Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday April 25, 2023: Willie Nelson at 90

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU in Ottawa on Tuesdays 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 recorded and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/60138.html

Theme: Willie Nelson at 90.

Willie Nelson will turn 90 on April 29th and as Bob Dylan wrote in his book, The Philosophy of Modern Song, “Willie Nelson could, as they say, sing the phone book and make you weep – he could also write the phonebook.”

Willie Nelson- My Own Peculiar Way

My Own Peculiar Way (RCA)

Patsy Cline- Crazy

The Unforgettable Patsy Cline (PolyTel)

Lucinda Williams- Funny How Time Slips Away

Funny How Time Slips Away: A Night of ‘60s Country Classics (Highway 20)

The Little Willies- Night Life

The Little Willies (Milking Bull)

Willie Nelson- Mr. Record Man

Absolutely the Best, Volume 1 (Fuel 2000)

Bobby Bare- One Day at a Time

Constant Sorrow (RCA)

k.d. lang & the reclines- Three Days

Absolute Torch and Twang (Sire)

Colleen Peterson- Sad Songs and Waltzes

Beginning to Feel Like Home (Capitol)

Willie Nelson- Hello Walls

Absolutely the Best, Volume 1 (Fuel 2000)

Willie Nelson- Time of the Preacher

Red Headed Stranger (Columbia/Legacy)

Doc & Merle Watson- I Couldn’t Believe it was True

Elementary Doctor Watson (Tomato)

Ramblin’ Jack Elliott- Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain

Kerouac’s Last Dream (Appleseed)

Willie Nelson- Red Headed Stranger

Red Headed Stranger (Columbia/Legacy)

Willie Nelson- Don’t Get Around Much Anymore

Stardust (Columbia)

Kerri Powers- Always On My Mind

Words on the Wind (Must Have Music)

Emmylou Harris- Sister’s Coming Home

Blue Kentucky Girl (Warner Bros./Rhino)

Willie Nelson- Me and Paul

Wanted! The Outlaws (RCA)

Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel- Hesitation Blues

Willie and the Wheel (Bismeaux)

Willie Nelson & Kimmie Rhodes- I Just Drove By

Just One Love (Justice)

Kinky Friedman & Willie Nelson- Bloody Mary Morning

The Loneliest Man I Ever Met (Avenue A)

Judy Collins & Willie Nelson- When I Go

Strangers Again (Wildflower/Cleopatra)

Wynton Marsalis Septet featuring Willie Nelson- Milk Cow Blues

United We Swing: Best of the Lincoln Centre Galas (Blue Engine)

Willie Nelson & Bonnie Raitt- Getting Over You

Across the Borderline (Columbia)

Townes Van Zandt & Willie Nelson- Marie

Texas Rain: The Texas Hill Country Recordings (Tomato)

Mary Kay Place & Willie Nelson- Something to Brag About

The Ahern Sessions 1976-1977 (Raven)

Next week: Stompin’ at the Savoy.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday November 5, 2022

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 on October 3 and can already be streamed on-demand at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/58218.html

This show airs during CKCU’s Annual Funding Drive for 2022. Please visit https://www.canadahelps.org/en/dn/76213 to make your charitable donation to help us continue bringing you creative, volunteer-programmed, listener-supported community radio for another year.

Stillhouse Junkies- El Camino

Small Towns (Dark Shadow Recording)

Sneezy Waters & Mike Regenstreif (2013)

Sneezy Waters- Brother, Can You Spare a Dime

Sneezy Waters (Sneezy Waters)

Hannah Shira Naiman- The Grouse

The Wheels Won’t Go (Hannah Shira Naiman)

Ofra Harnoy- Lonely Waterloo

On the Rock (Analekta)

Jamie Anderson- Public Radio

Better Than Chocolate (Tsunami)

Darryl Purpose- A Place Where Everyone Sings

Two Good Hands EP (Darryl Purpose)

The Dumptrucks- Clyde Beattie

Selections (Laughing Cactus)

Hazel Dickens & Alice Gerrard- Gonna Lay Down My Old Guitar

Pioneering Women of Bluegrass: The Definitive Collection (Smithsonian Folkways)

Zachary Lucky- Rex’s Blues

Songs for Hard Times (Zachary Lucky)

The Claytones- If I Needed You

Reserva (Rip Roar Music)

Townes Van Zandt- Highway Kind

Sunshine Boy: The Unheard Studio Sessions and Demos (Omnivore)

David Olney with Daniel Seymour- For the Sake of the Song

Evermore: The Final Live in Holland Sessions I (Strictly Country)

Jesse Winchester- Yankee Lady

Jesse Winchester (Stony Plain)

Steve Lundquist with Mike Fjerstad- I Wave Bye-Bye

Acting a Fool (Steve Lundquist)

Suzie Vinnick- Raino

Fall Back Home (Suzie Vinnick)

Walter Hyatt- In November

King Tears (MCA)

Tom Mitchell- When Nobody’s Lookin’

Old Cloth (Yabut Music)

Mike Regenstreif & Tony Turner (2018)

Tony Turner- Heart of Your Man

A Matter of Time (Tony Turner)

Doug McArthur- 1911

Letters from the Coast/Sisteron (Snow Goose Songs)

Lynn Miles- Million Brilliant

Downpour (Lynn Miles)

Ian Tamblyn- Voice in the Wilderness

Voice in the Wilderness (North Track)

Garnet Rogers- Sweet Spot

Summer’s End (Snow Goose Songs)

Amy Speace- My Father’s House

Tuscon (Windbone)

John Fusco- Coyote Man

Borderlands (Rocket 88)

Linda Ronstadt with Emmylou Harris- Across the Border

Feels Like Home: Songs from the Sonoran Borderlands – Linda Ronstadt’s Musical Odyssey (Putomayo)

Tom Russell- Down the Rio Grande

Borderland (HighTone)

Mountain City Four- All the Good Times

Mountain City Four (Omnivore)

Rory Block- Freight Train

Ain’t Nobody Worried: Celebrating Great Women of Song (Stony Plain)

Fink, Marxer, Gleaves- Oh Babe, It Ain’t No Lie

Shout and Shine (Community Music)

Deborah Robins- Shake Sugaree

Home Fires (Zippety Whippet Music)

Elizabeth Cotten- Fare You Well, My Darling

Shake Sugaree (Smithsonian Folkways)

James Keelaghan- Walk On

Second-Hand (Borealis)

Tom Chapin featuring The Chapin Sisters- Hold Our Ground Forever

Hold Our Ground (Sundance Music)

Penny Lang & Mike Regenstreif (1976) photo: Felicity Fanjoy

Penny Lang- Never Turning Back

Carry On Children (She-Wolf)

Reggie Harris- Sing Out/March On/Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round

On Solid Ground (Reggie Harris Music)

Sean Gagnier- South Coast

Circle Harbor (Sean Gagnier)

Finest Kind- Going to the West

Lost in a Song (Fallen Angle)

The Dumptrucks- Dobro Song

Selections (Laughing Cactus)

Abbie Gardner- Down the Mountain

DobroSinger (Abbie Gardner)

Chaim Tannenbaum, Dane Lanken, Kate & Anna McGarrigle- Dig My Grave

The McGarrigle Hour (Hannibal)

Loudon Wainwright III- Town & Country

Lifetime Achievement (StorySound)

Terra Spencer & Ben Caplan- Mr. M

Old News (Terra Spencer & Ben Caplan)

Mary Chapin Carpenter- Traveler’s Prayer

One Night Lonely (Lambent Light)

Philip Dyson- Maple Leaf Rag

Scott Joplin, The King of Ragtime: Complete Piano Works (Decca)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on December 3. I also host Stranger Songs on CKCU every Tuesday from 3:30-5 pm. And, I’ll be hosting Canadian Spaces on Saturday November 19 from 10 am-noon.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday April 10, 2021

Saturday Morning is an eclectic roots-oriented program on CKCU in Ottawa heard live on Saturday mornings from 7 until 10 am (Eastern time) and then available for on-demand streaming. 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 prerecorded at home and can already be streamed on-demand at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/51567.html

Note: I was subbing for Stephen Neale on this edition of Saturday Morning. I will be back in my regular Saturday Morning slot on April 24. Steve should be back in his next slot in the rotation on May 8.

The Clancy Brothers & Tommy Makem- Early Morning Rain
The Bold Fenian Men (Columbia)

Marc Nerenberg- I Wish I was a Mole in the Ground
On the Street Again (Marc Nerenberg)
Hannah Shira Naiman- Train On the Island
Know the Mountain (Merriweather)
Joachim Cooder- Over That Road I’m Bound to Go
Over That Road I’m Bound: The Songs of Uncle Dave Macon (Nonesuch)

Reggie Harris- My Working Bones
On Solid Ground (Reggie Harris Music)
Crys Matthews- Exactly Where You Are
Changemakers (Crys Matthews)
Tret Fure- Monuments
Stone by Stone (Tomboy girl Records)
Noel Paul Stookey- In These Times
Just Causes (Neworld)
Tim Grimm- A Dream
Gone (Vault)

Michael J. Miles- Mississippi Overture
Mississippi River Suite/Which Side Are You On? (Right Turn On Red Music)
Leon Bibb- Ol’ Man River
Praising Peace: A Tribute to Paul Robeson (Stony Plain)
Michael J. Miles featuring Zahra Glenda Baker- Mississippi River Suite, Part 1
Mississippi River Suite/Which Side Are You On? (Right Turn On Red Music)
Dave Brubeck Quartet featuring Jimmy Rushing- River Stay ‘Way From My Door
Brubeck & Rushing (Columbia)
Michael J. Miles featuring Zahra Glenda Baker- Mississippi River Suite, Part 2
Mississippi River Suite/Which Side Are You On? (Right Turn On Red Music)
Tom Russell & Iris DeMent- Big Water
The Long Way Around (HighTone)

Anne Hills- Golden Arms
Accidental August (Hand & Heart Music)
Katie Oates- Here in Gastonia
We Go On: Si Kahn’s Songs of Hope in Hard Times (Hollow Reed Arts Recordings)
Dave Clarke- A Thousand Days Like This
The Healing Garden (Crossties)
Steel Rail- The Last Time
Coming Home (Crossties)

Peggy Seeger- How I Long for Peace
First Farewell (Red Grape Music)
Frank London with Cantor Yaakov 'Yanky' Lemmer- Oseh Shalom
Ghetto Songs (Felmay)
Christopher Mark Jones- Call Back Your Soldiers
Looking for the Light (Small Batch Music)
Eliza Gilkyson, Patty Griffin, Mary Chapin Carpenter & Iris DeMent- Peace Call
Land of Milk and Honey (Red House)
Reggie Harris- On Solid Ground
On Solid Ground (Reggie Harris Music)

Dave Alvin- Bus Station
King of California (HighTone)
David Francey- Ankle Tattoo
The Waking Hour (Jericho Beach Music)
Michael Jerome Browne- Somebody Have Mercy
That’s Where It’s At! (Borealis)

Maria Dunn- Waltzing with the Angels
Joyful Banner Blazing (Distant Whisper)
Willie Dunn- Peruvian Dream (Part 1)
Creation Never Sleeps, Creation Never Dies: The Willie Dunn Anthology (Light in the Attic)
Anna Elizabeth Laube- Jardim da Estrela
Annamania (Continental Song City)

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

David Amram & Ramblin' Jack Elliott- Going North
No More Walls (Flying Fish)

Last Forever- Buddy’s Blues
No Place Like Home/Last Forever (2nd Story Sound)
Wynton Marsalis & Catherine Russell- Buddy’s Horn
Bolden: Music from the Original Soundtrack (Blue Engine)
Bill Morrissey- Buddy Bolden’s Blues
Something I Saw or Thought I Saw (Philo)

Maria Muldaur with Tuba Skinny- I Like You Best of All
Let’s Get Happy Together (Stony Plain)
Annabelle Chvostek- Belleville rendez-vous
String of Pearls (Annabelle Chvostek)
The Slowlinks- I Ain’t Got Nobody
Stay With Me Awhile (weewerk)
Samoa Wilson with The Jim Kweskin Band- Me, Myself and I
I Just Want to Be Horizontal (Kingswood)
Le Chat Mort- Bye Bye Baby Bye
Roses (Le Chat Mort)

Laura Smith & Mike Regenstreif (2013)

Rachelle Garniez- Don’t You Know
Gone to Glory (StorySound)
Laura Smith- I’m a Beauty
As Long As I’m Dreaming (Borealis)

David Broza- Night Dawn (Silver Dollar)
Night Dawn: The Unpublished Poetry of Townes Van Zandt (S-Curve)
Bob Jensen- Colorado Girl
For the Sake of the Song (Bob Jensen)
Matthew Barber & Jill Barber- If I Needed You
The Family Album (Outside)
Townes Van Zandt- Snowin’ On Raton
At My Window (Sugar Hill)
Orit Shimoni- Song for Townes
Strange and Beautiful Things (Orit Shimoni)

Shtreiml- Sirba Amen Sela
Har Meron (I.J. Rosenblatt)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on April 24. I also host Stranger Songs on CKCU every Tuesday from 3:30-5 pm.

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

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday May 26, 2018

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

This episode of Saturday Morning can be streamed on-demand at https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/37710.html.

Extended features – The 10-Day Album Cover Challenge; Songs of Townes Van Zandt (1944-2007).

The Wailin' Jennys- The Light of a Clear Blue Morning

Fifteen (True North)

Reggie Harris- Ready to Go

Ready to Go (Reggie Harris Music)

Tom Russell- Blue Wing

Old Songs Yet to Sing (Frontera)

Andrew & Casey Calhoun- Gun-Metal Eyes

Skeins (Waterbug)

Chuck Brodsky- Warsaw in May

Them and Us (Chuck Brodsky)

David Francey- Poorer Then

The Broken Heart of Everything (Laker)

The Facebook 10-Day Album Cover Challenge

Leonard Cohen- Suzanne

Songs of Leonard Cohen (Columbia/Legacy)

Joni Mitchell- Both Sides Now

Clouds (Reprise)

Bob Dylan- All Along the Watchtower

John Wesley Harding (Columbia/Legacy)

The Band- Stage Fright

Stage Fright (Capitol)

Jesse Winchester- The Brand New Tennessee Waltz

Jesse Winchester (Stony Plain)

Mississippi John Hurt- Richland Woman Blues

The Immortal Mississippi John Hurt (Vanguard)

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee- Cornbread, Peas and Black Molasses

In London (Marble Arch)

Tom Paxton- Morning Again

Morning Again (Elektra)

Paul Siebel- Bride 1945

Woodsmoke and Oranges (Elektra)

Judy Collins- Someday Soon

Who Knows Where the Time Goes (Elektra)

Songs of Townes Van Zandt (1944-2007)

 

Kimmie Rhodes- If I Needed You

Walls Fall Down (Sunbird)

Steve Earle- (Quicksilver Dreams of) Maria

Townes: The Basics (New West)

Kate & Edith- Rex’s Blues

Live at Kelso Hall (Kate & Edith)

Townes Van Zandt- Tower Song

Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas (Tomato)

Rosalie Sorrels- Snowing On Raton

Borderline Heart (Green Linnet)

Jimmie Dale Gilmore- No Lonesome Tune

One Endless Night (Rounder)

The Be Good Tanyas- Waiting Around to Die

Chinatown (Nettwerk)

Townes Van Zandt- No Place to Fall

Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas (Tomato)

Colleen Rennison- White Freightliner

See the Sky About to Rain (Black Hen)

Jerry Jeff Walker- I’ll Be Here in the Morning

Viva Luckenbach (Ryko)

Nanci Griffith & Arlo Guthrie- Tecumseh Valley

Other Voices/Other Rooms (Elektra)

Townes Van Zandt- Kathleen

Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas (Tomato)

The Wainwright Sisters- Our Mother the Mountain

Songs in the Dark (MapleMusic)

Guy Clark- To Live is to Fly

Old Friends (Sugar Hill)

Emmylou Harris- Pancho & Lefty

Luxury Liner (Warner Bros./Rhino)

Townes Van Zandt- For the Sake of the Song

Live at the Old Quarter, Houston, Texas (Tomato)

Bettye LaVette- Mama, You Been On My Mind

Things Have Changed (Verve)

The LYNNeS- Blame It on the Devil

Heartbreak Song for the Radio (The LYNNeS)

Laurie MacAllister- Unfamiliar Moon

The Lies the Poets Tell (Laurie MacAllister)

Vance Gilbert- Boy on a Train

Old White Men (Disismye Music)

Annie Lou- Delilah

End Zone (Annie Lou Music)

El Coyote- Only Temporary

El Coyote (El Coyote)

John Gorka- The Ballad of Iris & Pearl

True in Time (Red House)

Pharis & Jason Romero- Salt & Powder

Sweet Old Religion (Lula)

Peter Rowan- Drumbeats on the Watchtower

Carter Stanley’s Eyes (Rebel)

Ken Perlman- Londonderry Hornpipe/Jenny Dang the Weaver/Sleepy Maggie

Frails & Frolics: Fiddle Tunes from Prince Edward Island, Cape Breton, and elsewhere on Clawhammer Banjo (Redbud)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on June 23.

Find me on Twitter. @MikeRegenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Guy Clark – The Best of the Dualtone Years

GUY CLARK

The Best of the Dualtone Years

Dualtone

guyclark.com

Guy Clark (1941-2016), who died last May at age 74, had been one of my favorite singer-songwriters for more than 40 years.

As I noted four years ago in my review of My Favorite Picture of You, “I started writing about music for the Montreal Gazette back in 1975 and one of the LPs I reviewed that year was Old No. 1, the first-ever album by Guy Clark, who was already a favorite songwriter of mine thanks to having heard some of his songs sung by Jerry Jeff Walker and Bill Staines. Since then, I’ve written about almost every album Guy has done over the years. I’ve also hung out with him a few times at folk festivals and interviewed him twice – once for the Gazette and once on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio program when he came up to Montreal to play a concert with Jesse Winchester at the Outremont Theatre in 2001.

“One of those albums I’ve written about was called Old Friends. And, indeed, almost all of Guy’s albums and songs feel like old friends. They feel like old friends when you pull out one of those albums that you haven’t played for a while and they feel like old friends when you hear them for the first time. There’s something familiar and inviting about his songs when you hear them for the first time – maybe it’s “that old time feeling” Guy sang about on Old No. 1 – that turns his new songs into old friends.”

Beginning in 2006, Guy’s final four albums were released by Dualtone Records and the 2-CD set, The Best of the Dualtone Years, is a lovely collection of 16 songs from those albums plus three previously unreleased demos.

As well as 10 then-new Guy Clark songs and a Townes Van Zandt cover from Workbench Songs, Somedays the Song Writes You and My Favorite Picture of You, there are also four of Guy’s classics from Songs and Stories, a live album he released in 2011, and, as mentioned, demo versions of three songs we’ve not heard before.

While I’m loath to pick favorites from this collection – this is a best-of collection from a songwriting giant – I will mention just a few.

One of the most affecting songs is “My Favorite Picture of You,” co-written with Gordy Sampson, a lovely remembrance of Guy’s late wife, the songwriter and painter Susanna Clark. In the song, Guy reflects on a photo of Susanna, describing her and her mood when it was taken, and turning it into a touching but powerful declaration of love.

Another affecting piece is “El Coyote,” co-written with Noel McKay, which describes impoverished Mexicans trying to find a better life in America only to be preyed on, exploited and deserted by human smugglers – surely a topical song in the age of Trump.

“The Guitar,” co-written with Verlon Thompson, Guy’s longtime performing partner, describes a supernatural encounter with an instrument of destiny in a pawnshop and is a definite highlight in the collection.

The live classics include the always-fun “Homegrown Tomatoes; “The Randall Knife,” a poignant memory of his late father; “Dublin Blues,” a meditation on beauty, great art and great music set to the old folk melody from “Handsome Molly”; and “The Cape,” co-written with Susanna, which he introduces as a song “about jumping off a garage,” but is really an affirmative piece about having confidence in one’s self.

The Best of the Dualtone Years is a fine introduction to Guy Clark’s later recordings but I would recommend all of his albums to anyone interested in great songwriting.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif