Mike Seeger 1933-2009

I’m saddened to report that Mike Seeger passed away last night, just a week shy of his 76th birthday. He’d been in hospice care at home in Lexington, Virginia since deciding to end the cancer treatment he’d been undergoing.

Mike's contributions as a musician, singer, member of the New Lost City Ramblers, folklorist and much more cannot be underestimated. His recordings – solo, various collaborations, and, of course, with the Ramblers – are essential to anyone interested in the traditional music of the American south.

I had the great honour of working with Mike a couple of times at festivals. He was always very gracious and a pleasure to interact with. He was also a great resource to turn to when researching anything to do with old-time music.

--Mike Regenstreif

Sing Out Magazine! Summer 2009

My copy of the Summer 2009 issue of Sing Out! Magazine arrived in today’s mail. The cover story is on Feufollet.

As usual, this issue of Sing Out! has a bunch of my CD reviews including:

Bruce Cockburn- Slice O Life: Live Solo (True North/Rounder)
Debra Cowan- Fond Desire Farewell (Falling Mountain)
Guy Davis- Sweetheart Like You (Red House)
Ray Doyle- The Emigrant Trail: A Journey West (Emigrant Trail)
Justin Townes Earle- Midnight at the Movies (Bloodshot)
Flatlanders- Hills and Valleys (New West)
Good Lovelies- Good Lovelies (Good Lovelies)
Eddie Holstein- Eddie Holstein (Eddie Holstien)
John Lee Hooker- 50 Years: John Lee Hooker Anthology (Shout! Factory)
Eilen Jewell- Sea of Tears (Signature Sounds)
Gretchen Peters with Tom Russell- One to the Heart, One to the Head (Frontera/Scarlet Letter)
Harvey Reid- Of Wind and Water (Woodpecker)
Saffire-The Uppity Blues Women- Havin’ the Last Word (Alligator)
Sometymes Why- Your Heart is a Glorious Machine (Signature Sounds)
Various Artists- Red House 25: A Silver Anniversary Retrospective (Red House)
Various Artists- Singing Through the Hard Times: A Tribute to Utah Phillips (Righteous Babe)
William Elliott Whitmore- Animals in the Dark (Anti-)
Jesse Winchester- Love Filling Station (Appleseed)

--Mike Regenstreif

Sandy Paton 1929-2009

I received word this morning that folksinger-folklorist-record producer Sandy Paton – pictured here with wife Caroline – passed away yesterday evening at age 80. Sandy had been suffering from emphysema and congestive heart failure over the past few years and just last month faced the tragic death of his 15-year-old grandson, Kaelan, in a drowning accident.

A 1950s-era folksinger and recording artist, Sandy was best known as the main producer behind Folk-Legacy Records, a labour-of-love record company he founded in 1961 with Caroline and the late Lee Haggerty. Folk-Legacy recorded scores of albums by traditional artists like Frank Proffitt, Hobart Smith and Norman Kennedy and in-the-tradition contemporary artists like Art Thieme, Gordon Bok and Margaret Christl & Ian Robb. Many years ago, I operated a small booking agency for folk artists and two of my client-friends, Rosalie Sorrels and Bill Staines, had LPs on Folk-Legacy.

I first met Sandy – and Caroline and Lee – in the mid-1970s when I went to the Fox Hollow Folk Festival to help run the Philo Records booth and we were set up next to Folk-Legacy. From then, right through this decade, I’ve always made it a point to spend time catching up with Sandy whenever we were at the same festival (which seemed to average about once a year). And in the past 10 or 12 years we often exchanged e-mail messages.

Sandy and Caroline were supporters of Folk Roots/Folk Branches from the beginning of the program’s run in 1994 and always made sure that I had their latest releases and any of their reissues I was interested in. Two weeks ago, I made a rare live return to CKUT to guest-host the Sunday night bluegrass and country hours and included a song from Jim Ringer’s great Folk-Legacy album, Waitin’ for the Hard Times to Go.

For a good bio of Sandy, please see this birthday tribute to Sandy that Ron Olesko wrote a couple of years ago.

Sandy Paton was a real mensch who will be missed by all who ever knew him.

--Mike Regenstreif

CKUT Bluegrass & Country hours

Sunday July 12, 2009 – 7:00-9:00 pm

I made a rare return to live radio to guest-host the Bluegrass Ramblings and Country Classics hours on CKUT (90.3 FM in Montreal).

This program is available as a podcast (for two months) for streaming or downloading at

http://secure.ckut.ca/64/20090712.19.00-21.04.mp3

The program begins 18 seconds into the download.

This program was dedicated to the memory of the late jazz broadcaster extraordinaire Len Dobbin who passed away Thursday at age 74. Earlier today I was privileged to participate in CKUT’s special five-hour homage to Len.

STEVE MARTIN- Pitkin County Turnaround
The Crow (Rounder)

DIAN & THE GREENBRIAR BOYS- Cannon Ball Blues
Dian & the Green Briar Boys (Collector’s Choice)
CHARLIE HADEN featuring RACHEL HADEN & TANYA HADEN- Oh, Take Me Back
Charlie Haden Family & Friends: Rambling Boy (Decca)
ROBIN & LINDA WILLIAMS- Maybelle’s Guitar and Monroe’s Mandolin
Buena Vista (Red House)
TONY TRISCHKA w/MICHAEL DAVES- Molly and Tenbrooks
Territory (Smithsonian Folkways)

Country Kicks Cancer – A Benefit for Cancer Research Organization “Team in Training” with Notre Dame de Grass, Ladies of the Canyon, Yonder Hill, Lake of Stew, Terry Joe “Banjo”, Mike O'Brien and Colin Moore, Wednesday, July 29, 8:00 pm, at Café Campus, 57 Prince Arthur East. Visit http://hellodarlinproductions.com/ or call 514-524-9225 for info or tickets.

NOTRE DAME DE GRASS- New Canada Road
New Canada Road (Hello Darlin’)
YONDER HILL- Missing Me
Yonder Hill (Yonder Hill)
LAKE OF STEW- The 105
Ain’t Tired of Lovin’ (Woodhog)
TERRY JOE “BANJO”- Blackberry Blossom
Mountain Calling (Terry Joe Banjo Rodrigues)

BERGGREN/KIRK/SHAW featuring ANN DOWNEY- Log Driver’s Waltz
North River/North Woods (Sleeping Giant)
SHEARWATER BLUEGRASS- Argyle Street
Shearwater (Shearwater)
STEVE MARTIN- Wally on the Run
The Crow (Rounder)

DIANA JONES- All God’s Children
Better Times Will Come (Proper American)
RITA HOSKING- Little Joe
Come Sunrise (Rita Hosking)
ALECIA NUGENT- Hillbilly Goddess
Hillbilly Goddess (Rounder)

CROOKED STILL- The Absentee
Still Crooked (Signature Sounds)
CEDAR HILL REFUGEES (lead vocal: RALPH STANLEY)- Keys to the Kingdom
Pale Imperfect Diamond (Effigy)
MARGOT LEVERETT & THE KLEZMER MOUNTAIN BOYS- High Lonesome Honga
2nd Avenue Square Dance (Traditional Crossroads)

NANCI GRIFFITH- The Loving Kind
The Loving Kind (Rounder)
RONNY COX- Can I Come Back Home
Songs…with Repercussions (Wind River)
CORIN RAYMOND- There will Always be a Small Time
There will Always be a Small Time (Corin Raymond)

GRETCHEN PETERS w/TOM RUSSELL- Guadalupe
One to the Heart, One to the Head (Frontera/Scarlet Letter)
TOM RUSSELL w/DAVE ALVIN- Blue Wing
The Tom Russell Anthology: Veteran’s Day (Shout! Factory)
KERRY GROMBACHER- Never Come Again
It Sings in the Hi Line (Kerry Grombacher)
JAMES TALLEY- Sometimes I Think About Suzanne
Tryin’ Like the Devil (Cimarron)

I’ll be hosting The Montreal Folk Reunion with Jesse Winchester, Penny Lang, Bruce Murdoch, Willie Dunn and Ron Bankley on Saturday, July 18, from 3-4:30 pm, at the Apple Hollow Music Fest in Franklin Centre, QC. All of those artists, and many others, will also be doing full concert sets at some point during the day or evening. Visit http://www.applehollowmusicfest.org/ or call 450-827-2748 for info or tickets.

JESSE WINCHESTER- Bless Your Foolish Heart
Love Filling Station (Appleseed)
PENNY LANG- (Up To My Neck In) High Muddy Waters
Stone + Sand + Sea + Sky (Borealis)
BRUCE MURDOCH- As Soon as Possible
Matters of the Heart (Bruce Murdoch)
WILLIE DUNN- School Days
Metallic (Aural Tradition)
JESSE WINCHESTER- It’s a Shame About Him
Love Filling Station (Appleseed)

JOE ELY- Lift Your Leg
Man of Somebody’s Dreams: A Tribute to Chris Gaffney (Yep Roc)
DAVE ALVIN & THE GUILTY WOMEN- River Under the Road
Dave Alvin & the Guilty Women (Yep Roc)

TISH HINOJOSA w/DALE WATSON- Count Me In
Our Little Planet (Varese Sarabande)

Len Dobbin 1935-2009

I got the very sad news this morning that Len Dobbin, Canada’s finest jazz broadcaster, passed away after suffering a stroke last night at the Upstairs jazz club.

I think Len started at CKUT about a month or so after I did back in 1994. Before that, of course, he did his essential weekly jazz show for many years on commercial radio. For some years, before he moved over to Sundays, Len and I were neighbours in the 9:00-11:30 am slot -– Dobbin’s Den was on Wednesday mornings and Folk Roots/Folk Branches on Thursdays.

Len and I were friends long before we were radio colleagues. I first got to know him when he'd come and see concerts that I produced in the 1970s and ‘80s with artists like Odetta and David Amram.

More than the jazz festival, or any particular club, Len was the glue that held the Montreal jazz scene together for at least 50, if not 60, years.

I learned a lot from Len over the years and feel very honoured that he asked me to sit in his chair and host Dobbin’s Den a few times.

This picture of me, David Amram and Len was taken June 30, 2002.

--Mike Regenstreif

In Tribute to Jackie Washington

Folk Roots/Folk Branches with Mike Regenstreif is now a 30-minute feature heard occasionally on CKUT, 90.3 FM in Montreal.

Thursday July 9, 2009

In Tribute to Jackie Washington

When Jackie Washington, the legendary folk/jazz/blues singer, guitarist, pianist and raconteur from Hamilton, Ontario passed away on June 27 at the age of 89, Canada lost one of our most beloved performers, and, I would hazard to guess, our most venerable performer. Although he was already in his mid-50s when he made his first LP, Jackie began performing at the age of five as one of the Four Washington Brothers.

For more about Jackie, please see my posting of June 28.

MIKE REGENSTREIF- commentary 1

JACKIE WASHINGTON- What That Midnight Choo Choo Leaves for Alabam’
Midnight Coo Choo (Borealis)
JACKIE WASHINGTON- Sugarfoot Rag
Midnight Coo Choo (Borealis)

MIKE REGENSTREIF- commentary 2

JACKIE WASHINGTON- Street of Dreams
Midnight Coo Choo (Borealis)
JACKIE WASHINGTON- Triscadecaphobia
Midnight Coo Choo (Borealis)

MIKE REGENSTREIF- commentary 3

JACKIE WASHINGTON- Take the “A” Train
Keeping Out of Mischief (Pyramid)
JACKIE WASHINGTON- Alabamy Bound
Midnight Coo Choo (Borealis)

MIKE REGENSTREIF- commentary 4

SCARLETT, WASHINGTON & WHITELEY- Walking Down the Line
Sitting on a Rainbow (Borealis)
SCARLETT, WASHINGTON & WHITELEY- We’ll Meet Again
We’ll Meet Again (Borealis)

MIKE REGENSTREIF- commentary 5

This feature is available as a podcast (for two months) for streaming or downloading at

http://secure.ckut.ca/64/20090709.09.45-10.14.mp3

The feature begins five seconds into the download.

Special Program Note: I’ll be doing a rare live show on CKUT on Sunday evening, July 12, from 7:00 to 9:00 pm, with a program of bluegrass and country roots and branches.

Apple Hollow Music Fest

The Apple Hollow Music Fest in Franklin Centre, QC is next up on my folk festival agenda. Franklin Centre is in the Chateauguay Valley near the New York border about an hour, as the car drives, from Montreal.

This is Year 2 for Apple Hollow, and it’s a really nice little festival put together by Adrien Doucette, who was previously the artistic director of the Branches & Roots Festival in Ormstown. Last year’s Apple Hollow was a great day in the country filled with some excellent music and I’m anticipating an even better festival this year.

The festival begins Friday, July 17, with an open stage jam session and then continues all afternoon and evening Saturday, July 18, with a very impressive line-up that's worthy of a much bigger festival and that includes Jesse Winchester, Bruce Murdoch, Penny Lang and many more. A whole incredible day with lots of great artists for $15 – you’d usually have to pay three times that just to see Jesse on his own.

I’ve always felt that workshops are the real heart and soul of a folk festival and Apple Hollow’s schedule includes an incredible workshop – The Montreal Folk Reunion – that I wouldn’t want to miss even if I wasn’t hosting it. Imagine, Jesse Winchester, Bruce Murdoch, Penny Lang, Willie Dunn, Ron Bankley and me, all on stage together with stories and songs that recall the fabled days of the Montreal folk scene of the 1960s and ‘70s (and, no doubt, some new songs and stories too).

Be sure and say “hi” at Apple Hollow.
--Mike Regenstreif

Jackie Washington 1919-2009

Jackie Washington, the legendary folk/jazz/blues singer, guitarist, pianist and raconteur from Hamilton passed away yesterday at age 89.

From the first time I heard Jackie, at the Mariposa Folk Festival – I think in 1974, maybe ’75 – to the shows I produced for him at the Golem in Montreal until the final concert I saw him do last year with Ken Whiteley and Mose Scarlett at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa, I loved being in his audience. He was a wonderful performer with a seemingly endless repertoire of standards and obscurities. Just as good were the opportunities to sit and visit with him off-stage where the stories and songs would always continue to flow. In 2004, Jackie did a wonderful interview with me on Folk Roots/Folk Branches.

As a guitar player, he had a sense of chords and rhythm that I’ve only ever heard from two other players: the late Freddie Green of the Count Basie Band and the late Ted Bogan of Martin, Bogan & Armstrong. Close your eyes, point your ears to the sky and maybe you’ll hear Jackie sitting in a circle with Freddie and Ted having one heaven of a jam session.

To be in Jackie’s presence was to feel the joy of music and the joy of being alive. I’ll have a Folk Roots/Folk Branches radio feature honouring Jackie sometime in the coming weeks.

This picture, taken in the green room at Library & Archives Canada on May 8, 2008, is of Sneezy Waters, Ken Whiteley and me all kneeling behind Jackie.

--Mike Regenstreif

Diana Jones -- Better Times Will Come

Diana Jones
Better Times Will Come
Proper American
dianajonesmusic.com

Diana Jones released a couple of albums in the 1990s – which I’ve never heard and are now out-of-print – but her breakthrough as a major folk music artist came with My Remembrance of You, an excellent album she released in 2006. The CD revealed an extraordinary songwriter who crafts seemingly plain and simple songs that are actually fully developed character studies wedded to timeless melodies. Better Times Will Come, Diana’s new album, is every bit as good as its predecessor.

I was already familiar with a couple of these songs from versions by other artists. The first is “Henry Russell’s Last Words,” recorded last year by Joan Baez on Day After Tomorrow, a deeply moving true story based on a letter written with a piece of coal on a paper bag by a trapped and dying miner after a mine explosion in 1927. The other is “If I Had a Gun,” whose key line, “one to the heart, one to the head,” gave Gretchen Peters the title to her superb CD released early this year. That song – co-written with Celeste Krenz, Rebecca Folsom and Liz Barnez, the only song on the CD not wholly written by Diana – is sung from the perspective of a battered woman imagining she had the power to drop her abuser with a couple of shots.

Diana, herself, is not the protagonist in many of these songs. But, there is certainly something of her in some of them. Diana was an adoptee who, in adulthood, found her birth mother and developed a relationship with her. She draws on that experience in the poignant “All God’s Children,” the story of an 18-year-old adoptee beginning her own search to find her birth mother.

Other highlights include “Better Times Will Come,” the title track, a hopeful song for our current hard times, “Cracked and Broken,” an affirmation that true beauty is to be found in imperfection, and “Soldier Girl,” sung from the perspective of a woman soldier headed off to serve in some place like Iraq or Afghanistan. The song touches on the class differences that draw some poor people into trying to find some measure of security in the military.

Diana Jones is not a me-oriented singer-songwriter. Her songs are deeply influenced by folk traditions and stand tall in the company of timeless traditional folk songs.

--Mike Regenstreif

Rodney Brown -- Northland

Rodney Brown
North Land
Starslik Records
rodneybrown.ca

Rodney Brown is a veteran singer-songwriter from Thunder Bay who meticulously researches and finely crafts songs that tell stories mostly drawn from the history of northern Ontario.

Among the historical figures encountered on North Land are William McGillivray, for whom Brown’s hometown of Fort William was named (Fort William was merged with Port Arthur to create Thunder Bay). In “I Followed You Down,” Brown retraces McGillivray’s early life, before he came to Canada, in Scotland and England. He follows that song with “McGillivray’s Dream,” a song based on Lord of the North West, Marjorie Wilkins Campbell’s biography of McGillivray in which he sings in awe of McGillivray’s early life and then admits to not being able to finish the later chapters dealing with the ultimate failure of the dream and of the evils committed by Lord Selkirk. In “What Would Susan Say?” Brown speculates about how Susan, McGillivray’s wife, might have felt about the Cree woman who was McGillivray’s country wife.

My first encounter-in-song with The Nancy, a fur trade schooner loaned to the British by the Northwest Company in the War of 1812, was in a Stan Rogers song called “The Nancy,” in which Stan told the story of a victory engineered by the crew of The Nancy. Ultimately, though, as Brown relates in his liner notes, The Nancy was destroyed by her own crew rather than face defeat at the hands of Americans. His song, “Avenge The Nancy” tells how the crew of The Nancy gained their revenge.

My favourite track is “John Macdonell and Magdeleine Poitras,” an infectious song that tells the story of a fur trader and his Métis wife and the majestic home they built on the Ottawa River.

There are several other fascinating stories in other songs on this fine album. Rodney’s singing, the excellent arrangements featuring some of Canada’s finest musicians, and Paul Mills’ crystalline production, all serve the songs exceptionally well.

--Mike Regenstreif

Festival Folk sur le canal

Festival Folk sur le canal is returning for a second year on the St. Ambroise Terrace, on the Lachine Canal, behind the McCauslin Brewery at 5080 St. Ambroise Street on Saturday, June 27 from noon until 11 pm.

Joel Plaskett, currently one of the hottest singer-songwriters in Canada, is headlining an excellent line-up that includes a number of artists that I’m always eager to listen to.

Always at the top of my list is Michael Jerome Browne, a master of almost every traditional roots-oriented style from blues to country, from Appalachian music to Cajun and of virtually all stringed instruments.

Others at the festival that I’m looking forward to hearing are Socalled (Josh Dolgin), who blends traditional klezmer and contemporary hip hop into something uniquely his own; Li’l Andy, who’s a fine and insightful country-oriented songwriter; Yonder Hill, whose sublime three-part bluegrass harmonies are something special; and Guy Donis, a most impressive banjo virtuoso.

There are also several groups that I haven’t yet had a chance to see including Ladies of the Canyon, a group that I’ve been looking forward to for a long time.

Last year’s festival on the canal was a great day of music and I’m sure this year’s edition will be too.

Oh, BTW, I'll be one of the MCs at Festival Folk sur le canal.

For information, visit hellodarlinproductions.com or call 514-524-9225.

--Mike Regenstreif

Glengarry Music Festival

As many know, I ride the bus almost every week between Montreal and Ottawa. About halfway there, and halfway back, I pass Vankleek Hill and symbolically wave to Terry Gillespie, the veteran blues and reggae artist who lives out that way.

Terry has put together the Glengarry Music Festival, an interesting series of concerts this summer and early fall in a converted barn in nearby Alexandria featuring an in impressive roster of artists. Actually, it’s really two series of concerts, one spread out over four Saturday nights and the other over four Sunday afternoons. The ticket price – $45 for the evening shows and $35 for the afternoon shows – includes Saturday night dinner or Sunday luncheon.

The Saturday night series opens June 20 with blues artists Sue Foley and Peter Karp teamed up to unveil He Said She Said, their acoustic duet album. While I’ve never seen Peter play, Sue is one of Canada’s mightiest blues artists and I’ve particularly enjoyed the acoustic things I’ve seen her do.

The Saturday night series continues July 18 with legendary South African singer Thandie Klaasen, August 22 with innovative jazz singer Karen Young and September 19 with the excellent blues-soaked singer-songwriter Ray Bonneville.

The Sunday afternoon series begins June 28 with Lynne Hanson, a very fine singer-songwriter from Ottawa, now making her mark all over the place, who blends contemporary folk and alt-country influences.

The Sunday afternoon series continues July 26 with local fiddler Ashley MacLeod, August 30 with Montreal blues legends Stephen Barry and Andrew Cowan in their creative duo setting, and winds up September 27 with Toronto’s Johnny Max Trio playing blues.

For information, visit glengarrymusicfestival.com or call 613-678-5862.

--Mike Regenstreif

Songs of Steve Gillette

Folk Roots/Folk Branches with Mike Regenstreif is now a 30-minute feature heard occasionally on CKUT, 90.3 FM in Montreal.

Thursday June 11, 2009

The songs of Steve Gillette

For the past 20 or so years, Steve Gillette has been recording and touring in a partnership with his wife, Cindy Mangsen. But Steve’s history on the folk music scene goes back to the mid-1960s. He first came to prominence in the mid-1960s when Darcy Farrow and several other songs he wrote in traditional folk song styles became popular through the recordings of Ian & Sylvia, and then, many other artists.

This Folk Roots/Folk Branches features interpretations of Steve Gillette songs by a variety of artists.

MIKE REGENSTREIF- commentary 1

IAN & SYLVIA- Darcy Farrow
The Complete Vanguard Studio Recordings (Vanguard) or Early Morning Rain (Vanguard)
CAROLYN HESTER- 2:10 Train
At Town Hall (Bear Family)
SCOTT ALARIK- Molly and Tenbrooks
All That is True (Scott Alarik)

MIKE REGENSTREIF- commentary 2

RONNY COX- Grapes on the Vine
Songs…with Repercussions (Wind River)
LAUREL CANYON RAMBLERS- Back on the Street Again
Back on the Street Again (Sugar Hill)

MIKE REGENSTREIF- commentary 3

MATT WATROBA- Bed of Roses
The Best is Yet to Be (Ledgewood)
TED HAWKINS- Happy Hour
The Ted Hawkins Story: Suffer No More (Rhino) or Happy Hour (Rounder)

MIKE REGENSTREIF- commentary 4

STEVE GILLETTE- The River
The Ways of the World (Compass Rose)

MIKE REGENSTREIF- commentary 5

For more on Steve Gillette, visit compassrosemusic.com/.

