Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – February 24, 2026: The Legacy of Lead Belly

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/595/74248.html

Theme: The Legacy of Lead Belly.

Lead Belly – whose real name was Huddie Ledbetter – was one of the most important and influential blues and folk singers of all time. Lead Belly was born in Louisiana in 1888 or 1889 and died in 1949 at age 60 or 61. Lead Belly was known as the King of the 12-String Guitar, and he recorded and performed prolifically in the 1930s and ‘40s, Many of his  songs – both songs he wrote – and many traditional songs he adapted, have been recorded and sung by countless artists. 

This show includes some of Lead Belly’s recordings, versions of songs from his repertoire by many other artists, and a couple of tribute songs to him.

Lead Belly- Good Morning Blues #2

Bourgeois Blues: Lead Belly Legacy, Vol. 2 (Smithsonian Folkways)

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee- Rock Island Line

Blues Masters, Vol. 5 (Storyville)

Guy Davis & Fabrizio Poggi- Take This Hammer

Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train (M.C.)

Taj Mahal & Ry Cooder- Pick a Bale of Cotton

Get On Board: The Songs of Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee (Nonesuch)

Harry Belafonte- Cotton Fields

Belafonte Sings the Blues (RCA)

Lead Belly- Governor Pat Neff (Sweet Mary)

Shout On: Lead Belly Legacy, Vol. 3 (Smithsonian Folkways)

Pete Seeger- Huddie Ledbetter was Helluva Man

Pete (Living Music)

Odetta- In the Pines

Lookin’ for a Home: Thanks to Leadbelly (M.C.)

Dave Van Ronk- Old Hannah

Somebody Else, Not Me (Philo)

Sweet Honey in the Rock- The Midnight Special 

A Tribute: Live! Jazz at Lincoln Centre (Appleseed)

Eric Bibb & JJ Milteau- Bring a Little Water, Sylvie

Lead Belly’s Gold (Stony Plain)

Lead Belly with The Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet- Alabama Bound

Take This Hammer – When the Sun Goes Down, Vol. 5 (Bluebird)

Howard Armstrong- John Henry

Louie Bluie (Blue Suit)

Ian & Sylvia- Ella Speed

Four Strong Winds (Vanguard)

Elijah Wald- Duncan and Brady

Street Corner Cowboys (Black Rose)

Andy Hedges featuring Dom Flemons- When I was a Cowboy

Roll On, Cowboys (Andy Hedges)

Lead Belly with Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee- Diggin’ My Potatoes

Bourgeois Blues: Lead Belly Legacy, Vol. 2 (Smithsonian Folkways)

Cathy Winter- House of the Rising Sun

Next Sweet Time (Flying Fish)

Nina Simone- Silver City Bound

Folksy Nina (Colpix)

Long John Baldry- We’re in the Same Boat Brother

Remembering Lead Belly (Stony Plain)

Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, Sonny Terry & Cisco Houston- We Shall Be Free

Woody at 100: The Woody Guthrie Centennial Collection (Smithsonian Folkways)

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee- Best of Friends

Brownie McGhee and Sonny Terry Sing (Smithsonian Folkways)

Lead Belly- Irene (Goodnight Irene)

Where Did You Sleep Last Night: Lead Belly Legacy, Vol. 1 (Smithsonian Folkways)

Next week: The Water Lily and Other Song/Poems of Henry Lawson.

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday January 31, 2023: Songs I’ve Heard Leon Redbone Sing

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 recorded and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/59153.html

Theme: Songs I’ve Heard Leon Redbone Sing.

Leon Redbone, who died in 2019 at age 69, was a mysterious figure who played meticulous arrangements of old blues, jazz and Tin Pan Alley songs. 

Leon Redbone- Sweet Mama Papa’s Gettin’ Mad

Live_The Olympia Theater, Paris, France (Rounder)

The Hot Sardines- Lulu’s Back in Town

Welcome Home, Bon Voyage (Eleven)

Jeff Healey- Some of These Days

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

Guy Van Duser & Billy Novick- My Blue Heaven

Exactly Like Us (Rounder)

Dawn Tyler Watson & Paul Deslauriers- Shine On Harvest Moon

En Duo (Justin Time)

Leon Redbone- Champagne Charlie

Champagne Charlie (Warner Bros.)

