Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday December 7, 2021: Joni Mitchell in Concert at Le Hibou in Ottawa on March 19, 1968

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU in Ottawa on Tuesday afternoons 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/595/54429.html

Theme: Joni Mitchell in Concert at Le Hibou in Ottawa, March 19, 1968

The theme for most of this edition of Stranger Songs is a Joni Mitchell concert, recorded here in Ottawa at Le Hibou coffeehouse on March 19th, 1968. That same night, Jimi Hendrix was in Ottawa playing at the Capitol Theatre. After his show, Jimi went to Le Hibou with his tape recorder, sat right up in front and recorded Joni’s set – which has just been released as part of the new Joni Mitchell boxed set, Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971).

Joni Mitchell- Night in the City
Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino)
Joni Mitchell- Come to the Sunshine
Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino)
Joni Mitchell- The Pirate of Penance
Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino)
Joni Mitchell- Conversation
Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino)
Joni Mitchell- The Way It Is
Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino)
Joni Mitchell- The Dawntreader
Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino)

Canadian Brass featuring Ingrid Jensen- Both Sides Now
Canadiana (Linus/Canadian Brass)

Joni Mitchell- Marcie
Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino)
Joni Mitchell- Nathan La Franeer
Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino)
Joni Mitchell- Dr. Junk
Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino)
Joni Mitchell- Michael from Mountains
Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino)

Joni Mitchell- Go Tell the Drummer Man
Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino)
Joni Mitchell- I Don’t Know Where I Stand
Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino)
Joni Mitchell- Sisotowbell Lane
Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino)
Joni Mitchell- Ladies of the Canyon
Archives – Volume 2: The Reprise Years (1968-1971) (Rhino)

Dave Van Ronk- That Song About the Midway
Sunday Street (Philo)
Judy Collins & Shawn Colvin- Cactus Tree
Bohemian (Wildflower)
Sara Colman- This Flight Tonight
Ink on a Pin: A Celebration of Joni Mitchell (Stoney Lane)
Rufus Wainwright & Amsterdam Sinfonietta- All I Want
Rufus Wainwright & Amsterdam Sinfonietta Live (BMG/Modern)

Hoyt Axton- For Free
Pistol Packin’ Mama (Jeremiah)

Next week: Remembering Bill Staines (1947-2021). Note: The previously announced theme, "The Folk Roots of Rock ‘n’ Roll and the Rock ‘n’ Roll Branches of Folk Music," has been rescheduled to January 4.

Find me on Twitter. www.twitter.com/mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Playlist: Folk Roots/Folk Branches -- Spotlight on Judy Collins

Folk Roots/Folk Branches with Mike Regenstreif is a thematic program streamed on demand at Roots Music Canada.

This program is available as of May 16, 2014 at…www.rootsmusic.ca/

Theme: Spotlight on Judy Collins.

Judy Collins- Golden Apples of the Sun

Maids & Golden Apples (Wildflower)

Judy Collins- Anathea

3 & 4 (Wildflower)

Judy Collins- Thirsty Boots

Fifth Album (Elektra)

Judy Collins- Sisters of Mercy

Judy Collins Sings Leonard Cohen: Democracy (Elektra/Rhino)

Judy Collins- Story of Isaac

Judy Collins Sings Leonard Cohen: Democracy (Elektra/Rhino)
 Judy Collins- Bird on the Wire
Judy Collins Sings Leonard Cohen: Democracy (Elektra/Rhino)

Judy Collins- Chelsea Morning

Forever: An Anthology (Elektra)

Judy Collins- Both Sides Now

Live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the Temple of Dendur (Wildflower)

Judy Collins- Four Strong Winds

Living (Elektra)

Judy Collins- Someday Soon

Forever: An Anthology (Elektra)

Judy Collins- My Father

Forever: An Anthology (Elektra) 
Judy Collins w/Shawn Colvin- Since You’ve Asked

Live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the Temple of Dendur (Wildflower)

Judy Collins- Open the Door

Live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the Temple of Dendur (Wildflower)

Judy Collins- Who Knows Where the Time Goes

Forever: An Anthology (Elektra)
 Judy Collins- Send in the Clowns
Forever: An Anthology (Elektra)

Judy Collins Canadian tour:

Judy Collins and Mike Regenstreif (2014).

June 4 – Aeolian Hall in London

June 6 – Corona Theatre in Montreal 

June 7 – Southminster United Church in Ottawa 

June 8 – Grand Theatre in Kingston 

June 9 – Hugh’s Room in Toronto 

This show can be streamed at…www.rootsmusic.ca/

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Judy Collins – Live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the Temple of Dendur

JUDY COLLINS

Live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the Temple of Dendur

Wildflower

wildflowerrecords.com

Judy Collins, who gracefully bridges the worlds of folk, art and popular song, has been one of our most compellingly elegant singers for more than 50 years – a milestone celebrated at this concert recorded at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Her voice is as beautiful as ever as she moves through a 12-song set encompassing both classic and recent material.

Although known primarily as an interpretive singer, Judy is also a very fine songwriter and includes three of own songs in this set. She begins with “Open the Door,” which was titled “Song for Judith (Open the Door)” when she originally recorded it in 1971, is a perfect invitation-in-song. “Since You Asked,” dating from the mid-1960s, is a beautiful love song performed this time as a duet with Shawn Colvin, while the more recent “In the Twilight” evokes the memories of an older woman who has lost them to Alzheimer’s disease.

Among the most overtly folk-rooted songs are Woody Guthrie’s “Pastures of Plenty,” sung as a duet with Ani DiFranco in a surprisingly effective collaboration, and Bob Dylan’s “Mr. Tambourine Man,” which she precedes with a story of hearing Dylan write the song, one of his most enduring classics. Judy’s much more mature phrasing on this version of “Mr. Tambourine Man” makes it even more convincing than it was on her 1965 recording.

Other songs that seem even more convincing decades later include Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now,” “Moon is a Harsh Mistress,” with composer Jimmy Webb at the piano for the occasion, and a sublime piano, cello and voice arrangement of Stephen Sondheim’s “Send in the Clowns.”

I’m surprised, I suppose, at the absence of any of the Leonard Cohen songs that have been such an important part of Judy’s repertoire and, perhaps, by the inclusion of “Diamonds and Rust,” Joan Baez’s recollection of her love affair with Dylan, written a decade after the fact. Although there’s no denying the beauty and grace in Judy’s version, it is such a personal song about such a well known relationship that I find it odd hearing it from anyone but Joan – a reaction I also had when I heard Judy and Joan’s duet of “Diamonds and Rust” a few years ago.

Live at the Metropolitan Museum of Art at the Temple of Dendur is a beautiful and intimate concert recording.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Tom Russell – Heart on a Sleeve

TOM RUSSELL

Heart on a Sleeve (2012 remaster with bonus tracks)

Frontera

tomrussell.com

I wasn’t one of the lucky few who first heard Heart on a Sleeve, Tom Russell’s first solo LP, when it was originally released as an LP in 1984, although I did catch up with it when it was first reissued on CD about a decade or so later.

But, even before I actually heard first heard Tom on Road to Bayamon, his second solo LP, I was already a big fan of his songwriting having heard some of his early gems in versions by Bill Staines, Ian Tyson and Nanci Griffith. Two of those gems, the amazing “Gallo del Cielo,” which I first heard by Ian on the first of his great cowboy culture LPs, and “St. Olav’s Gate,” which I first heard Nanci sing at the Golem, the folk club I ran in Montreal in the 1970s, and ‘80s, are from Heart on a Sleeve, an album which revealed a singer and songwriter already well on his way to greatness.

“Gallo del Cielo” and “St. Olav’s Gate,” both of which Tom would later re-record, are certainly among the highlights of the debut album.

“Gallo del Cielo” is a vivid Tex-Mex border ballad about a desperate Mexican and his stolen fighting rooster. It’s exciting, it’s heartbreaking and every time I’ve seen Tom live he’s brought down the house with it. It’s also a great showcase for the stunning guitar playing of Andrew Hardin, an amazing player who worked with Tom for about 25 years beginning around the time of this album

“St. Olav’s Gate,” set in Oslo, is an insightful song about passing encounters that don’t turn into what we think they might have. As I mentioned in my booklet essay for The Tom Russell Anthology: Veteran’s Day, most of our younger selves have been that drunken guy waiting in vain at St. Olav’s Gate, even if our personal St. Olav’s Gate wasn’t in Oslo.

Among the other highlights are “One and One” and “The Dance,” a pair of terrific duets recorded with Shawn Colvin about four years before her own debut album; “Cropduster,” sung from the perspective of a crop dusting pilot lost in his fantasies; “Chinese Silver,” a western ballad about an unobtainable woman; “Canadian Whiskey,” which could almost be about the same woman in “Chinese Silver” a couple of decades later; and “Blinded By the Light of Love,” a Saturday night song with a great Sunday morning arrangement.

In addition to the 12 songs on the original LP, there are six bonus tracks – including “The Dance” with Shawn Colvin – recorded around that time. The arrangements, thanks to players like Andrew Hardin, are terrific and the remastered sound, thanks to John Yuelkenbeck, is fabulous.

The CD is only available online through villagerecords.com and at the merch table at Tom’s concerts.

Speaking of Tom’s concerts, he’ll be in this part of Canada at Hugh’s Room in Toronto on Thursday, November 22, and at Petit Campus in Montreal on Saturday, November 24 as part of the Wintergreen Concert Series.

Pictured: Tom Russell and Mike Regenstreif (2005).

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--Mike Regenstreif