Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – July 8, 2025: Peggy Seeger at 90

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/595/70985.html

Theme: Peggy Seeger at 90.

Peggy Seeger – who I’ve known for many years – turned 90 on June 17. Peggy was born in 1935 to a musical and activist family. Her father, Charles Seeger, was a musicologist, composer and folklorist. Her mother, Ruth Crawford Seeger, was a composer and musicologist. Her older half-brother was Pete Seeger, and her other siblings were Mike Seeger, Barbara Seeger and Penny Seeger. Peggy’s life partner from the 1950s until his death in 1989 was the preeminent British folksinger and songwriter Ewan MacColl.

The show includes some of Peggy’s original songs, as well as traditional folksongs and songs written by other songwriters that were part of her repertoire from some of Peggy’s many recordings and collaborations, and by other artists.

Peggy Seeger- Sing About These Hard Times

Teleology (Red Grape)

Peggy Seeger with Barbara Seeger & Penny Seeger - Five Nights Drunk

Folk Songs with The Seegers (Prestige)

Sheesham & Lotus & ‘Son- I Truly Understand

Clear the Table (Sepiaphone)

Kate & Edith- Pretty Saro

Live at Kelso Hall (Kate & Edith)

Ian & Sylvia- Lady of Carlisle

Four Strong Winds (Vanguard)

Peggy Seeger- When I was Single

The Folkways Years 1955-1992: Songs of Love and Politics (Smithsonian Folkways)

Linda Ronstadt with Dolly Parton- I Never Will Marry

Simple Dreams: 40th Anniversary Edition (Elektra/Rhino)

Mike Seeger & Peggy Seeger- Little Birdie

Fly Down Little Bird (Appleseed)

Bonnie Dobson- The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face

Philadelphia Folk Festival – 40th Anniversary (Sliced Bread)

Ewan MacColl & Peggy Seeger- Dirty Old Town

Black and White: The Ewan MacColl Definitive Collection (Cooking Vinyl)

Peggy Seeger- On This Very Day

An Odd Collection (Rounder)

Kate & Anna McGarrigle & Roma Baran- Willie Moore

Tell My Sister (Nonesuch)

Peggy Seeger- Tell My Sister

Sing Me the Songs: Celebrating the Works of Kate McGarrigle (Nonesuch)

Rufus Wainwright & John Legend- Heading for Home

Folkocracy (BMG)

Sue Foley- Freight Train

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

Rosalie Sorrels with Peggy Seeger- Schofield Mine Disaster

Strangers in Another Country: The Songs of Bruce “Utah” Phillips (Red House)

Fourtold- Ballad of Springhill

Fourtold (Appleseed)

Peggy Seeger- It’s a Free World

An Odd Collection (Rounder)

Robin Greenstein- I’m Gonna Be an Engineer

Images of Women, Vol. 2 (Windy)

Peggy Seeger with Irene Pyper-Scott- Fatal Flower Garden

Live (Appleseed)

Peggy Seeger- Bring Me Home

Bring Me Home (Appleseed)

Next week: Blues in the Night.

--Mike Regenstreif

Lisa Gutkin – From Here On In; Robin Greenstein – Tears and Laughter

LISA GUTKIN

From Here On In

lisagutkin.com

The Klezmatics have long been one of my favorite bands and on From Here On In, Lisa Gutkin, the band’s superb violinist – who has also worked in many other contexts over the years – steps out with a too-short EP of six of her own songs (two of which are new versions of songs recorded on Wonder Wheel, the Klezmatics’ Grammy-winning CD of Woody Guthrie lyrics that Klezmatics members set to music).

So far as I know, Lisa – who lives in New York City – did not plan this CD as any kind of a commentary on the events of September 11, 2001, but I’m writing this review on the 15th anniversary of 9/11, and I first listened to it in the days up to it, so I’m hearing some of the songs with that filter.

There is nothing overt in the lead-off song, “Manhattan was a Tangle,” co-written with Maggie Dubris, to reference 9/11 – but so much the imagery reminds me of that day: the song’s narrator is a mourning dove; the description of “milkweed blowing like snow” makes me think of the ashes that filled the sky; the little girl saying “Daddy, watch me fly,” makes me think of people falling or jumping out of the burning buildings before they fell; and the refrain, “A voice said cry, cry, where shall I cry?/Cry down by the waters wild,” just makes me think of the shock and sadness we all felt on September 11, 2001.

Another song, “For All of You,” which starts out seeming like a love song and then turns into a tribute to friendship, seems like it could be about recovery from those events and the resilience of the human spirit.

Even Lisa’s musical setting of Woody Guthrie’s lyrics to “Gonna Get Through This World,” made me think of 9/11. Woody wrote the words in 1945 in the aftermath of World War II but they seem just as relevant in the aftermath of September 11.

And the other Woody Guthrie setting, “From Here On In,” also reminds me of human resilience and the need to move forward.

It’s great to hear Lisa’s fine singing on these songs and, of course, her always superb work on violin, viola, and, here, on tenor guitar. She receives excellent support throughout the CD from musicians including producer John Lissauer on piano, Byron Isaacs on bass and backing vocals, Buddy Cage on peal steel, Will Holshouser on accordion, and Fiona McBain and Vaneese Thomas on backing vocals.

Hopefully, this 22-minute EP is a harbinger of more to come from Lisa.

ROBIN GREENSTEIN

Tears and Laughter

Windy Records

robingreenstein.com

One of the songs on Tears and Laughter, the new album by New York City-based singer-songwriter Robin Greenstein does directly address 9/11. “Hole in the Ground” is a poignant reminder of the devastation of that day, of the lives lost, and of the world’s lost innocence.

The other standout song on this CD is “Here I Am (Hineni),” a moving retelling of the biblical legend of Abraham’s near-sacrifice of his son, Isaac, which unfolds like a rabbinic midrash and ends with a question on how one might respond to a demand from God for blind devotion. A relevant question in a time when religious fundamentalism seems to be on the rise in reaction to modernity (or post-modernity).

Other highlights here include the title track, a song of hope for resiliency in the face of everyday adversity; “A Tale of Two Cities,” a commentary on the different experiences of those in different parts of New York City at the time of Hurricane Sandy; and “Happy New Year,” a bittersweet song that expresses both hope for the future and sadness at great loss.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Sing Out! Magazine – Summer 2010

Sing Out! Magazine – actually the Summer issue – has finally made its way north into Canada. The cover story is about Nanci Griffith, a regularl performer at the Golem, the folk club I ran in Montreal in the 1970s and '80s. My review of The Loving Kind, Nanci’s latest album can be read by clicking here.

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

The Chieftains- San Patricio
Tim Eriksen- Soul of the January Hills
Steve Gillette- The Man
Marianne Girard- Pirate Days
Robin Greenstein- Images of Women Vol. 2
Jim Guttmann- Bessarabian Breakdown
Steve Howell- Since I Saw You Last
The Huppah Project- Under the Canopy
Bonnie Koloc- Beginnings
Pokey LaFarge- Riverboat Soul
Tom Lehrer- The Tom Lehrer Collection (CD/DVD combo)
Natalie Merchant- Leave Your Sleep
Red Hot Chachkas- Beats Without Borders
Carrie Rodriguez- Love and Circumstance
Chip Taylor- Yonkers, NY
Shari Ulrich- Find Our Way
Various- Rounder Records 40th Anniversary Concert
Tom Waits- Glitter and Doom Live

I’ll have another 20 or so reviews in the Fall issue of Sing Out!

--Mike Regenstreif

Robin Greenstein -- Images of Women Vol. 2

ROBIN GREENSTEIN
Images of Women Vol. 2
Windy
robingreenstein.com

Back in 2003, Robin Greenstein, who is best known as a contemporary singer-songwriter, released an impressive album of traditional folksongs whose protagonists or narrators were all women. I assumed from the album title – Images of Women Vol. 1 – that it would not be Robin’s only Images of Women album which, I recall, she verified to me in an e-mail. I then mentioned in my Sing Out! Magazine review of Vol. 1 that I was eagerly awaiting the second volume.

Finally, seven years later, Images of Women Vol. 2 has been released and it’s another collection of mostly-traditional songs centred on women. But while the songs are mostly from the traditional canon, Robin arranges them in a contemporary vein with a respect for the tradition. Rather than trying to sound authentic to the time and place of the songs’ origins, Robin makes them her own. She plays guitar, banjo and synths and gets able support from the likes of bassist Barry Wiesenfeld on bass, fiddler Dan Collins, Adam Carper on harmonica, Lisa McDivitt on recorder and harp, and percussionist Cheryl Prashker (who is one of the rare drummers who really understands how to play with folk-rooted acoustic musicians).

Some of my favourite tracks on Vol. 2 are “The Whore’s Lament,” a gritty variant of “The Unfortunate Rake” family of songs that I used to hear Hedy West sing, and that’s very close to a variant called “The Bad Girl’s Lament,” that Rosalie Sorrels sings; “Born in the Country,” Judy Roderick’s adaptation of Rabbit Brown’s “James Alley Blues; “Frankie and Johnny,” a traditional blues-ballad about a scorned woman who kills her philandering lover; and the classic warning song, “Come All You Fair and Tender Ladies,” which features some nice harmonies from Janice Hubbard.

Along with the traditional material, Robin includes several composed songs including Woody Guthrie’s “Union Maid,” which includes an added verse I didn’t recognize about Sarah Ogan Gunning, the singer of traditional ballads and labour songs (who I met and worked with as a folk festival volunteer in the mid-1970s); “I’m Gonna Be an Engineer,” Peggy Seeger’s feminist anthem; and “Good Thing He Can’t Read My Mind,” Christine Lavin’s hilarious song sung by a woman who lets us know what she really thinks about some of the stuff she’s doing or eating for the sake of love.

Something that I really like about albums like this is that they’re a reminder that folk music has a rich history and that today’s contemporary artists are, as the Weavers sang, “travelling in the footsteps of those who came before,” and that it’s always a good time to go back and listen to the sources.

--Mike Regenstreif