Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday January 28, 2023

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

This episode of Saturday Morning was recorded and can already be streamed on-demand at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/59164.html

Three songs in memory of David Crosby (1941-2023).

The Byrds- Mr. Tambourine Man

Mr. Tambourine Man (Columbia)

Crosby, Stills & Nash- Long Time Gone

Crosby, Stills & Nash (Atlantic)

David Crosby- Traction in the Rain

If I Could Only Remember My Name (Atlantic)

Ben Bedford- Leaping

Valley of Stars (Hopeful Sky)

Geoff Bartley- Talkin’ Jumping Frog Blues

The Ballad of Billy Bridger (Magic Crow)

Bob Jensen- Sit Down Young Stranger

For the Sake of the Song (Bob Jensen)

J.P. Cormier- Approaching Lavender

The Long River: A Personal Tribute to Gordon Lightfoot (Flash Publishing)

Nicki Parrott- If You Could Read My Mind

If You Could Read My Mind (Arbors)

Gordon Lightfoot- Saturday Clothes

If You Could Read My Mind (Reprise)

The Vanier Playboys- Born in the Country

Deux (The Vanier Playboys)

Ball & Chain & The Wreckers- Come on Up to the House

Satisfied (Ball & Chain)

VickiKristinaBarcelona- Gun Street Girl

Pawn Shop Radio (StorySound)

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

David Amram- Waltz from After the Fall

No More Walls (Flying Fish)

Three songs in memory of Steve James (1950-2023).

Steve James- Stack Lee’s Blues

Boom Chang (Burnside)

Steve James- Buddy Bolden’s Blues

Art & Grit (Discovery)

Steve James & Del Rey- Tappin’ That Thing

Tonight (Hobemian)

Three songs in memory of Thad Beckman (1952-2023).

Thad Beckman- Lay My Burden Down

Blues Gone By (Thadzooks)

Thad Beckman- Street of Disaster

Streets of Disaster (Thadzooks)

Thad Beckman, Mike Regenstreif & Tom Russell (2012)

Thad Beckman & Tom Russell- Blue Wing

Streets of Disaster (Thadzooks)

Tom Russell & The Norwegian Wind Ensemble- St. Olav’s Gate

Aztec Jazz (Frontera)

Danny Britt- Bar Stool

All Over the Map (Red Dawg Music)

Creedence Clearwater Revival- Bad Moon Rising

Green River (Fantasy)

The Dumptrucks- Closing Time

Selections (Laughing Cactus)

Alex Cuba- Quiero Quedarme

Quiero Quedarme – single (Caracol)

Le Vent du Nord- L’auberge

20 Printemps (La Compagnie du Nord)

Christopher Mark Jones / Bernard Pozier- Rendez-vous sous la pluie

Montréal Encore (Small Batch Music)

Pat Guadango & Mary McCrink- Boots of Spanish Leather

1964 (Campbell Music)

Annie Capps- Learning

How Can I Say This? (Yellow Room)

Tim Ball- Sugar in the Gourd

Upstate Crossroads (Irelandville)

The next two songs punctuated my conversation with Christine Graves, recorded on January 17 via Zoom.

Christine Graves- Despite the News

Everyday Life (Christine Graves)

Christine Graves- Here’s My Song

Everyday Life (Christine Graves)

Four songs to mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27).

Payadora Tango Ensemble featuring Olga Avigail Mieleszczuk- Sabina’s Letter: Some of Us Must Survive

Silent Tears: The Last Yiddish Tango (Six Degrees)

Brendan Nolan- Parallel Limbs

Beneath White Stars: Holocaust Profiles in Song (AlmondSeed Media)

Lenka Lichtenberg- Our feet are marching, two and two

Thieves of Dreams (Six Degrees)

Shelley Posen- Packed

Mazel (Well Done Music)

The Squirrel Hillbillies- Mama Just Wants to Barrelhouse All Night Long

Rhizomes (The Squirrel Hillbillies)

Bruce Cockburn- Whole Night Sky

Rarities (True North)

Lucie Blue Tremblay- The Paradise Club

So Many Wows (Maggie & Shanti Musique)

The Heart Collectors- Pieces II

Timeless Space (Spins the Gold)

Sue Horowitz- January

Strings, Wings and Curious Things (Sue Horowitz)

Bill Staines- January Snow

The First Million Miles, Volume II (Rounder)

Mike Regenstreif & Priscilla Herdman (1978) photo: Ron Petronko

Priscilla Herdman- January Thaw

Forgotten Dreams (Flying Fish)

Michael Kaeshammer- Bourbon Street Parade

The Warehouse Sessions (Linus)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on February 25. I also host Stranger Songs on CKCU every Tuesday from 3:30-5 pm. 

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Various Artists – …. First Came Memphis Minnie

VARIOUS ARTISTS
…. First Came Memphis Minnie
Stony Plain 
stonyplainrecords.com

Memphis Minnie (1897-1973), who began her recording career in the early-1930s, was a pioneering and influential blues artist and certainly the most prominent example of a female blues singer from that era who accompanied herself on guitar. Until Minnie came along, female blues singers – like Bessie Smith, Victoria Spivey, Alberta Hunter and so many others – generally fronted traditional jazz bands or worked with a piano player. Minnie, though, could play guitar as well or better than any male artist and was a role model to generations of female musicians who followed in later decades.

…. First Came Memphis Minnie is a set of 13 songs from Memphis Minnie’s repertoire assembled by Maria Muldaur.

Maria, herself, is the dominant artist in the collection with eight songs taken from a couple of the terrific acoustic blues albums she’s done in recent years – two from Richland Woman Blues and six from Sweet Lovin’ Ol’ Soul – on which she’s backed by such great musicians as Del Rey, Steve James and Dave Earl. Two of the most exciting songs, “I’m Goin’ Back Home” and “She Put Me Outdoors,” are terrific duets with Alvin Youngblood Hart playing Joe McCoy to Maria’s Minnie.

The three tracks recorded just for this album are all superb. Bonnie Raitt, playing acoustic guitar, does a great job on “Ain’t Nothin’ in Ramblin’,” proving – as if there were any doubt – she is still a remarkable purveyor of acoustic blues when she wants to be. Rory Block, one of today’s greatest acoustic blues artists, does a soulful solo arrangement of “When You Love Me” with some excellent slide playing, and Ruthie Foster offers a delightfully sassy take on “Keep Your Big Mouth Closed.”

Rounding out the album are two other previously released tracks. The late Phoebe Snow, with backing from David Bromberg, is featured on an elegant version of “In My Girlish Days” from her 1976 album, It Looks Like Snow (Phoebe never did enough of this kind of material), and the late Koko Taylor finishes the album with “Black Rat Swing,” from her 2007 release, Old School, the album’s only contemporary Chicago-style electric track.

Starting with the songs from her own albums and rounding the tribute out with five offerings from other artists, Maria Muldaur has assembled a worthy tribute to one of the most important figures in blues history.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif