Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday June 28, 2022: The Folkways Legacy of Sam Gesser

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/595/56730.html

Theme: The Folkways Legacy of Sam Gesser.

In 1951, Samuel Gesser of Montreal – who died in 2008 at age 78 – became the Canadian distributor for Folkways Records. Early on, Sam pointed out to Moses Asch, the owner of Folkways, that there wasn’t any Canadian music in its catalog. “What are you going to do about that?” Asch asked him. Sam responded by finding Canadian folk music and folk music performers to record.

Between 1952 and 1964, Folkways released more than 100 LPs of Canadian folk music (and at least a couple of albums of Canadian poetry) produced or commissioned by Sam – all of which remain available through Smithsonian Folkways. The songs, tunes and poem on this show are drawn from just a few of those LPs.

I met Sam in the 1970s. By then, he was Montreal’s preeminent concert producer. Sam became a good friend and mentor and we’d get together over lunch a couple of times per year for decades. We also worked together on several projects over the years. I learned much from my many conversations with Sam. A tribute to Sam on the Smithsonian Folkways website is available at this link. 

Alan Mills- The Squid-Jiggin’ Ground
Folk Songs of Newfoundland (Folkways)

Alan Mills- The Boys of the Island
Songs of the Maritimes: Lumberman Songs and Songs of the Sea (Folkways)
Wade Hemsworth- Peter Rambley (Peter Amberley)
Folk Songs of the Canadian North Woods (Folkways)
Ken Peacock- Lots of Fish in Bonavist’ Harbour
Songs and Ballads of Newfoundland (Folkways)
Mrs. Edward Gallagher- I’m Going to Get Married
Folk Music from Nova Scotia (Folkways)
William Paul, Martin Sack & John Knockwood- Micmac Indian War Song
Folk Music from Nova Scotia (Folkways)

Jean Carignan with Pete Seeger- Reel du Pendu/The Hangman’s Reel
Old Time Fiddle Tunes Played by Jean Carignan (Folkways)
Karen James- Le Papier D’Éping
Through Streets Broad and Narrow (Folkways)
Jacques Labrecque- Monsieur Le Curé
Folk Songs of France and French Canada (Folkways)
Hélène Baillargeon & Alan Mills- J’ai Tant Dansé
Songs of French Canada (Folkways)
Madame Beavan- Pis Ôte-Toé Donc
Songs of French Canada (Folkways)
Leonard Cohen- Les Vieux
Six Montreal Poets (Folkways)

Jean Carignan- Reel du Bon Vieux Temps
Songs and Dances of Quebec (Folkways)

O.J. Abbott- Hogan’s Lake
Lumbering Songs from the Ontario Shanties (Folkways)
Joe Kelly- Johnny Doyle
Lumbering Songs from the Ontario Shanties (Folkways)
Geraldine Sullivan- Maggie Howie
Folk Songs of Ontario (Folkways)
Lamont Tilden- The Murder of F.C. Benwell
Folk Songs of Ontario (Folkways)

William Peaychew- Cree Greeting Song (Shaking Hands Song)
Indian Music of the Canadian Plains (Folkways)
The Loewen Orchestra- The Northern Trappers Rendezvous
Songs and Ballads of Northern Saskatchewan and Northern Manitoba (Folkways)
Herbert Sills- O Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie
Folksongs of Saskatchewan (Folkways)
Anne Halderman- A Poor Lone Girl in Saskatchewan
Folksongs of Saskatchewan (Folkways)

Stanley G. Triggs- The Oda G.
Bunkhouse and Forecastle Songs of the Northwest (Folkways)
Barry Hall- Pretty Peggy O
The Virtuoso 5-String Banjo played by Barry Hall (Folkways)
Alan Mills- The Klondike Gold Rush
Canada’s Story in Song (Folkways)
Angutnak & Matee- Girl’s Game
The Eskimos of Hudson Bay (Folkways)

Paul Konoplenko-Zaporozetz- Our Ukraine
The Kozba (Folkways)
Raasche- Gey Ich Mir Shpatzirin
Jewish Folk Songs of Europe (Folkways)

Karen James- Mary-Anne
Through Streets Broad and Narrow (Folkways)
Alan Mills- Brave Wolfe
Canada’s Story in Song (Folkways)
Karen James- The Ghost Lover
Karen James (Folkways)
Wade Hemsworth- V’la l’Bon Vent
Folk Songs of the Canadian North Woods (Folkways)
Alan Mills- Un Canadien Errant
Canada’s Story in Song (Folkways)
Karen James- Captain Wedderburn’s Courtship
Karen James (Folkways)

Next week: Just Who Was It Who Wrote That Song?

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Pete Seeger 1919-2014

I was deeply saddened this morning to awake to the news that Pete Seeger, always one of the most inspiring people I’ve ever known, passed away of natural causes at age 94. He His wife, Toshi, died last year after nearly 70 years of marriage.

New York Times obituary.

In a post marking Pete’s 90th birthday, I recalled listening to Pete’s music since I was a young kid and that I was 20 years old in 1974 when I first met and worked with him when I was an area co-ordinator/stage manager at the Mariposa Folk Festival and Pete’s concert was on my stage.

I am grateful for having had the opportunity to have known Pete for most of my life and to have enjoyed some small measure of friendship.

I’ve interviewed Pete a number of times, both for radio and newspapers. When Pete did a surprise

Canadian tour of small venues in 2008, I interviewed him for the July 3, 2008 issue of the Montreal Gazette (the article also appeared in several other newspapers).

The first thing Pete said to me when I called him for the interview was, “What can I possibly tell you that you don’t already know?”

There was – there is – always a lot to learn from Pete Seeger.

Here is that article.

Pete Seeger returns to Montreal

Mike Regenstreif
Special To The Gazette

The last time I interviewed Pete Seeger was in 1999 just as he was about to turn 80. He was planning to stay close to his Hudson River Valley home and just play a few songs occasionally for school kids or at benefit concerts. It was unlikely, he said then, that he’d travel far enough from home to perform in Montreal again.

Almost a decade later, though, the still-vigorous Seeger is on his way back to Montreal. His July 5 concert here kicks off a quickly-arranged, and quickly sold-out, tour of small venues that also takes him to Toronto, for two nights, Kingston and Ottawa in the company of acoustic blues revivalist Guy Davis and his grandson, Tao Rodriguez-Seeger of the folk-rocking Mammals. The three will share the stage, swapping songs and backing each other.

Reached at his home overlooking the Hudson River in upstate New York, Seeger told me he has fond memories of performing in Montreal.

“Sam Gesser hired me when nobody else would,” Seeger said, referring to the late Montreal impresario who broke into the concert business with a Seeger concert in 1952 when most of the folksinger’s performing opportunities were lost to the McCarthy-era blacklist. Gesser, who died April 1, brought Seeger to Montreal often over the next four decades.

Seeger is one of the most revered musicians of all time and has been a major influence on the likes of Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen – who’s done two albums of songs he learned from Seeger LPs – and almost everyone else who’s picked up a banjo or acoustic guitar in the past 60 years.

Seeger’s lengthy résumé includes forming two legendary folk groups: the Almanac Singers, with Woody Guthrie, before both shipped out to serve in the Second World War; and the Weavers, the group that brought folk music to the pop charts with "Goodnight Irene" and "Tzena Tzena Tzena" in 1949 before being blacklisted. Seeger has written or co-written scores of enduring songs, including "Where Have All the Flowers Gone" and "If I Had a Hammer," has made hundreds of recordings, and has been at the forefront of the civil rights, peace and environmental movements.

“I really don’t take concert tours anymore,” Seeger said when asked about what made him decide to do this four-city Canadian jaunt. “But my grandson, Tao, is a great performer, and Guy Davis is a great performer, so I decided to do a few things with them. The five concerts I’m doing in Canada are more than I’m doing almost anywhere else.”

Talking to Seeger now, he seems motivated by many of the same concerns that spurred his activism decades ago. “I think there’s a chance the human race will survive,” he said. “I’m not as pessimistic as I was after Hiroshima,” referring to the atomic blast that spurred a lifetime’s devotion to the peace movement. During the Iraq War, Seeger has been leading weekly peace vigils near his home.

One of Seeger’s greatest successes as an activist has been leading the movement to clean up the Hudson River. The river was horribly polluted when he founded the Clearwater organization in the 1970s. Now, he points out, people swim safely in many parts of the Hudson.

In separate interviews, Guy Davis and Tao Rodriguez-Seeger both spoke about being directly influenced by Seeger as children.

Davis’s parents, the actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee, were longtime friends of the Seeger family. In 1960, eight-year-old Guy developed a love for the banjo while attending Camp Killooleet, a kids’ camp in Vermont that was run by John Seeger, Pete’s brother. Ossie Davis bought his son a banjo and the youngster learned the instrument from Seeger’s classic book, How to Play the Five-String Banjo.

“Over the years, Pete sparked my interest in Big Bill Broonzy and Lead Belly, both of whom he had known, and my interest in the 12-string guitar began to grow. One thing led to another and I wound up going on the road with Pete as an opening act in the mid-70s,” said Davis. “This tour’s going to be a wonderful hoot.”

Rodriguez-Seeger grew up playing music with his grandfather and began performing concerts and recording with him as a teenager in the 1980s. “We played concerts together for about 13 years.” he recalled.

Wanting to articulate his own musical ideas, Rodriguez-Seeger formed a trio with Sarah Lee Guthrie, Arlo Guthrie’s daughter, and her husband, Johnny Irion, in 1999. Two years later, he hooked up with Ruth Ungar and Michael Merenda as the Mammals.

With the Mammals currently on hiatus, Rodriguez-Seeger recently performed a concert with his grandfather and Davis at the Franklin Delano Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum in Hyde Park, New York.

“We had a really good time,” said Rodriguez-Seeger. “We got home and Grandpa was bouncing off the wall with excitement. ‘Let’s do that again,’ he said.”

The Canadian tour was quickly arranged and generations of folk fans eagerly snapped up all available tickets.

This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history (April 20-26)

Folk Roots/Folk Branches with Mike Regenstreif was a Thursday tradition on CKUT in Montreal for nearly 14 years from February 3, 1994 until August 30, 2007. Folk Roots/Folk Branches continued as occasional features on CKUT and is now a blog. Here’s the 34th instalment of “This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches,” a weekly look back continuing through next August at some of the most notable guests, features and moments in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history.

April 21, 1994: Extended feature- The Montreal folk scene.
April 20, 1995: Extended feature- Environmental songs.
April 22, 1999: Guest- Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul & Mary.
April 20, 2000: Guest- James Talley.
April 25, 2002: Guests- Scott Cameron Smith, Ariel Rogers and David Rogers.
April 22, 2003: Guest- Maria Dunn.
April 21, 2005: Guest- John Prine.
April 20, 2006: Guest- Gerry Goodfriend.
April 26, 2007: Guest- Garnet Rogers.
April 24, 2008 (Folk Roots/Folk Branches feature): A tribute to the late Sam Gesser.
April 23, 2009 (Folk Roots/Folk Branches feature): Guest- Tom Paxton.

Pictured: Mike Regenstreif and Garnet Rogers on April 29, 2006.

--Mike Regenstreif

This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history (February 23-March 1)

Folk Roots/Folk Branches with Mike Regenstreif was a Thursday tradition on CKUT in Montreal for nearly 14 years from February 3, 1994 until August 30, 2007. Folk Roots/Folk Branches continued as occasional features on CKUT and is now a blog. Here’s the 26th instalment of “This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches,” a weekly look back continuing through next August at some of the most notable guests, features and moments in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history.

February 27, 1997: Guests- Sam Gesser; Steve Fruitman.
February 25, 1999: Guest- Corky Siegel.
March 1, 2001: Extended feature- Seal Maiden: A Celtic Musical by Karan Casey.
February 26, 2004: Black History Month feature- Blues in the Mississippi Night, recorded by Alan Lomax on March 2, 1947, with Memphis Slim, Big Bill Broonzy and Sonny Boy Williamson.
February 24, 2005: All live music show with guests- Full Frontal Folk; Andy Cohen & Ragtime Jack Radcliffe; Natalia Zukerman; Sid Selvidge; The Kennedys; Cathy Fink & Marcy Marxer; Tracy Grammer with Jim Henry; Anne Hills & Michael Smith.
February 23, 2006: Show theme- A pre-Mardi Gras Celebration of New Orleans.
March 1, 2007: Guests- Dave Clarke & Ellen Shizgal of Steel Rail.

--Mike Regenstreif

Hello Darlin’ Productions

If you look on the ‘About Me’ not on the side of this blog, I mention that I produced most of Montreal’s folk-oriented concerts in the 1970s and ‘80s. It was a torch that I picked up from people like the late Sam Gesser, the late Gary Eisenkraft, Chuck Baker and a few others who produced concerts and ran folk clubs before me.

In this decade, that torch has been carried by the husband-and-wife team of Matt Large and Rebecca Anderson who founded Hello Darlin’ Productions and the Wintergreen Concert Series about seven or eight years ago. From the time Matt and Rebecca started, I’ve seen them follow the same kind of inspiration and motivation that guided Sam, Gary, Chuck and me back in the day. For all of us, and for Matt and Rebecca now, it was always about the love of the music, about giving the artists that make that music, and the audiences that appreciate it, the respect they deserve.

Matt and Rebecca have done a remarkable job of presenting folk-oriented music in Montreal, probably the hardest – for a lot of reasons that I won’t get into here – big city in North America in which to produce this kind of music. They’ve brought some of the world’s finest folk-oriented artists to Montreal stages and supported our own home-grown artists. I’m really proud of them and the job they’ve done and continue to do.

Matt and Rebecca have announced an incredible line-up of concerts for the coming months. You can see their up-to-date concert listings on the Hello Darlin’ website. I urge you to get out and support as many of those concerts as you can. They’re all worth it and I’ll be blogging more extensively about some of those concerts in the weeks and months to come.

--Mike Regenstreif