Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday October 25, 2022: Songs of Yip Harburg & Hoagy Carmichael

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 prerecorded and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/58052.html

Theme: Songs of Yip Harburg (1896-1981) and Hoagy Carmichael (1899-1981).

Part 1 – Songs of Yip Harburg. E.Y. “Yip” Harburg – who died in 1981 at age 84 – was a lyricist who collaborated with several composers. This show includes some of Harburg’s collaborations with Jay Gorney, Harold Arlen, Earl Robinson and Burton Lane.

Yip Harburg (circa 1950)

Deborah Holland- Brother, Can You Spare a Dime

The Panic is On: Songs from the Great Depression (Gadfly)

Ella Fitzgerald- Ding Dong! The Wicked Witch is Dead

Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Harold Arlen Songbook (Verve)

Stephen Mendel- If I Only had a Brain

Sing Me a Story (Stephen Mendel)

Ian Tyson- Somewhere Over the Rainbow

All the Good ’Uns Vol. 2 (Stony Plain)

The Juggernauts- Lydia, the Tattooed Lady

Live Lunch (The Juggernauts)

Chaim Tannenbaum- It’s Only a Paper Moon

Chaim Tannenbaum (StorySound)

Josh White- Free and Equal Blues

From New York to London: The Classic Recordings (Jasmine)

Happy Traum- How are Things in Glocca Morra?

There’s a Bright Side Somewhere (Lark’s Nest Music)

Part 2 – Songs of Hoagy Carmichael. Hoagland Howard “Hoagy” Carmichael – who died in 1981 at age 82 – was among the most successful songwriters of the Tin Pan Alley era.

Hoagy Carmichael (1947)

Ray Charles- Georgia on My Mind

Singular Genius: The Complete ABC Singles (Concord)

Jane Voss & Hoyle Osborne- Bread and Gravy

Beyond the Boundaries (Ripple)

Amos Garrett- New Orleans

Amosbehavin’ (Stony Plain)

Maria Muldaur with Hoagy Carmichael- Rockin’ Chair

Sweet Harmony (Reprise)

David Clayton-Thomas- Stardust

Combo (Antionette)

Dave Van Ronk & Christine Lavin- Two Sleepy People

Hummin’ to Myself (Gazell)

Martha Seyler & Robert Resnik- Skylark

Martha Sings & Robert Plays (Martha Seyler & Robert Resnik)

Cindy Church, George Koller & Joe Sealy- I Get Along Without You Very Well

The Nearness of You: A Tribute to the Music of Hoagy Carmichael (Seajam)

Judy Henske- Baltimore Oriole

The Elektra Albums (Ace)

Loudon Wainwright III with Vince Giordano & The Nighthawks- Heart and Soul

I’d Rather Lead a Band (Search Party) 

Jeff Healey- Hong Kong Blues

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

Junior Brown- Riverboat Shuffle

Mixed Bag (Curb)

Hoagy Carmichael- Lazybones

Stardust Melody (Bluebird)

Leon Redbone- Lazy River

Up a Lazy River (Rounder)

Geoff Muldaur & Amos Garrett- Washboard Blues

Geoff Muldaur & Amos Garrett (Flying Fish)

Cindy Church, George Koller & Joe Sealy- In the Cool, Cool, Cool of the Evening

The Nearness of You: A Tribute to the Music of Hoagy Carmichael (Seajam)

Next week: Radio.

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--Mike Regenstreif

Ian Tyson – All the Good’ Uns Vol. 2

IAN TYSON
All the Good’ Uns Vol. 2
Stony Plain Records 
iantyson.com

The early Ian & Sylvia albums had a lot to do with getting me into folk music when I first started buying records as a kid in the 1960s. Together with Ian Tyson’s solo work from the 1970s to now, he is responsible for one of the most significant bodies of work bridging folk, country, and western music.

In 1996, Ian put together All the Good’ Uns, a best-of collection of songs drawn from the six albums he’d released since 1983 – albums that revitalized his career and essentially kick-started the revival of cowboy culture in the contemporary world. In my Montreal Gazette review, I gently took Ian to task for the album title. “It would pretty much take a boxed set of all the earlier albums to get ALL the good ‘uns,” I argued.

And that is pretty much the case with All the Good ‘Uns Vol. 2, a collection of 19 great songs drawn from five albums released between 1999 and 2012. But, I guess, choices have to be made in assembling such collections and it’s hard to argue with any of the choices: they are all good ‘uns.

Among the songs included from 1999’s Lost Herd is “La Primera,” a ballad about the

history of horses in the Americas that Ian anthropomorphically tells from the point of

view of one of the first 16 horses brought to the New World in 1493. It’s an ambitious and potentially pretentious concept for a five minute song, but with it Ian proves he is a master of timeless and classic songwriting. A couple of other Lost Herd songs, including the title track and “Brahmas and Mustangs” lament the loss of the old west to modernity.

A three-song segment of then-new material from Live at Longview, a concert recording from 2002, is highlighted by “Bob Fudge,” the story of a disastrous 1882 cattle drive that Ian sings from the perspective of a cowboy who survived it.

Among the four songs included from 2005’s Songs from the Gravel Road are “Land of Shining Mountain,” the lead-off song on the CD, in which he describes the foothills of the Rocky Mountains where he lives and, in the third person, mentions that the only girl he wanted has left and is not coming back, and “This is My Sky,” in which he cynically wonders if anyone mates for life before speculating that perhaps it’s only the Canada goose that does.

Four songs are included from 2008’s Yellowhead to Yellowstone and Other Love Songs and two from 2012’s Raven Singer, the albums he recorded after vocal cord scarring and a virus combined to give Ian what he called his “new voice.” Although his singing was hoarser, grittier and even whispery at times, Ian remained a master at song communication. In the vivid “Yellowhead to Yellowstone,” Ian is again singing anthropomorphically, this time from a wolf'’s perspective, as he describes the territories he travels and in “Charles Goodnight’s Grave,” he sings about the legendary cattle rancher who forged the Goodnight-Loving cattle drive trail.

Ian ends All the Good ‘Uns Vol. 2 with his the only song on the CD he didn't write or co-write, a poignant version of Yip Harburg and Harold Arlen’s classic “Somewhere Over the Rainbow” from Lost Herd that he completely makes his own.

Ian is reporting that recent surgery and therapy have pretty much restored his voice to what it was and he’ll be back on the road this year including a concert with Corb Lund, November 30, at the National Arts Centre here in Ottawa that I’m highly anticipating.

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--Mike Regenstreif