Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – August 19, 2025: The Original Sloth Band at 60

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/595/71585.html

Theme: The Original Sloth Band at 60.

The Original Sloth Band – teenaged brothers Chris Whiteley and Ken Whiteley and their friend Tom Evans – played their first gig in 1965. Their band name for that gig was Tubby Fats Original Allstar Downtown Syncopated Big Rock Jug Band but they soon evolved into the Original Sloth Band. Sadly, Tom Evans passed away from cancer in 2009, but, in June, Chris and Ken with some guest musicians played a concert at Hugh’s Room in Toronto to mark the milestone anniversary.

Original Sloth Band- The New Heartbreak Blues

Whoopee After Midnight (Sloth)

Samoa Wilson with The Jim Kweskin Band- (I Just Want to Be) Horizontal

I Just Want to Be Horizontal (Kingswood)

Tony Rice- Temperance Reel

Tony Rice (Rounder)

Jeff Healey- Sheik of Araby

The Best of the Stony Plain Years: Vintage Jazz, Swing and Blues (Stony Plain)

Amos Milburn- Johnson Rag

Rockin’ and Drinkin’: Greatest Hits and More 1946-1959 (Jasmine)

Original Sloth Band- Heaven

Whoopee After Midnight (Sloth)

The Dumptrucks- Stealin’

Selections (Laughing Cactus)

Original Sloth Band- I’m a Vulture (for Horticulture)

Whoopee After Midnight (Sloth)

Leon Redbone- Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone

Champagne Charlie (Warner Bros.)

Jenny Whiteley- Things are Coming My Way

The Original Jenny Whiteley (Black Hen Music)

Jay McShann- Sunny Side of the Street

Still Jumpin’ the Blues (Stony Plain)

Mose Scarlett- How Long Blues

The Fundamental Things (Pyramid)

Original Sloth Band- Get a Job 

Whoopee After Midnight (Sloth)

Maria Muldaur- Organ Grinder Blues

One Hour Mama: The Blues of Victoria Spivey (NOLA Blues)

Duke Ellington & Ivie Anderson- Get Yourself a New Broom (and Sweep the Blues Away)

Ellington in Order, Volume 5 (1932-33) (Legacy)

Duke Ellington & The Mills Brothers- Diga Diga Do

Ellington in Order, Volume 5 (1932-33) (Legacy)

Jimmy Bracken's Toe Ticklers- It’s Tight Like That

Jack Teagarden: The Definitive Collection (Master Tape)

Original Sloth Band- Shout Baby Shout

Hustlin’ & Bustlin’ (Woodshed)

The Boswell Sisters- Cheek to Cheek

Cheek to Cheek (Classic)

The Central Park Sheiks- Honeysuckle Rose

Honeysuckle Rose (Flying Fish)

Bessie Smith- Gimme a Pigfoot (and a Bottle of Beer)

Bessie Smith: The Absolutely Essential 3 CD Collection (Big3)

Carolina Chocolate Drops- Memphis Shakedown

Carolina Chocolate Drops & Joe Thompson (Music Makers Recordings)

Original Sloth Band- Hustlin’ and Bustlin’ for Baby

Hustlin’ & Bustlin’ (Woodshed)

Ken Whiteley- Fast Freight Train

Unseen Hands: 12 Songs 12 Strings (Ken Whiteley)

Chris Whiteley- I’ve Got to Split

It’s the Natural Thing to Do (Electro-Fi)

Next week: Songs for August and Highway 61 Revisited – Revisited.

--Mike Regenstreif

Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – June 14, 2025

Saturday Morning is an eclectic roots-oriented program on CKCU, 93.1 FM, in Ottawa 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 the Saturday Morning show. 

This episode of Saturday Morning was recorded and can be streamed on-demand, now or anytime, by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/70676.html

Mike Regenstreif & Steve Gillette (1994)

Steve Gillette- Grapes on the Vine

Best of (Compass Rose)

Ian & Sylvia- Darcy Farrow

Early Morning Rain (Vanguard)

Linda Ronstadt- A Number and a Name

Hand Sown…Home Grown (Capitol)

Steve Gillette- Back on the Street Again

Best of (Compass Rose)

Grayson Capps- Early Morning Rain

Heartbreak, Misery & Death (Royal Potato Family)

The Kennedys- Cotton Jenny

Ladies Sing Lightfoot (Sunset Blvd.)

Seldom Scene- Steel Rail Blues

Changes (Rounder)

Gordon Lightfoot- A Painter Passing Through

A Painter Passing Through (Reprise)

Payadora- Prologue

The Legend of  Carau (Payadora)

Payadora with Elbio Ferenandez & Elmer Ferrer- Gaucho de las Pampas

The Legend of Carau (Payadora)

Payadora- Remember What’s Important

The Legend of Carau (Payadora)

Payadora- The Call of the Bandoneón

The Legend of Carau (Payadora)

Lucie Blue Tremblay- No Esta Solo

So Many Wows (Maggie & Shanti Musique)

NEeMA- Running

Watching You Think (Neemaste/Sony)

Mason Daring & Jeanie Stahl- Across the Great Divide

Recordings Celebrating 50 Years of a Musical Partnership (Mason Daring & Jeanie Stahl) 

Mary Chapin Carpenter- What Did You Miss

Personal History (Lambent Light/Thirty Tigers)

Eliza Gilkyson & Mike Regenstreif on Zoom (2022)

Eliza Gilkyson- Song to You

Dark Ages (Realiza)

Schmaltz & Pepper- Stirring the Pot

Schmaltz & Pepper (Schmaltz & Pepper)

Mike Regenstreif & Tim Grimm (2025)

Tim Grimm- In the U.S.A.

Bones of Trees (Vault)

Mike Regenstreif & Mark Rubin on Zoom (2025)

Mark Rubin – Jew of Oklahoma- Bear at the Door

Dispatches: Songs from a World Gone Mad (Rubinchik)

Eliza Gilkyson- Dark Ages

Dark Ages (Realiza)

Bethany & Rufus- Isn’t That So

900 Miles (Hyena)

Rodney Crowell with Emmylou Harris & Vince Gill- Dangerous Fun

Quiet About It: A Tribute to Jesse Winchester (Mailboat)

Jesse Winchester & Mike Regenstreif (2006)

Jesse Winchester- Glory to the Day

Third Down, 110 to Go (Stony Plain)

William Bell- All of Your Stories

This is Where I Live (Stax)

Tom Prasada-Rao- Maria

Beautiful You: The Songs of Tom Prasada-Rao (Tom Prasada-Rao)

Suzie Brown- I Love Missing You

Songs Worth Saving (Suzie Brown)

Nathan Sloniowski- Archie’s Good Night

The Lost Love Letter to a Small Town (Rocketchimp)

Jim Wurster- Transcendental Inclinations

Transcendental Inclinations (Y&T Music)

Muireann Bradley- Stag O Lee

I Kept These Old Blues (Decca/Verve Forecast)

Guy Davis & Mike Regenstreif (2006)

Guy Davis- Long Gone Riley Brown

The Legend of Sugarbelly (M.C.)

Dee Robinson- One Dime Blues

Dee from Decatur (Riverlark Music)

Roy Book Binder- Travelin’ Man

Goin’ Back to Tampa (Flying Fish)

Sue Foley- Freight Train

One Guitar Woman: A Tribute to the Female Pioneers of Guitar (Stony Plain) 

Dee Robinson- Washington Blues

Dee from Decatur (Riverlark Music)

Lotus Wight- Dear Old Five String

Original Works for Voice and Banjo Volume One (Lotus Wight)

Original Sloth Band- Diga Diga Do

Hustlin’ & Bustlin’ (Woodshed)

Benoît LeBlanc- Éy laba (Eh la bas)

Mô kouzin, mô kouzinn (Benoît LeBlanc)

Sheesham & Lotus & ‘Son- Leaving Home (Frankie and Johnny)

1929 (Sepiaphone)

Suzy Thompson- If I Could Stay

Suzy Sings Siebel Volume One (Suzy Thompson)

Paul Siebel- Jasper & the Miners

Jack-Knife Gypsy (Elektra)

Happy Traum- Pinto Pony

I Walk the Road Again (Roaring Stream)

Suzy Thompson- Uncle Dudley

Suzy Sings Siebel Volume One (Suzy Thompson)

Paul Siebel- Legend of the Captain’s Daughter

Jack-Knife Gypsy (Elektra)

Cassie & Maggie- Fool’s Gold

Gold and Coal (Cassie and Maggie)

Stan Rogers- The Rawdon Hills

Fogarty’s Cove (Fogarty’s Cove/Borealis)

Mike Regenstreif & Priscilla Herdman (2000)

Priscilla Herdman- Old Jack Ryan

Darkness into Light (Flying Fish)

Donald WG Lindsay- Tramps & Hawkers

Two Boats Under the Moon (Donald WG Lindsay)

Sarah Segal-Lazar- Earlier

Valleys (Sarah Segal-Lazar)

The Heart Collectors- Shenandoah

Alchymie (Spins the Gold)

Dave & Kristi- All are Welcome Here

The Chickadees (Paris Chili)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on July 12. I also host Stranger Songs on CKCU every Tuesday from 3:30-5 pm.

--Mike Regenstreif

Jenny Whiteley – The Original Jenny Whiteley

JENNY WHITELEY

The Original Jenny Whiteley

Black Hen Music

jennywhiteley.com

I first met the Original Sloth Band – Chris Whiteley, Ken Whiteley and Tom Evans – in the early-1970s. They had a wonderfully eclectic repertoire of songs gathered from old-time jug band, jazz, blues and folk sources.

Chris had an infant daughter back then who would grow up to be – like her father, uncle, brothers and cousins – an excellent musician, singer and songwriter and who now has five solo albums to her credit. Jenny Whiteley’s first recording projects – long before she started making solo albums – were in the 1980s when she sang with dad and uncle on their Junior Jug Band LPs.

Jenny’s fifth solo album, The Original Jenny Whiteley, is a homage to her dad. Whether on songs like “Stealin’, Stealin’” or “Things are Coming My Way,” which were on Original Sloth Band LPs back in the ‘70s, or on other vintage songs, or even her own original material,  they were all, she notes, “influenced in some way by his music.”

The Original Jenny Whiteley is a delightful 11-song romp. Among my favorites are the already mentioned “Stealin’, Stealin’” and “Things are Coming My Way,” the latter featuring harmony vocals from Chris and Ken; her own songs “Banjo Girl,” reprised from Jenny’s 2006 album, Dear, and “Higher Learning”; the traditional classic “In the Pines”; and Uncle Dave Macon’s “Morning Blues,” a favorite I first heard on the Jim Kweskin Jug Band Jug Band Music LP in the ‘60s.

Aside from Jenny’s own vocals and guitar, most of the backup on The Original Jenny Whiteley is by multi-instrumentalists Sam Allison, who produced the album, and Teillard Frost, who, as Sheesham & Lotus, are highly reminiscent of the Original Sloth Band.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Ken Whiteley -- Another Day's Journey

KEN WHITELEY
Another Day’s Journey
Borealis
kenwhiteley.com

Ken Whiteley’s website notes that “his musical journey has taken him from jug band, folk and swing to blues, gospel and children's music.” With the exception of children’s music, Ken covers all of those grounds on Another Day’s Journey, which I think I can say without much reservation, is the finest solo album of his long career.

Of course, the term ‘solo’ is a bit of a misnomer as Ken, who sings and variously plays more than a dozen different instruments, works with cast of great collaborators – singers and instrumentalists – that changes, track to track, as the album unfolds on this journey through Ken's musical world.

The album begins with the title track, a joyous, uplifting song from the repertoire of the amazing Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers. Acoustic blues great Guy Davis, is Ken’s principal accomplice on this tune. Guy returns later in the CD to add his harmonies, harmonica and guitar playing to “Too Much Trouble,” a lovely, nostalgic original by Ken, and on a bluesy version of the traditional “Motherless Children.”

Kim and Reggie Harris – whose music and infectious personalities never fail to inspire – and sacred steel master Chuck Campbell join Ken for three songs including the inspirational “Butterfly,” and the poignant “No Answer,” both co-written by Ken and Reggie, and “I Want to Live So God Can Use Me,” an on-your-feet gospel number.

I’ve been on a listening to a lot of jug band music lately and two juggy tracks here are duets with Maria Muldaur, a central figure in the jug band revival of the 1960s and in its latest revival over the past few years. “Language of Love” and “Mike and Mary” are both recent Ken Whiteley originals that sound like they could have been recorded by the Memphis Jug Band in 1927, the Jim Kweskin Jug Band in 1965, or the Original Sloth Band in 1975.

Newfoundland swing guitarist Duane Andrews joins Ken for two other highlights on the album: Ken’s own “Old Wind Blow,” which also features some excellent harmonica work by Ken’s brother, Chris Whiteley, and “I Want To Be Happy,” an old swing tune that was a staple in the repertoire of the late, great Jackie Washington.

Ken Whiteley performs in Montreal on a split bill with Lake of Stew on Saturday, December 11, 8:00 pm, at Petit Campus. Click here for info.

--Mike Regenstreif