Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday March 21, 2023: “Shout, Sister, Shout” and Other Songs from the Repertoire of Sister Rosetta Tharpe

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.

111 episodes of Stranger Songs are listed and available to stream on-demand at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/index.html

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/595/59755.html

Theme: “Shout, Sister, Shout” and Other Songs from the Repertoire of Sister Rosetta Tharpe (1915-1973).

Sister Rosetta Tharpe, who died in 1973 at age 58, primarily – but not exclusively – sang and played gospel and African-American spirituals. She played electric guitar and has been called “the godmother of rock ‘n’ roll.”

Sister Rosetta Tharpe with Lucky Millinder & His Orchestra- Shout, Sister, Shout!

Bring Back Those Happy Days: Greatest Hits and Selected Recordings 1938-1957 (Jasmine)

Odetta with The Holmes Brothers- Two Little Fishes and Five Loaves of Bread

Shout, Sister, Shout! A Tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe (M.C.)

Bobby McFerrin- Joshua (Fit the Battle of Jericho)

Spirityouall (Sony Masterworks)

Mountain City Four- This Train

Mountain City Four (Omnivore)

Ken Whiteley- Precious Memories

Long Time Travelling (Ken Whiteley)

Phoebe Snow with The Holmes Brothers- Beams of Heaven

Shout, Sister, Shout! A Tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe (M.C.)

Sister Rosetta Tharpe- Is Everyone Happy

This Train in Concert (Sunset Blvd.)

Rory Block- Stand By Me

Shout, Sister, Shout! A Tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe (M.C.)

Ronnie Hawkins- Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

The Folk Ballads of Ronnie Hawkins (Edsel)

Mavis Staples & Lucky Peterson- Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen

Spirituals & Gospel (Gitanes)

Eliza Gilkyson & Jimmy LaFave- Down by the Riverside

Secularia (Red House)

Sister Rosetta Tharpe- That’s All

Bring Back Those Happy Days: Greatest Hits and Selected Recordings 1938-1957 (Jasmine)

Missy Burgess- Trouble in Mind

Missy Burgess with The Blue Train Live (Missy Burgess)

Marcia Ball with Tracy Nelson, Maria Muldaur & Angela Strehli- I Want a Tall Skinny Papa

Shout, Sister, Shout! A Tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe (M.C.)

Rhiannon Giddens- Up Above My Head

Tomorrow is My Turn (Nonesuch)

Bruce Cockburn- Twelve Gates to the City

Bone on Bone (True North)

Sister Rosetta Tharpe- Travelin’ Shoes

This Train in Concert (Sunset Blvd.)

Bernice Johnson Reagon, Kim & Reggie Harris- Oh Mary, Don’t You Weep

Get On Board: Underground Railroad & Civil Rights Freedom Songs, Volume 2 (Appleseed)

Marie Knight- Didn’t It Rain

Shout, Sister, Shout! A Tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe (M.C.)

Margaret Glaspy, Bruce Molsky, Brittnay Haas, Julian Lage, Joe Phillips & Jayme Stone- What is the Soul of Man?

Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project (Borealis)

Lonnie Johnson- That Lonesome Road

The Complete Folkways Recordings (Smithsonian Folkways)

Sister Rosetta Tharpe- Jonah in the Whale

This Train in Concert (Sunset Blvd.)

Maria Muldaur, Marcia Ball, Angela Strehli & Tracy Nelson- Shout, Sister, Shout

Shout, Sister, Shout! A Tribute to Sister Rosetta Tharpe (M.C.)

Next week: Cowboys & Cowgirls.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday June 21, 2022: Songs from “Porgy & Bess” and other Gershwin classics

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 prerecorded at home and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/56633.html

Theme: Songs from “Porgy & Bess” and other Gershwin classics.

The folk and jazz influenced opera “Porgy & Bess,” composed by George Gershwin with lyrics by Du Bose Heyward and Ira Gershwin premiered on Broadway in 1935 and was based on Du Bose Heyward’s novel, Porgy, published in 1925.

Moore & McGregor- Summertime
Dream with Me (Ivernia)

Ella Fitzgerald- I Wants to Stay Here
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Porgy & Bess (Verve)
Lena Horne- My Man’s Gone Now
Harry Belafonte & Lena Horne: Porgy & Bess (RCA)
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong- I Got Plenty O’Nuttin
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Porgy & Bess (Verve)
Ray Charles- Buzzard Song
Ray Charles & Cleo Laine: Porgy & Bess (RCA)
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong- Bess, You is My Woman Now
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Porgy & Bess (Verve)

Miles Davis- Gone, Gone, Gone
Miles Davis: Porgy & Bess (Columbia/Legacy)

Dave Van Ronk- It Ain’t Necessarily So
Hummin’ to Myself (Gazell)
Cleo Laine- What You Want Wid Bess?
Ray Charles & Cleo Laine: Porgy & Bess (RCA)
Harry Belafonte- A Woman is Sometime Thing
Harry Belafonte & Lena Horne: Porgy & Bess (RCA)
Ella Fitzgerald- Oh, Doctor Jesus
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Porgy & Bess (Verve)
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong- Medley: Here Comes de Honey Man/Crab Man/Oh, Dey’s So Fresh and Fine (Strawberry Woman)
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Porgy & Bess (Verve)

Nina Simone- I Loves You, Porgy
Nina Simone With Strings (Colpix)
Harry Belafonte- Bess, Oh Where’s My Bess
Harry Belafonte & Lena Horne: Porgy & Bess (RCA)
Phoebe Snow- There’s a Boat That’s Leaving Soon for New York
Second Childhood (Columbia)
Louis Armstrong- Oh Lawd, I’m On My Way
Ella Fitzgerald & Louis Armstrong: Porgy & Bess (Verve)

Other Gershwin classics

Samoa Wilson with The Jim Kweskin Band- Our Love is Here to Stay
I Just Want to Be Horizontal (Kingswood)
Willie Nelson- I Got Rhythm
Summertime: Willie Nelson Sings Gershwin (Legacy)
Billie Holiday- Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off
Songs for Distingué Lovers (Verve)

Dave Van Ronk- Sweet and Lowdown
Sweet & Lowdown (Justin Time)
Scarlett, Washington & Whiteley- Lady Be Good
Sitting on a Rainbow (Borealis)
The Hot Club of Cowtown- Someone to Watch Over Me
Wishful Thinking (Gold Strike)

Oscar Peterson- Liza (The Clouds’ll Roll Away)
The Jazz Soul of Oscar Peterson (Verve)

Next week: The Folkways Legacy of Sam Gesser.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Various Artists – …. First Came Memphis Minnie

VARIOUS ARTISTS
…. First Came Memphis Minnie
Stony Plain 
stonyplainrecords.com

Memphis Minnie (1897-1973), who began her recording career in the early-1930s, was a pioneering and influential blues artist and certainly the most prominent example of a female blues singer from that era who accompanied herself on guitar. Until Minnie came along, female blues singers – like Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey, Alberta Hunter and so many others – generally fronted traditional jazz bands or worked with a piano player. Minnie, though, could play guitar as well or better than any male artist and was a role model to generations of female musicians who followed in later decades.

…. First Came Memphis Minnie is a set of 13 songs from Memphis Minnie’s repertoire assembled by Maria Muldaur.

Maria, herself, is the dominant artist in the collection with eight songs taken from a couple of the terrific acoustic blues albums she’s done in recent years – two from Richland Woman Blues and six from Sweet Lovin’ Ol’ Soul – on which she’s backed by such great musicians as Del Rey, Steve James and Dave Earl. Two of the most exciting songs, “I’m Goin’ Back Home” and “She Put Me Outdoors,” are terrific duets with Alvin Youngblood Hart playing Joe McCoy to Maria’s Minnie.

The three tracks recorded just for this album are all superb. Bonnie Raitt, playing acoustic guitar, does a great job on “Ain’t Nothin’ in Ramblin’,” proving – as if there were any doubt – she is still a remarkable purveyor of acoustic blues when she wants to be. Rory Block, one of today’s greatest acoustic blues artists, does a soulful solo arrangement of “When You Love Me” with some excellent slide playing, and Ruthie Foster offers a delightfully sassy take on “Keep Your Big Mouth Closed.”

Rounding out the album are two other previously released tracks. The late Phoebe Snow, with backing from David Bromberg, is featured on an elegant version of “In My Girlish Days” from her 1976 album, It Looks Like Snow (Phoebe never did enough of this kind of material), and the late Koko Taylor finishes the album with “Black Rat Swing,” from her 2007 release, Old School, the album’s only contemporary Chicago-style electric track.

Starting with the songs from her own albums and rounding the tribute out with five offerings from other artists, Maria Muldaur has assembled a worthy tribute to one of the most important figures in blues history.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif