Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – February 10, 2026: Songs of – or inspired by – the Civil Rights Movement

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/595/74038.html

Theme: Songs of – or inspired by – the Civil Rights Movement.

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. at the March on Washington, Aug. 28, 1963

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As Julius Lester sings in our opening song, “freedom is a constant struggle.” This is especially true now when the current American president and his administration is working to undo decades of progress made by the Civil Rights Movement.

Julius Lester- Freedom is a Constant Struggle

Freedom is a Constant Struggle (Folk Era)

Fannie Lou Hamer- Woke Up This Morning

Songs My Mother Taught Me (Smithsonian Folkways)

SNCC Freedom Singers- Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Round

Voices of the Civil Rights Movement (Smithsonian Folkways)

The Sojourners- Eyes On the Prize 

Hold On (Black Hen Music)

Harry Belafonte- Michael Row the Boat Ashore 

The Midnight Special (RCA)

Mavis Staples with Ladysmith Black Mambazo- We Shall Not Be Moved

We’ll Never Turn Back (Anti-)

Nina Simone- Mississippi Goddam 

The Best of Broadside 1962-1988 (Smithsonian Folkways)

Reggie Harris- Been Down Into the South

Ready to Go (Reggie Harris Music)

Sally Rogers & Claudia Schmidt- Still on the Bridge

We are Welcomed (Pragmavision)

The Staple Singers- Freedom Highway

Freedom Highway (Columbia/Legacy)

Odetta- Freedom Trilogy: Oh Freedom, Come & Go With Me and I’m On My Way

Gonna Let It Shine (M.C.)

Joan Baez- All My Trials

Joan Baez (Vanguard)

Bob Dylan- Only a Pawn in Their Game

The Times They Are A-Changin’ (Columbia/Legacy)

Peter, Paul & Mary- If I Had a Hammer

Peter, Paul and Mary (Warner Bros.)

Mahalia Jackson- How I Got Over

Sunday Morning Prayer Meeting with Mahalia Jackson (Columbia/Legacy)

Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr..- Excerpt from “I Have a Dream” speech delivered on August 28, 1963 at The March on Washington

Kim & Reggie Harris- Free At Last

Steal Away: Songs of the Underground Railroad (Appleseed)

Sam Cooke- A Change is Gonna Come 

Ain’t That Good News (RCA)

The Impressions- People Get Ready

People Get Ready (ABC Paramount)

Pete Seeger- We Shall Overcome

We Shall Overcome: The Complete Carnegie Hall Concert (Columbia)

Charlie Haden & Hank Jones- We Shall Overcome

Steal Away: Spirituals, Hymns and Folk Songs (Verve)

Next week: A Mardi Gras Day Tribute to Louis Prima.

--Mike Regenstreif

Kate Campbell – Two Nights in Texas

KATE CAMPBELL

Two Nights in Texas

Large River

katecampbell.com

Since the release of her debut album, Songs from the Levee, in 1995, I’ve felt that Kate Campbell – who grew up in Mississippi – was one of the most compelling singer-songwriters of the Deep South. Her finely-crafted songs beautifully capture the essence of the South and its people, particularly the dramatic changes that began unfolding in the South during Kate’s childhood in the 1960s as the Civil Rights Movement changed forever how people thought and acted.

Two Nights in Texas, recorded April 8-9, 2010 in Wimberley, Texas captures Kate’s warm voice, guitar and occasional piano – superbly backed by Sally Van Meter on Dobro, Scott Ainslie on guitar and banjo and Don Porterfield on bass – as she runs through a retrospective of original songs that, at 65 minutes, only scratches the surface of her rich catalog.

As noted, some of the most affecting of Kate’s songs are those documenting the Civil Rights Movement that she witnessed first-hand as a child in the Deep South in the ‘60s.

“Crazy in Alabama” captures that time and place vividly as she sings about the segregation that “never made one lick of sense,” the violence of the era as groups like the Klan tried to stand in the way of the inevitable changes that were coming – “And the train of change/Was coming fast to my hometown/We had the choice to climb on board/Or get run down” – and the civil rights marchers who “all held hands as they sand and wept/And freedom rang in every step.”

Other songs that recall that era include “Galaxie 500,” in which she recalls a child's joy at times spent in the family car only to have that joy shattered when the car radio announces the murder of Martin Luther King, and “A Cotton Field Away,” which captures that moment in time when white and black children finally encounter each other thanks to court-ordered desegregation and learn how much alike they really were.

Other highlights include “New South,” in which she observes how much contemporary pop culture has homogenized away much of the South’s distinctiveness making it much like anywhere else, “Tupelo’s To Far,” written from the perspective of Elvis Presley at a time when he might have wished he could go back to before stardom had overtaken his life, “See Rock City,” a third-person observation of a young woman’s quest for freedom from the small town life she grew up in, and the final medley of “Rosa’s Coronas/Lanterns on the Levee.” The first song in the finale is written from the perspective of a Cuban woman missing her daughter and granddaughter who’d escaped to America and wondering how they fared there while the second is an inspiring song of friendship, of love, of hope.

--Mike Regenstreif