Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday April 23, 2022

Saturday Morning is an eclectic roots-oriented program on CKCU in Ottawa heard 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 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/128/55987.html

Anne Hills- Follow That Road
Angle of the Light (Flying Fish)

Steve Lundquist- Slow Down Sonny
My Life in Song (Steve Lundquist)
Jerry Jeff Walker- Then Came the Children
Too Old to Change (Elektra)
Paul Siebel- Jasper & the Miners
Jack-Knife Gypsy (Elektra)

Utah Phillips & Mike Regenstreif (1976) photo: Felicty Fanjoy

Steve Madewell- Early On In Life
Hometown Blues (Barnsongs)
Mary Chapin Carpenter- I Am a Town
One Night Lonely (Lambent Light)
Jefferson Ross- You Can’t Go Home Again
Southern Currency (Jefferson Ross)
Utah Phillips- Starlight on the Rails
Good Though! (Philo)

Willie Dunn- Broker
Creation Never Sleeps, Creation Never Dies: The Willie Dunn Anthology (Light in the Attic)
James Keelaghan- Cold Missouri Waters
History: The First 25 Years (Borealis)

Amy Speace- Cottonwood
Tuscon (Windbone)
Allison Russell- The Hunters
Outside Child (Fantasy)
Amy Speace- If You Fall
Tuscon (Windbone)

Dave Clarke- Simonne
The Healing Garden (Crossties)

John McCutcheon- Ukrainian Now
Ukrainian Now – single (Appalsongs)
Lee Oskar- Never Forget
Never Forget (Dreams We Share Productions)
Ina May Wool- Time of Trouble
Rewrite the Ending (Voice of Binky Music)
Susan Cattaneo- Hold Onto Hope
All is Quiet (Jersey Girl Music)

Bill Bourne- Seven Angels
Sally’s Dream (Ragged Pup)

Bruce Cockburn- Pacing the Cage
Greatest Hits (1970-2020) (True North)
Geneviève Racette- The Tide
Satellite (Geneviève Racette)
Lynne Hanson- This Heart of Mine
Ice Cream in November (Panda Cave)

Mike Regenstreif & Lynn Miles (2013)

Rick Fines- One Lone Loon
Solar Powered Too (Rick Fines)
Susan Crowe- I was Handsome, I was Young
A Pilgrim’s Mirror (Corvus)
Shari Ulrich- Canada
Back to Shore (Borealis)
Lynn Miles- My Road
Downpour (Lynn Miles)

Pat Moore & The Vinyl Frontier- Strange
Take It to Heart (Pat Moore)
Ball & Chain & The Wreckers- Graveyard Shift
Live at the Bayou (Ball & Chain)
Shane Cook & The Woodchippers- The Little Contortionist
Be Here for a While (Shane Cook)

Corky Siegel's Chamber Blues- Counter Intuitive – Op. 24 Part Two
Different Voices (Dawnserly)

Rain Perry- Melody and Jack
A White Album (Precipitous)
Tom Prasada-Rao- Tenderness
Tenderness – single (Tom Prasada-Rao)
Josie Bello- The Sound of Guitars
Resilience (Josie Bello)

Mike Regenstreif & Priscilla Herdman (1978) photo: Ron Petronko

Amy Bishop- Five Minutes
Perfect & Broken (Amy Bishop)
Priscilla Herdman- Millworker
Forgotten Dreams (Flying Fish)
Annie Gallup- Harvey Moved to Queens
Harvey Moved to Queens – single (Galway Bay Music)

Martyn Joseph- Down to the Well
1960 (Pipe)
Stéphane Wrembel- Swing de Paris
The Django Experiment VI (Water is Life)
Sophie Milman- La Vie en Rose
Sophie Milman (Linus)
Ann Savoy & Her Sleepless Knights- Getting Some Fun Out of Life
If Dreams Come True (Memphis International)
Susie Arioli featuring Jordan Officer- Blue Skies
Night Lights (Spectra)

Kenny ‘Blues Boss’ Wayne- The Way She Loves a Man
Blues from Chicago to Paris: A Tribute to Memphis Slim and Willie Dixon (Stony Plain)
Kenny Neal featuring Rockin' Dopsie Jr. & The Zydeco Twisters- Bon Temps Rouler
Straight from the Heart (Ruf)
The Duke Robillard Band with Sue Foley- No Good Lover
They Called It Rhythm & Blues (Stony Plain)

Ronnie Earl & The Broadcasters- Blues for Duke Robillard
Mercy Me (Stony Plain)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on May 21. I also host Stranger Songs on CKCU every Tuesday from 3:30-5 pm.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

The Shopkeeper – A film by Rain Perry

Mark Hallman at Congress House Studio

THE SHOPKEEPER

A film by Rain Perry

shopkeepermovie.com

rainperry.com

I first discovered singer-songwriter Rain Perry in 2003 when Tom Russell sang her beautiful song “Yosemite” on a promo EP sent out in conjunction with his Modern Art album. I believe he recorded the song during the sessions for that album at Mark Hallman’s Congress House Studio in Austin, Texas. About a decade later, I wrote about Rain’s album Men, which was also recorded at Congress House with Mark as producer, principal accompanist and occasional songwriting collaborator.

Rain Perry

Rain’s latest project is a highly interesting and engaging documentary film called The Shopkeeper which, on the surface, tells the story of Mark Hallman’s career as a musician – he was a principal in the ‘70s band Navarro and worked extensively as a sideman with Dan Fogelberg and Carole King – recording engineer and record producer, and of his Congress House Studio, by now the longest-running recording studio in Austin, one of the great American music cities.

But, more than that, the film looks at how the music business has changed over the decades of Mark’s career and at the existential issues facing artists, recording studios and record companies in an era where the public wants to consume music without paying for it.

Rain effectively uses comments and commentaries from artists – some who I know well, some whose music is familiar to me, some who I’d not heard of before – including Mark Hallman, of course, Tom Russell, Eliza Gilkyson, Ani DiFranco, Andrew Hardin, Sarah Hickman, Iain Matthews and many others. These artists lend much insight both to the stories of Congress House and to how the underlying issues of a changing music business have affected them and their careers. There are several terrific segments where singer-songwriter Jon Dee Graham uses facts and figures (with charts) to show the financial changes in the music business over the years.

Along the way we get to hear some of the great music that has been made at the Congress House over the years and bear witness to Mark’s struggle to keep the studio economically viable.

The Shopkeeper is a film that should be seen by anyone interested in understanding what it means to be an independent roots music artist in these times.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Rain Perry – Men

RAIN PERRY

Men

Precipitous Records

rainperry.com

The nicest things about writing music reviews mostly for my own blog – as opposed to for newspapers and magazines, which I did for decades and still do on rare occasions – is that I only have to write about music that I really care about and about albums and artists that whose praises I want to sing. I don’t have nearly enough time to write about all that I’d truly like to write about so I don’t spend any time writing about music and artists I’m not enthusiastic about.

I say that because Men by California singer-songwriter Rain Perry is not the kind of album I generally like. I generally don’t care for recordings where all of the tracks are layered on by one musician playing most of the parts, or where many of the instruments are synthesized. I much prefer the sound of real instruments, particularly acoustic instruments, being played by different musicians, preferably at the same time. And like every rule, there are occasional exceptions: Leonard Cohen’s albums like I’m Your Man that were built around keyboards and drum machines or some of Laurie Anderson’s work, for example.

Rain’s Men is another exception. Although there are other musicians and singers making an occasional cameo on some of the songs, most of the songs are just Rain’s vocals on top of layered arrangements with producer and occasional songwriting collaborator Mark Hallman playing all the instruments – usually five or six different instruments per song.

But, there’s something about the quality of the songwriting and the warmth of Rain’s singing, that makes Men a rewarding collection.

Among the highlights are “Get in the Car,” a breezy rock ‘n’ roll tune for mature adults that includes a great Gram Parsons reference, “One of Those Days,” a mostly acoustic country-folk tune done as a duet with Matt the Electrician, and “Runaway Train,” a terrific rockabilly tune about a man who can’t be tied down that features several guest musicians, including Andrew Hardin, one of my favorite guitar players.

But the most extraordinary piece is “Atlas,” a combination of spoken beat poetry and quietly hypnotic electronic music somewhat reminiscent of Laurie Anderson’s best work, in which Rain fantasizes about what happens to Atlas, and to the world, when the Titan of Greek mythology gives up on holding the world on his shoulders in modern times.

As well as eight of her own songs, Rain also includes a couple of covers including a terrific version of “Then Came Lo Mein,” Robert Earl Keen’s story of a nervous breakdown in a Chinese restaurant.

Listening, I soon forgot my prejudices about the way this album was produced, and managed to lose myself in Rain Perry’s fine singing, her equally fine songs, and even in Mark Hallman’s arrangements.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Sing Out! Magazine – November/December ‘10/January ‘11

My copy of the latest issue of Sing Out! Magazine – November/December ‘10/January ’11 – arrived this week. The cover story is about South African singer-songwriter Johnny Clegg.

As usual, this issue of Sing Out! has a bunch of my CD reviews including:

Trevor Alguire- Now Before Us
Asleep at the Wheel & Leon Rausch- It’s a Good Day!
Jay Aymar- Halfway Home
Allison Brown- Viper at the Virgin’s Feet
Andy Cohen- Built Right Here on the Ground
Les Copeland- Don’t Let the Devil In
Ramblin’ Jack Elliott- At Lansdowne Studios, London
Finest Kind- For Honour and for Gain
Frazey Ford- Obadiah
Michael Hurwitz- Chrome on the Range
Chris Kokesh- October Valentine
Jimmy LaFave- Favorites 1992-2001
Terence Martin- The Last Black and White TV
Rain Perry- Internal Combustion
Oliver Schroer & the Stewed Tomatoes- Freedom Row
Bow Thayer- Shooting Arrows at the Moon
Craig Werth- The Spokes Man.

I’m now at work on a bunch of CD and book reviews for the next issue of Sing Out! and will resume posting more reviews here in early-February when those are done.

--Mike Regenstreif