Ry Cooder- Big Bad Bill is Sweet William Now

Jazz (Warner Bros.)

Leon Redbone- Marie

On the Track (Warner Bros.)

The Whiteley Brothers- Crazy Blues

Bluesology (Pyramid)

Mose Scarlett- Somebody Stole My Gal

Precious Seconds (Borealis)

Hotcha!- My Walkin’ Stick

Dust Bowl Roots: Songs for the New Depression (Hotcha!)

Paul Geremia- Nobody’s Sweetheart Now

Gamblin’ Woman Blues (Red House)

Leon Redbone- Louisiana Fairy Tale

Any Time (Rounder)

Mary Coughlan- Seduced

Tired & Emotional (EastWest)

Martha Seyler & Robert Resnik- Your Cheatin’ Heart

Martha Sings & Robert Plays (Martha Seyler & Robert Resnik)

Sneezy Waters, Ken Whiteley, Jackie Washington & Mike Regenstreif (2008)

Sneezy Waters- Lovesick Blues

Sneezy Waters Sings Hank Williams (Borealis)

Jackie Washington with Mose Scarlett & Ken Whiteley- I Ain’t Got Nobody

Sitting on a Rainbow (Borealis)

Leon Redbone- Ghost of the St. Louis Blues

Sugar (Rounder)

Patti Casey with Paul Asbell- Ain’t Misbehavin’

Just an Old Sweet Song (Long Shot Music)

Dave Van Ronk- Your Feets Too Big

Sweet & Lowdown (Justin Time)

Andy Cohen- Step It Up and Go

Tryin’ to Get Home (Earwig)

Roberta Donnay & The Prohibition Mob Band- When I Take My Sugar to Tea

Bathtub Gin (Motema)

Leon Redbone- Alabama Jubilee

Champagne Charlie (Warner Bros.)

Missy Burgess & Michael Burgess- When You Wish Upon a Star

Pour Me a Song (Patio)

Duke Robillard & Kelley Hunt- Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone

Duke Robillard and his Dames of Rhythm (M.C.)

Leon Redbone- Polly Wolly Doodle

On the Track (Warner Bros.)

Next week: Songs Mississippi John Hurt Sang for the Library of Congress in 1963.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Lowell Levinger – Get Together: Banana Recalls Youngbloods Classics

LOWELL LEVINGER

Get Together: Banana Recalls Youngbloods Classics

Grandpa Raccoon

lowelllevinger.com

Back when I was in high school – 1967-1971 – the Youngbloods were one of my favorite rock bands. I had most of the original LPs back in the day and I still occasionally revisit some of the CD reissues. I loved the way they integrated folk roots and occasionally jazz influences and acoustic and electric instrumentation into their music and I also greatly appreciated how they seamlessly drew on their own original songs, songs drawn from other writers, and some from traditional folk, jug band and blues sources.

The Youngbloods broke up around 1972 or so and now 40+ years later, on Get Together: Banana Recalls Youngbloods Classics, band member Lowell Levinger – aka Banana – pays tribute to his old band with a dozen songs and tunes that have remained part of his repertoire over the past four decades. That so much of the material holds up so well is a tribute both to how strong the songs were to begin with, to how Banana has matured as an interpreter, and to the really nice arrangements featuring collaborations with the likes of fellow-Youngblood Jesse Colin Young, David Grisman, Ry Cooder, Darol Anger, Duke Robillard and others on various tracks.

Among my favorite tracks are “Grizzly Bear,” a great old country blues song first recorded in 1928 by Jim Jackson; Jesse Colin Young’s haunting “Darkness, Darkness”; the bluegrass version of Banana’s “Hippie from Olema,” a great parody of Merle Haggard’s “Okie from Muskogee”; Robin Remailly’s “Euphoria,” a song the Youngbloods, no doubt, picked up from the Holy Modal Rounders (this version features some wild singing and fiddling from Rounder Peter Stampfel); the traditional “Stagger Lee” with some additional verses by Banana; Jesse Colin Young’s bouncy “Sugar Babe”; and, of course, Dino Valenti’s anthemic “Get Together,” the song for which the Youngbloods are most remembered.