This feature is available as a podcast (for two months) for streaming or downloading at secure.ckut.ca/64/20090611.09.45-10.14.mp3.

Folk Roots/Folk Branches is now a blog featuring Mike Regenstreif’s playlists, CD and DVD reviews, news and commentaries.

frfb.blogspot.com

Nanci Griffith -- The Loving Kind

Nanci Griffith
The Loving Kind
Rounder
nancigriffith.com

Back in the early-1980s, when I was running the Golem, I used to book a number of artists – most notably Odetta – through Len Rosenfeld, an agent in New York City. Len asked me to take a chance on an unknown singer-songwriter from Texas that he really liked and sent me copies of Nanci Griffith’s first two LPs, There’s a Light Beyond These Woods and Poet in My Window,released on tiny a Texas label called Featherbed (later reissued by Philo/Rounder). I really liked them too and started booking Nanci at the Golem. She played there regularly through the rest of my tenure at the Golem (the end of 2007). During that period Nanci recorded two of the very best albums of her career, Once in a Very Blue Moon and The Last of the True Believers. Her song, “Banks of the Pontchartrain,” from The Last of the True Believers was based on Nanci’s trips to Montreal to play at the Golem.

This new album, I think, is Nanci’s best set of mostly original material since The Last of the True Believers and her best album, period, since the two Other Voices albums in the 1990s. She’s again writing songs with something to say, she’s singing like she means it and she’s surrounded herself with a tight, small band of ace musicians including Matt McKenzie on bass, Barry Walsh on keyboards, Shad Cobb on fiddle and co-producers Pat McInerney on drums and Thom Jutz on guitar.

My favourite songs on the album are the title song, a tribute to an interracial couple – whose name really was ‘Loving’ – who defied state law to marry in Virginia in 1958. Theirs was the precedent setting case at the U.S. Supreme Court that struck down American laws barring interracial marriage; “One of These Days,” a sweet remake of a tune from The Last of the True Believers; “Across America,” a celebration of the hope that came alive as the old Bush era gave way to the new Obama era; and “Up Against the Rain,” a song for the late, great Townes Van Zandt. I once spent a very intense evening chatting with Townes and I think Nanci’s really captured something of the torment that was at the heart of his soul.

If I’m remembering right, Jerry Jeff Walker, in the liner notes to Guy Clark’s first album – Old No. 1, a great album, BTW – talked about the “natural music of the acoustic guitar.” The Loving Kind, I think, is a return to the natural music of Nanci Griffith.

--Mike Regenstreif

Corin Raymond -- There will Always be a Small Time

Corin Raymond
There will Always be a Small Time
corinraymond.com

From reading his bio, I gather that Corin Raymond has an earlier album and one or two before that as a member of a duo called the Undesirables, but this CD was my first exposure to him and his songs. Most of the album is solid stuff – very good songs with nice arrangements and superior production. Raymond turns in fine performances making this an album I can recommend with little hesitation, an album I expect to put on years from now and still enjoy.

There are a few songs, though, that rise above the pack. “Michelene” is a gorgeous love song with the kind of lyrical anglo-franco interplay that Daniel Lanois was doing on a couple of his early songs and an arrangement built around some excellent accordion work by Treasa Levasseur. And “The Lonely One” is a lost-at-love rock ‘n’ roll ballad that could have been a hit for Roy Orbison back in the day.

THE killer song, though, is “There will Always be a Small Time,” a near-perfect piece of songwriting that captures the essence of why musicians are compelled to play music, of why songwriters are compelled to write songs, of why they’re compelled to play their music and perform their songs for whoever’s wanting or willing to listen, and of why they make records to sell from the stage. It’s a song that celebrates the human connections that are possible when real musicians play real music for real people without any kind of corporate filters.

“There will Always be a Small Time” is one of those it’s-worth-the price-of-the-album songs. That there’s lots of other worthwhile stuff on the CD is almost a bonus.

--Mike Regenstreif