Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – August 6, 2024: Remembering Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon

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/595/66262.html

Theme: Remembering Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon (1942-2024).

Dr. Bernice Johnson Reagon, who died on July 16 at age 81, was a noted singer – probably best known for founding and leading the a cappella group Sweet Honey in the Rock. She was a prominent civil rights activist and a member of The SNCC Freedom Singers in the 1960s. Later, she served as cultural historian in music history at the Smithsonian Institution, curator of music history for the National Museum of American History, and as a distinguished professor of history at American University.

Bernice Johnson Reagon- River of Life

River of Life: Harmony One (Flying Fish)

The SNCC Freedom Singers- Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round

Voices of the Civil Rights Movement (Smithsonian Folkways)

The SNCC Freedom Singers- We Shall Not Be Moved

Voices of the Civil Rights Movement (Smithsonian Folkways)

The SNCC Freedom Singers- Woke Up This Morning with My Mind on Freedom

Voices of the Civil Rights Movement (Smithsonian Folkways)

Len Chandler & Bernice Johnson Reagon- I’m Going to Get My Baby Out of Jail

The Best of Broadside 1962-1988 (Smithsonian Folkways)

Bernice Johnson Reagon & Pete Seeger- Backlash Blues

Pete Seeger Now (Columbia)

Bernice Johnson Reagon & Pete Seeger - Michael, Row the Boat Ashore

Pete Seeger Now (Columbia)

Bernice Johnson Reagon & Pete Seeger- Taint But Me One

Pete Seeger Now (Columbia)

Bernice Johnson Reagon- There is More Love Somewhere

River of Life: Harmony One (Flying Fish)

Bernice Johnson Reagon- Cotton Needed Pickin’ So Bad

Pete Seeger Now (Columbia)

Bernice Johnson Reagon, Kim & Reggie Harris- Oh Mary, Don’t You Weep

Get On Board: Underground Railroad & Civil Rights Freedom Songs, Volume 2 (Appleseed)

Sweet Honey in the Rock- Joan Little

Selections 1976-1988 (Flying Fish)

Sweet Honey in the Rock- Echo

Selections 1976-1988 (Flying Fish)

Sweet Honey in the Rock- As Long As I Have Breath in My Body

Selections 1976-1988 (Flying Fish)

Sweet Honey in the Rock- My Way

Selections 1976-1988 (Flying Fish)

Bernice Johnson Reagon & Toshi Reagon- Your Country

Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery (Rykodisc)

Bernice Johnson Reagon & Toshi Reagon- Remember Me

Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery (Rykodisc)

Bernice Johnson Reagon & Toshi Reagon- Long Way Journey Home

Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery (Rykodisc)

Bernice Johnson Reagon & Toshi Reagon- Venture’s Song

Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery (Rykodisc)

Sweet Honey in the Rock- Come Unto Me

Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery (Rykodisc)

Bernice Johnson Reagon & Toshi Reagon- What Kind of Land

Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery (Rykodisc)

Bernice Johnson Reagon- Balm in Gilead

Africans in America: America’s Journey Through Slavery (Rykodisc)

Bernice Johnson Reagon- Since I Laid My Burden Down

River of Life: Harmony One (Flying Fish)

Next week: “Kin Ya See That Sun.”

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – February 6, 2024: A Tribute to Odetta

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/595/63807.html

Theme: A Tribute to Odetta (1930-2008).

Odetta, the magnificent and highly influential African American folk and blues singer, who died in 2008 at the age of 77, was born Odetta Holmes in Birmingham, Alabama. She originally trained to be an opera singer and her earliest professional jobs were in musical theatre. In 1949, while singing in the touring company of Finian’s Rainbow, she met some folksingers and fell in love with the genre. From then on, she turned her attention to folk and blues, performing concerts and recording prolifically starting in the mid-1950s.

I met Odetta for the first time in 1977 in the hallway of the hotel we were staying at during the Philadelphia Folk Festival. I was there with Priscilla Herdman, who knew Odetta, and when she introduced us, Odetta gave me one of her big hugs. In the 1980s, I brought Odetta to The Golem, the folk club I ran in Montreal, numerous times.

Odetta, pianist Dave Keyes & Mike Regenstreif (2008)

The last time I got to work with Odetta was when I hosted a workshop with her at the 2008 Ottawa Folk Festival, just a few months before she passed away. I was deeply honored when she told me that my friendship over the years meant a lot to her.

All of the songs on this show were from Odetta’s repertoire.

Odetta- Stranger Here

Sometimes I Feel Like Cryin’ (RCA)

Lead Belly with The Golden Gate Jubilee Quartet- Alabama Bound

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

Bessie Smith- Nobody Knows You When You’re Down and Out

Bessie Smith: The Absolutely Essential 3 CD Collection (Big3)

Josh White- House of the Rising Sun

The Josh White Stories, Vols. I & II (Jasmine)

Odetta- Roberta

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

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

Gonna Let It Shine (M.C.)

Gina Coleman- Glory Glory

Tell Me Who You Are: A Live Tribute to Odetta (Guitar One) 

Kim & Reggie Harris- Wade in the Water

Steal Away: Songs of the Underground Railroad (Appleseed)

Odetta- Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child

Odetta at Carnegie Hall (Vanguard)

Bob Dylan- No More Auction Block

The Bootleg Series Volumes 1-3 [Rare & Unreleased] 1961-1991 (Columbia)

Odetta- Blowin’ in the Wind

Odetta Sings Dylan (RCA)

Chaim Tannenbaum- Ain’t No More Cane on the Brazos

Chaim Tannenbaum (StorySound)

Rhiannon Giddens- Waterboy

Tomorrow is My Turn (Nonesuch)

Sweet Honey in the Rock- The Midnight Special

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

Coco Love Alcorn- This Little Light of Mine

Rebirth (Coco Love Alcorn)

Odetta & The Holmes Brothers- Down By the Riverside

Gonna Let It Shine (M.C.)

Tom Jones- Hit or Miss

Spirit in the Room (Island)

Penny Lang- Careless Love

Stone + Sand + Sea + Sky (Borealis)

Misty Blues- Go Down, Sunshine

Tell Me Who You Are: A Live Tribute to Odetta (Guitar One) 

Odetta & Dr. John- Oh Papa

Blues Everywhere I Go (M.C.)

Odetta- Goodnight Irene

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

Next week: A Tribute Jelly Roll Morton on Mardi Gras Day.

--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.  

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--Mike Regenstreif