Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – August 19, 2025: The Original Sloth Band at 60

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/595/71585.html

Theme: The Original Sloth Band at 60.

The Original Sloth Band – teenaged brothers Chris Whiteley and Ken Whiteley and their friend Tom Evans – played their first gig in 1965. Their band name for that gig was Tubby Fats Original Allstar Downtown Syncopated Big Rock Jug Band but they soon evolved into the Original Sloth Band. Sadly, Tom Evans passed away from cancer in 2009, but, in June, Chris and Ken with some guest musicians played a concert at Hugh’s Room in Toronto to mark the milestone anniversary.

Original Sloth Band- The New Heartbreak Blues

Whoopee After Midnight (Sloth)

Samoa Wilson with The Jim Kweskin Band- (I Just Want to Be) Horizontal

I Just Want to Be Horizontal (Kingswood)

Tony Rice- Temperance Reel

Tony Rice (Rounder)

Jeff Healey- Sheik of Araby

The Best of the Stony Plain Years: Vintage Jazz, Swing and Blues (Stony Plain)

Amos Milburn- Johnson Rag

Rockin’ and Drinkin’: Greatest Hits and More 1946-1959 (Jasmine)

Original Sloth Band- Heaven

Whoopee After Midnight (Sloth)

The Dumptrucks- Stealin’

Selections (Laughing Cactus)

Original Sloth Band- I’m a Vulture (for Horticulture)

Whoopee After Midnight (Sloth)

Leon Redbone- Please Don’t Talk About Me When I’m Gone

Champagne Charlie (Warner Bros.)

Jenny Whiteley- Things are Coming My Way

The Original Jenny Whiteley (Black Hen Music)

Jay McShann- Sunny Side of the Street

Still Jumpin’ the Blues (Stony Plain)

Mose Scarlett- How Long Blues

The Fundamental Things (Pyramid)

Original Sloth Band- Get a Job 

Whoopee After Midnight (Sloth)

Maria Muldaur- Organ Grinder Blues

One Hour Mama: The Blues of Victoria Spivey (NOLA Blues)

Duke Ellington & Ivie Anderson- Get Yourself a New Broom (and Sweep the Blues Away)

Ellington in Order, Volume 5 (1932-33) (Legacy)

Duke Ellington & The Mills Brothers- Diga Diga Do

Ellington in Order, Volume 5 (1932-33) (Legacy)

Jimmy Bracken's Toe Ticklers- It’s Tight Like That

Jack Teagarden: The Definitive Collection (Master Tape)

Original Sloth Band- Shout Baby Shout

Hustlin’ & Bustlin’ (Woodshed)

The Boswell Sisters- Cheek to Cheek

Cheek to Cheek (Classic)

The Central Park Sheiks- Honeysuckle Rose

Honeysuckle Rose (Flying Fish)

Bessie Smith- Gimme a Pigfoot (and a Bottle of Beer)

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

Carolina Chocolate Drops- Memphis Shakedown

Carolina Chocolate Drops & Joe Thompson (Music Makers Recordings)

Original Sloth Band- Hustlin’ and Bustlin’ for Baby

Hustlin’ & Bustlin’ (Woodshed)

Ken Whiteley- Fast Freight Train

Unseen Hands: 12 Songs 12 Strings (Ken Whiteley)

Chris Whiteley- I’ve Got to Split

It’s the Natural Thing to Do (Electro-Fi)

Next week: Songs for August and Highway 61 Revisited – Revisited.

--Mike Regenstreif

Jenny Whiteley – The Original Jenny Whiteley

JENNY WHITELEY

The Original Jenny Whiteley

Black Hen Music

jennywhiteley.com

I first met the Original Sloth Band – Chris Whiteley, Ken Whiteley and Tom Evans – in the early-1970s. They had a wonderfully eclectic repertoire of songs gathered from old-time jug band, jazz, blues and folk sources.

Chris had an infant daughter back then who would grow up to be – like her father, uncle, brothers and cousins – an excellent musician, singer and songwriter and who now has five solo albums to her credit. Jenny Whiteley’s first recording projects – long before she started making solo albums – were in the 1980s when she sang with dad and uncle on their Junior Jug Band LPs.

Jenny’s fifth solo album, The Original Jenny Whiteley, is a homage to her dad. Whether on songs like “Stealin’, Stealin’” or “Things are Coming My Way,” which were on Original Sloth Band LPs back in the ‘70s, or on other vintage songs, or even her own original material,  they were all, she notes, “influenced in some way by his music.”

The Original Jenny Whiteley is a delightful 11-song romp. Among my favorites are the already mentioned “Stealin’, Stealin’” and “Things are Coming My Way,” the latter featuring harmony vocals from Chris and Ken; her own songs “Banjo Girl,” reprised from Jenny’s 2006 album, Dear, and “Higher Learning”; the traditional classic “In the Pines”; and Uncle Dave Macon’s “Morning Blues,” a favorite I first heard on the Jim Kweskin Jug Band Jug Band Music LP in the ‘60s.

Aside from Jenny’s own vocals and guitar, most of the backup on The Original Jenny Whiteley is by multi-instrumentalists Sam Allison, who produced the album, and Teillard Frost, who, as Sheesham & Lotus, are highly reminiscent of the Original Sloth Band.

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--Mike Regenstreif