseed)
PEGGY SEEGER- Poor Ellen Smith
Love Call Me Home (Appleseed)
PEGGY SEEGER- Little Birdie
Bring Me Home (Appleseed)

DIANA JONES- Better Times will Come
Better Times Will Come (Proper American)
TIM SPARKS- I’ll Fly Away
Sidewalk Blues (ToneWood)
JOEL MABUS- Charlie Birger
No Worries Now (Fossil)

SHEARWATER BLUEGRASS- Nightingale
Shearwater (Shearwater)
MARGOT LEVERETT & THE KLEZMER MOUNTAIN BOYS w/TONY TRISCHKA- Stoney Lonesome
2nd Avenue Square Dance (Traditional Crossroads)

GADZUKES!- Sugar Moon
New & Used (Gadzukes)
ROBIN & LINDA WILLIAMS- Buena Vista
Buena Vista (Red House)

WOODY GUTHRIE- Philadelphia Lawyer
My Dusty Road: Woody’s “Greatest Hits (Rounder)
WOODY GUTHRIE- Worried Man Blues
My Dusty Road: Woody’s Roots (Rounder)
WOODY GUTHRIE- You Can Hear My Whistle Blow
My Dusty Road: Woody the Agitator (Rounder)
WOODY GUTHRIE, CISCO HOUSTON & SONNY TERRY- Brown’s Ferry Blues
My Dusty Road: Woody, Cisco and Sonny (Rounder)

TOM RUSSELL- Nina Simone
Blood and Candle Smoke (Shout! Factory)
JAMES TALLEY- World of Broken Hearts
Heartsong (Cimarron)
JAMES TALLEY- Give My Love to Marie
Journey – The Second Voyage (Cimarron)
TOM RUSSELL- The Most Dangerous Woman in America
Blood and Candle Smoke (Shout! Factory)

GUY CLARK- The Guitar
Somedays the Song Writes You (Dualtone)
NANCI GRIFFITH- Sing
The Loving Kind (Rounder)
JESSE WINCHESTER- Stand By Me
Love Filling Station (Appleseed)

WAYNE HANCOCK- Moving On #3
Viper of Melody (Bloodshot)
WATERMELON SLIM- Truck Drivin’ Songs
Escape from the Chicken Coop (NorthernBlues)