Get Together: Banana Recalls Youngbloods Classics is a lot of fun to listen to as we, too, recall those Youngbloods classics.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Woody Guthrie at 100! Live at the Kennedy Center

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Woody Guthrie at 100! Live at the Kennedy Center (CD/DVD)
Legacy 
woodyguthrie.org

I posted numerous reviews in 2012 of albums celebrating the centennial of the birth of Woody Guthrie (1912-1967), the folksinger and songwriter whose work over a brief period of about 20 years from the 1930s to the early-‘50s, has inspired and informed virtually every folk-based singer and songwriter – whether directly or indirectly – ever since. Woody Guthrie at 100! Live at the Kennedy Center is a CD/DVD combination that documents a very special evening celebrating the songs, spirit and centennial of Woody Guthrie that was held in Washington, DC on October 14, 2012.

It was a truly wonderful concert that mainly included performances of some of Woody’s best known classics as well as a few of the great new songs that have been created in recent years when contemporary composers have set Woody’s previously-unknown words – from among the thousands of newly discovered song lyrics, poems, letters, etc. – to music.

The set list drew on many facets of Woody’s songs. There were fun kids’ songs like “Howdido,” performed by the Old Crow Medicine Show, and “Riding in My Car,” performed by Donovan, to such dust bowl ballads as an achingly beautiful version of “I Ain’t Got No Home” sung by Rosanne Cash, “Do Re Mi,” performed by John Mellencamp, and “So Long, It’s Been Good to Know Yuh,” given a stellar bluegrass treatment by Del McCoury and Tim O’Brien.

Other great classics included Jimmy LaFave’s terrific version of “Hard Travelin’” with Tim O’Brien on mandolin and Radoslav Lorkovic on accordion; a version of the outlaw ballad “Pretty Boy Floyd” by Rosanne Cash and guitarist John Leventhal that seemed like a tribute to both Woody and Rosanne’s father, Johnny Cash, with its boom-chicka-boom arrangement; Sweet Honey in the Rock’s glorious a cappella vocals on “I’ve Got to Know” (which they prefaced with a verse from the traditional hymn “Farther Along,” whose tune Woody used for the song); Judy Collins' equally glorious rendition of “Pastures of Plenty; and Ramblin’ Jack Elliott’s distinctive version of “1913 Massacre” that masterfully tells the story of a horrible event a century ago.

Although long considered a classic Woody Guthrie song, “Deportees,” about the 1948 crash of an airplane returning migrant farm workers from California to Mexico, was actually a poem of Woody’s set to music by Martin Hoffman in the late-1950s. It may well have been the first of many of Woody’s songs that have been brought to life by contemporary composers. Ani DiFranco does a poignant version of “Deportees” that is enhanced by some exceptional guitar playing by Ry Cooder and Dan Gellert’s fiddle.

The other new Woody Guthrie songs – all of them excellent songs – were performed by their composers and include Joel Rafael’s “Ramblin’ Reckless Hobo”; Tom Morello’s anthemic “Ease My Revolutionary Mind”; Lucinda Williams’ erotically-charged “House of Earth,” which is recorded here for the first time; and Jackson Browne and Rob Wasserman’s beautiful “You Know the Night,” performed in a version that is highly abridged from the great 15-minute original on Note of Hope.

The DVD also includes actor Jeff Daniels (who is also an accomplished singer-songwriter) performing a couple of spoken word readings from Woody’s writing and a thank you from Nora Guthrie.. 

As a great as all the performances are (and they are all great), the most special moments are when the entire cast gathers for the concert finale, hootenanny sing-along versions of “This Train is Bound for Glory” and “This Land is Your Land” that have the performers trading verses and lines and everyone in the concert hall singing along.

Woody Guthrie at 100! Live at the Kennedy Center is an inspired and inspiring concert recording and a fitting cap to the centennial celebrations.

Sadly, though, the concert recording is dedicated to the memory of Jackie Hyde Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie’s wife and a friend to many of us on the folk scene, who passed away from liver cancer on the very day of the concert.

The DVD also includes some rare bonus footage of Woody singing fragments from three songs, including one with Sonny Terry and Brownie McGhee.

Pictured: Mike Regenstreif, Nora Guthrie, Kris Kristofferson and Jimmy LaFave talking about Woody Guthrie at the 2008 Ottawa Folk Festival.  

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif