Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – March 19, 2024: Music

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/595/64335.html

Theme: Music.

The songs on this show all have something or other to do with music.

Stan Rogers- Music in Your Eyes

Songs of a Lifetime: From Coffee House to Concert Hall (Fogarty’s Cove/Borealis)

James Keelaghan- Kiri’s Piano

History: The First 25 Years (Borealis)

Mike Regenstreif & Bruce Cockburn (2017)

Bruce Cockburn- Musical Friends

Greatest Hits (1970-2020) (True North)

Diana Krall- Let’s Face the Music and Dance

When I Look in Your Eyes (Verve)

Tom Russell- Tower of Song

Selections from Love & Fear plus bonus out-takes (HighTone)

Jimmy Driftwood- The Ozark Symphony

I Hear Your People Singing Blanchard Cave (Rackensack)

Sarah Lee Guthrie & Johnny Irion- Folksong

Folksong (RTE 8)

Brownie McGhee- The Blues Had a Baby (and they called it Rock and Roll)

Rainy Day (Tomato)

Louis Armstrong & Trummy Young- Now You Has Jazz

Armstrong Comes Alive (Jazz2Jazz)

Arthur Conley- Sweet Soul Music

Atlantic Rhythm and Blues 1947-1974: Volume 6 1966-1969 (Atlantic)

Finest Kind- John Barleycorn Deconstructed

For Honour & For Gain (Fallen Angle)

John Hartford- My Rag

Morning Bugle (Rounder)

Christy Moore- The Tuam Beat

Magic Nights (Sony)

Doc Watson- Mama Don’t Allow No Music

Memories (Sugar Hill)

David Mallett- Ballad of the St. Anne’s Reel

Inches & Miles 1977-1980 (Flying Fish)

Lynn Miles- Three Chords and the Truth

Fall for Beauty (True North)

Maria Muldaur-Southern Music

Jazzabelle (Stony Plain)

Mike Regenstreif & Jesse Winchester (2009)

Jesse Winchester- I Turn to My Guitar

Love Filling Station (Appleseed)

Sister Rosetta Tharpe- Up Above My Head I Hear Music in the Air

This Train in Concert (Sunset Blvd.)

Dakota Dave Hull & Sean Blackburn- River of Swing

River of Swing (Arabica)

Sisters of Sheynville- Yidl Mitn Fidl

Sheynville Express (Sisters of Sheynville)

Guy & Candie Carawan- When the Fiddler has Played His Last Tune for the Night

Folk Friends (Wundertüte Musik)

Next week: Home.

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday March 28, 2023: Cowboys & Cowgirls

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/595/59884.html

Theme: Cowboys & Cowgirls.

Ian Tyson- Night Rider’s Lament

Old Corrals and Sagebrush & Other Cowboy Culture Classics (Stony Plain)

Andy Hedges featuring Corb Lund- Little Joe the Wrangler

Roll On, Cowboys (Andy Hedges)

Finest Kind- The Goodnight-Loving Trail

Lost in a Song (Fallen Angle)

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott- Diamond Joe

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott Sings Woody Guthrie and Jimmie Rodgers & Cowboy Songs (Monitor)

The Sons of the Pioneers- Roving Cowboy

Tumbling Tumbleweeds: The Chart Years 1934-49 (Acrobat)

Peter Keane- Cool Water

Blues/Ballads/Cowboy Songs (Peter Keane)

Herb Jeffries with Take 6- Tumbling Tumbleweeds

The Bronze Buckaroo (Rides Again) (Warner Western)

Dakota Dave Hull & Sean Blackburn- Blue Shadows on the Trail

River of Swing (Arabica)

Emmylou Harris & The Nash Ramblers- Even Cowgirls Get the Blues

Ramble in Music City: The Lost Concert 1990 (Nonesuch)

Stan Rogers- Night Guard

Northwest Passage (Fogarty’s Cove/Borealis)

Quartette- Cowboys and Rodeos

Quartette (Denon)

Tom Russell & Mike Regenstreif (2018)

Tom Russell- All This Way for the Short Ride

Indians Cowboys Horses Dogs (HighTone)

Katy Moffatt- Hallie Lonigan

Cowboy Girl (Western Jubilee)

Dom Flemons- He’s a Lone Ranger

Dom Flemons Presents Black Cowboys (Smithsonian Folkways)

Over the Moon- John Ware

Chinook Waltz (Borealis)

Odetta- When I was a Cowboy

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

Lynn Miles- Palomino

tumbleWeedyWorld (True North)

Me & My Uncle- Me and My Uncle

Me & My Uncle (Laughing Cactus Music)

Marty Robbins- El Paso

Gunfighter Ballads and Trail Songs (Columbia)

Mike Regenstreif & Arlo Guthrie (1996)

Arlo Guthrie- I Ride an Old Paint

Son of the Wind (Rising Son)

Tom Rush- Windy Bill

Tom Rush/Take a Little Walk with Me (BGO)

Eliza Gilkyson- Colorado Trail

Songs from the River Wind (Howlin’ Dog)

Asleep at the Wheel- I’m an Old Cowhand (From the Rio Grande)

Reinventing the Wheel (Bismeaux)

Mickey Katz & His Orchestra- Haim Afen Range (Home on the Range)

Strictly Kosher: The Singles Collection 1950-1962 (Jasmine)

Bill Frissell & Petra Haden- Happy Trails

When You Wish Upon a Star (Okeh/Masterworks)

Next week: Songs of the Passover and Easter Legends.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday September 20, 2022: At the Intersection of Folk Street and Jazz Avenue

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 and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/57659.html

Theme: At the Intersection of Folk Street and Jazz Avenue.

Paul Geremia & Mike Regenstreif (2012)

Paul Geremia- Dr. Jazz

Love My Stuff (Red House)

Louis Armstrong & Velma Middleton- Loveless Love

Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (Columbia/Legacy)

Preservation Hall Jazz Band & Ani DiFranco- Freight Train

Preservation (Preservation Hall)

Rahsaan Roland Kirk- Make Me a Pallet on the Floor

Boogie Woogie String Along for Real (Warner Bros.)

Oscar Brown, Jr..- Go Down Moses

The Voice of Cool (Not Now Music)

Nat Adderley- Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

Much Brass (Riverside)

Mike Regenstreif & Erik Frandsen (1976) photo: Felicity Fanjoy

Erik Frandsen- Bopsville

Antiques: New & Used (Erik Frandsen)

Dave Van Ronk- The Fresno Shuffle

Hummin’ to Myself (Gazell)

Leon Redbone- Sweet Substitute

Any Time (Rounder)

Dakota Dave Hull & Sean Blackburn- River of Swing

River of Swing (Arabica)

Last Forever- Buddy’s Blues

No Place Like Home/Last Forever (2nd Story Sound)

Loudon Wainwright III with Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks- Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea

I’d Rather Lead a Band (Search Party) 

Geoff Muldaur's Futuristic Ensemble & Martha Wainwright- Singin’ the Blues

Private Astronomy: A Vision of the Music of Bix Beiderbecke (Edge Music)

Jim Kweskin & The Neo-Passé Jazz Band- Staggerlee

Jump for Joy (Vanguard)

Maria Muldaur with Tuba Skinny- I Like You Best of All

Let’s Get Happy Together (Stony Plain)

David Grisman- Naima

Quintet ’80 (Warner Bros.)

Annabelle Chvostek- Belleville rendez-vous

String of Pearls (Annabelle Chvostek)

Sussex- Drive

The Ocean Wide (Lucky Bear)

Michael Jerome Browne- He Ain’t Got Rhythm

Drive On (Borealis)

Mike Regenstreif & David Amram (2004) photo: Ron Petronko

David Amram with Ramblin' Jack Elliott & Odetta- Home on the Range

At Home/Around the World (Flying Fish)

Reggie Harris- Harlem Renaissance

Ready to Go (Reggie Harris Music)

Jackie Washington- Gotta Go

The World of Jackie Washington (Borealis)

Charlie Haden & Hank Jones- Wade in the Water

Steal Away: Spirituals, Hymns and Folk Songs (Verve)

Next week: Songs of The Mountain City Four and Kate & Anna McGarrigle.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday June 7, 2022: Disney Songs

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 at 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/595/56478.html

Theme: Disney Songs

This theme was inspired by Ron DeSantis, the governor of Florida, and other Florida Republicans who picked a fight with Disney because Disney ultimately stood up for the LGBTQ+ community in the wake of Florida’s so-called Don’t Say Gay law.

Ken Nordine, Bill Frisell, Wayne Horvitz, Natalie Merchant, Michael Stipe, Mark Bingham, The Roches/Los Lobos- Opening Medley: Hi Diddle Dee Dee (An Actor’s Life for Me)/Little April Shower/I Wanna Be Like You
Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films (A&M)

Louis Armstrong- Whistle While You Work
Disney Songs the Satchmo Way (Buena Vista)
Mary Martin with Tutti Camarata & His Orchestra- Heigh-Ho
Disney’s Jazz Album: Big Band & Swing (Disneyland)
Imany- Someday My Prince Will Come
Jazz Loves Disney (Verve)

Dakota Dave Hull & Sean Blackburn- Blue Shadows on the Trail
River of Swing (Arabica)
Louis Armstrong- Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo
Disney Songs the Satchmo Way (Buena Vista)
Scatman Crothers, Phill Harris, Thurl Ravenscroft & Liz English- Ev’rybody Wants to Be a Cat
Disney’s Jazz Album: Big Band & Swing (Disneyland)

The Amazing Keystone Big Band- Steamboat Willie
Jazz Loves Disney (Verve)

Louis Prima- Chim Chim Cher-ee
Let’s Fly with Mary Poppins (Walt Disney)
Julie Andrews- A Spoonful of Sugar
Disney’s Jazz Album: Big Band & Swing (Disneyland)
Gia Malone- Sister Suffragette
Let’s Fly with Mary Poppins (Walt Disney)
Duke Ellington- Let’s Go Fly a Kite
Mary Poppins (Reprise)
Louis Prima & Gia Malone- Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious
Let’s Fly with Mary Poppins (Walt Disney)

Mary Martin with Tutti Camarata & His Orchestra- I’m Late
Disney’s Jazz Album: Big Band & Swing (Disneyland)
Bill Lee- Cruella De Vil
Disney’s Jazz Album: Big Band & Swing (Disneyland)
Melody Gardot- He’s a Tramp
Jazz Loves Disney (Verve)
Missy Burgess & Michael Burgess- When You Wish Upon a Star
Pour Me a Song (Patio)

Phil Harris- Thomas O’Malley Cat
Disney’s Jazz Album: Big Band & Swing (Disneyland)
Eliza Gilkyson- Bare Necessities
Your Town Tonight (Red House)

Bonnie Raitt & Was (Not Was)- Baby Mine
Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films (A&M)
Guy Van Duser with Leon Collins- When I See an Elephant Fly
Stride Guitar (Rounder)

Madeleine Peyroux- The Golden Touch
Jazz Loves Disney (Verve)
Maria Muldaur with Dan Hicks- Zip-A-Dee-Doo-Dah
Swingin’ in the Rain (Music for Little People)
Aaron Neville- Mickey Mouse March
Stay Awake: Various Interpretations of Music from Vintage Disney Films (A&M)

The Dave Brubeck Quartet- Give a Little Whistle
Dave Digs Disney (Columbia)

Next week: Songs of Wade Hemsworth and Songs of Bill Morrissey

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Dakota Dave Hull & Sean Blackburn – Ace Pickin’ and Sweet Harmony; North by Southwest; River of Swing

DAKOTA DAVE HULL & SEAN BLACKBURN

Ace Pickin’ and Sweet Harmony

North by Southwest

River of Swing

Arabica Records

dakotadavehull.com

Between 1977 and 1982, I operated a small independent agency booking concert tours for a select clientele of highly regarded artists. One day, circa 1979 or ’80, my friend Bruce Kaplan (who, sadly, died in 1992), the head honcho at Flying Fish Records in Chicago, called and asked me to work with the Minneapolis-based duo of Dakota Dave Hull & Sean Blackburn. Flying Fish had just released (or was soon to release) River of Swing, Dave and Sean’s third LP.

Bruce sent me the LP, I loved it, and I ended up doing some booking for Dave and Sean. Dave – a very good singer and great guitar player – and Sean (who also, sadly, died in 2005) – a very good guitar player and great singer – complemented each other almost perfectly in their adoption and adaptation of western swing, country, and folk classics and originals. As a duo on stage – and with expanded accompaniment in the studio – they made wonderful music together over a 10-year period, and recorded three great albums.

Long out of print, Dakota Dave Hull has just reissued the three LPs on CD for the first time and it’s been such a treat to hear and enjoy these albums again.

The title of the first LP, Ace Pickin’ and Sweet Harmony, recorded in 1977, actually sums up what Dave and Sean’s music was all about. Recorded with a half-dozen of Minneapolis’ finest musicians and – including such enduring notables as Peter Ostroushko on fiddle and mandolin and Butch Thompson on clarinet – the album includes some great western swing classics like “Hillbilly Swing” and “Old Fashioned Love” but I’m particularly fond of the original material.

Dave enjoyed a long songwriting collaboration with Jerry Clark and their three fine co-writes on the album are highly influenced by Woody Guthrie. These include “Drought Year,” a lament for the Midwestern drought of 1976, “The Old Campaigns,” a remembrance of political struggles from the 1930s, and, best of all, “Give the Fiddler a Dram,” sung from the perspective of a fiddler who’s seen too much and has drunk too much and who knows that times will be tough through the long winter approaching. “Give the Fiddler a Dram” is done in a medley with “Midnight on the Water,” one of my favorite fiddle tunes that features some great guitar playing from both Dave and Sean and, of course, fiddling by Peter.

Sean’s songs include the swinging “Jingle in My Jeans” and “When You Go,” a break-up song that seems wiser than most.

The second LP, North by Southwest, recorded in 1978, featured a smaller group of all-acoustic back-up musicians: Tim O’Brien on bass, Peter Ostroushko on mandolin and fiddle and Butch Thompson on clarinet and piano. While the first album had a jam session feel on many of the songs, this one seems tighter and more rehearsed. Some of my favorites of the classic material include “Dixie Cannonball,” on which Dave and Sean trade lead vocals on the verses and harmonize on the chorus, “Take Me to the Land of Jazz,” which is a lot of fun, and “Miss the Mississippi and You,” which convinced me that Sean – had he wanted to – could have been one of the greatest singers in country music.

The original material included a couple more fine songs from Dave and Jerry Clark and a tongue-in-cheek tribute to the art of growing a moustache by Sean.

Dave and Sean’s third and final LP, River of Swing, recorded in 1979, combined the bigger band fun of the first album with the tightness of the second. An expanded group of virtuoso musicians carries up-tempo swing tunes like “Deep Water” and “Mississippi Shore” to new heights while numbers like “I Don’t Want to Set the World on Fire” showcase Sean’s voice to great effect.

The original numbers include Dave and Jerry Clark’s “Money,” while Eric Peltoniemi has two fine collaborations. “The Wicked Wind of Fargo,” co-written with Dave decades before the Coen Brothers movie, is a toe-tapper that doesn’t make me want to ever visit Dave’s hometown within months of winter, while “River of Swing,” co-written with Sean, is an infectious tribute to the joy of music that explodes into a Dixieland jam worthy of Preservation Hall.

There was a lot of magic in the musical chemistry of Dakota Dave Hull and Sean Blackburn. I’m so happy their three albums are back in print.

After the duo wound down, Dave gave up singing and devoted himself to the guitar. He is now widely recognized as one of the greatest instrumentalists and composers in acoustic folk-rooted and folk-branched music. Dave has a bunch of excellent CDs to his credit. Sean went on to form a superb duo with cowgirl singer Liz Masterson with whom he recorded several fine albums before suffering a heart attack and passing away tragically at the much-too-young age of 56 in 2005.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday August 19, 2017

Saturday Morning is an eclectic roots-oriented program on CKCU in Ottawa heard live on Saturday mornings from 7 until 10 am (Eastern time) and then available for on-demand streaming. 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 at 93.1 FM in Ottawa and http://www.ckcufm.com/ on the web.

This episode of Saturday Morning can be streamed on-demand at http://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/33685.html.

Extended theme – Songs of Tom Russell.

Bruce Cockburn- States I’m In

Bone on Bone (True North)

Kim & Reggie Harris- Eyes on the Prize

Rock of Ages (Appleseed)

Too Sad for the Public w/Ana Egge- Old Alabama

Oysters Ice Cream Lemonade: American Folk Fantasies Written and Arranged by Dick Connette (StorySound)

Odetta- Freedom Trilogy: Oh Freedom, Come & Go with Me, I’m On My Way

Gonna Let It Shine (M.C.)

Shawna Caspi- Never Enough

Forest Fire (Shawna Caspi)

Catherine MacLellan- Shilo Song

If It’s Alright With You: The Songs of Gene MacLellan (True North)

Chris Ronald- Fragments

Fragments (Borealis)

Lynn Miles- All the Birds

Black Flowers Vol. 4 (Lynn Miles)

Jolie Holland & Samantha Parton- Biding My Time

Wildflower Blues (Cinquefoil)

The Early Mays- Say-O

Chase the Sun (The Early Mays)

Dakota Dave Hull & Sean Blackburn- Old Fashioned Love

Ace Pickin’ and Sweet Harmony (Arabica)

Ball & Chain- Jackson

Trouble All the Time (Ball & Chain)

Ben Hunter, Joe Seamons & Phil Wiggins- Struttin’ with Some Barbecue

A Black & Tan Ball (Tantamount)

Jayme Stone, Moira Smiley, Sumaia Jackson, Joe Phillips, Felicity Williams & Denzal Sinclaire- Wait on the Rising Sun

Jayme Stone’s Folklife (Borealis)

Bill Staines- Zane Grey

Miles (Mineral River)

Sylvia Tyson- String too Short to Save

Gypsy Cadillac (Silver City)

Dave Alvin- Down the Rio Grande

Ashgrove (Yep Roc)

Tom Russell- Leaving El Paso

Folk Hotel (Frontera) 

Steve Young- Angel of Lyon

Switchblades of Love (Watermelon)

Gretchen Peters- Saint Francis

Hello Cruel World (Scarlet Letter)

Katy Moffatt- Marina

Where the Heart Is (Centerfire)

Tom Russell- Rise Again, Handsome Johnny

Folk Hotel (Frontera)

Mike Regenstreif & Tom Russell (2012)

Jerry Jeff Walker- Navajo Rug

Navajo Rug (Rykodisc)

Joe Ely- Gallo del Cielo

Letter to Laredo (MCA)

Ian Tyson- Wolves No Longer Sing

Carnero Vaquero (Stony Plain)

Tom Russell- I’ll Never Leave These Old Horses

Folk Hotel (Frontera)

Tom Paxton & Anne Hills- Manzanar

Under American Skies (Appleseed)

Tracy Grammer- Blue Wing

Book of Sparrows (Tracy Grammer)

Nanci Griffith- St. Olav’s Gate

The Last of the True Believers (Philo)

Tom Russell- The Light Beyond the Coyote Fence

Folk Hotel (Frontera)

Claire Lynch- Kingdom Come

North By South (Compass)

Dakota Dave Hull & Sean Blackburn- Take Me to the Land of Jazz

North By Southwest (Arabica)

Mason Daring & Jeanie Stahl- Chattanooga Choo Choo

Forty (Daring)

Jackie Washington- When that Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam’

Midnight Choo Choo (Borealis)

Dakota Dave Hull & Sean Blackburn- River of Swing

River of Swing (Arabica)

Terry Gillespie- Another Black Night

Home Boy: Live at the Granary (Terry Gillespie)

Rob Lutes- Better Past

Walk in the Dark (Lucky Bear)

Missy Burgess-- Basket of Blues

Lemon Pie (Missy Burgess)

David Bromberg- Delia

The Blues, the Whole Blues and Nothing But the Blues (Red House)

Rob Lutes- I Am the Blues

Walk in the Dark (Lucky Bear)

Beyond the Pale- Ion Dragoi

Ruckus (Borealis)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on September 16.

Find me on Twitter. @MikeRegenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif