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.
Theme: Immigration, Part 1 – The Man from God Knows Where.
As I wrote in
Sing Out magazine in 1999 … Thomas Russell was a leader of the United Irish Rebellion in the 1790s. Two centuries later, singer and songwriter
Tom Russell was playing a gig in Downpatrick, Ireland when he was approached by an old man in a bar. “Thomas Russell,” he said, “we hung you across the road in 1798.” Tom bought the old man a pint of beer and heard the story of his namesake and of the narrative poem about him called “The Man from God Knows Where.”
For several years prior to that encounter, Tom had been working on a song-cycle that began when a phrase, “American primitive man in an American primitive land,” occurred to him. Originally, Tom conceived the piece as a long tone-poem that would tell some of the history of America absent from the standard history texts. But as he wrote, Tom soon recognized that his own family’s history would provide much of the raw material he needed to tell a compelling story of immigration and the pursuit of the American Dream.
So, more than 200 years after Thomas Russell’s hanging, the man from God knows where is resurrected to observe and to chronicle the struggles, tragedies and joys of the Russells and Malloys who immigrate to the United States from Ireland in the nineteenth century, and of the Larsens and Olsens who come from Norway, and of their lineage through to today’s Tom Russell.
Tom Russell’s The Man from God Knows Where is more than just a song-cycle, it’s a fully realized folk-opera featuring Tom and a superb cast of American, Irish and Norwegian singers. Using singers with authentic Irish, Norwegian and rural and urban American accents helps provide authenticity to the voices of Russell’s ancestors and to the other characters who are brought to life in the folk-opera. As well, Tom frequently utilizes distinctly Irish and Norwegian instruments and musical forms to complement the more familiar American folk styles that run through the score to The Man from God Knows Where.
Tom wrote most of the songs we hear in The Man from God Knows Where. There are also some traditional folksongs, a song written by David Massengill, and a poem by Walt Whitman.
Tom Russell- The Man from God Knows Where
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Iris DeMent- Wayfarin’ Stranger
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Tom Russell & Iris DeMent- Patrick Russell
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Dolores Keane- Mary Clare Molloy (American Wake)
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Dave Van Ronk- The Outcast
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Sondre Bratland & Iris DeMent- Ambrose Larsen
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Tom Russell & Dolores Keane- The Dreamin’
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Sondre Bratland & Kari Bremnes- The Old Northern Shore
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Tom Russell & Walt Whitman- The Man from God Knows Where/America
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Kari Bremnes- Anna Olsen
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Tom Russell- Rider on an Orphan Train
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Iris DeMent- Acres of Corn
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Tom Russell- The Man from God Knows Where
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Tom Russell- Sitting Bull in Venice
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Iris DeMent & Kari Bremnes- The Old Rugged Cross
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Kari Bremnes- Anna Olsen’s Letter Home
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Sondre Bratland- Eg er framand
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Dolores Keane & Iris DeMent- When Irish Girls Grow Up
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Tom Russell- Casey Jones
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Tom Russell- Chickasaw County Jail
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Knut Reiersrud- Wayfarin’ Stranger (Passage of Time)
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Tom Russell & Iris DeMent- Throwin’ Horseshoes at the Moon
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Tom Russell- The Man from God Knows Where
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Dave Van Ronk- The Outcast (revisited)
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Iris DeMent- Wayfarin’ Stranger (revisited)
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
Tom Russell & Iris DeMent- Love Abides
The Man from God Knows Where (HighTone)
“Wayfarin’ Stranger” is one of the recurring themes in The Man from God Knows Where so I used the last few minutes of the show to play a recent version of the song.
American Patchwork Quartet- Wayfaring Stranger
American Patchwork Quartet (Carolina Jasmine)
Next week: Immigration, Part 2.
--Mike Regenstreif
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