Canadian Spaces – CKCU – Saturday July 11, 2015

CKCU can be heard at 93.1 FM in Ottawa and http://www.ckcufm.com/ on the web.

Canadian Spaces on CKCU in Ottawa is Canada’s longest-running folk music radio program. It is heard Saturday mornings from 10:00 am until noon (Eastern time).

It was hosted for more than 33 years by the late Chopper McKinnon and is now hosted by Chris White and a rotating cast of co-hosts.

This week’s show was co-hosted by Mike Regenstreif and Chris White.

Guests: John Carroll; Arthur McGregor; Leonard Youngfoot; Joel LeBlanc

Orit Shimoni- Yonathan

If Love is a Religion (Orit Shimoni)

Eli West, Margaret Glaspy, Brittany Haas, Greg Garrison, Jayme Stone- Susan Anna Gal

Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project (Borealis)

Bill Garrett- Stubbs Stomp

Bill Garrett (Borealis)

The Slocan Ramblers- Streamline Cannonball

Coffee Creek (The Slocan Ramblers)

Kate & Anna McGarrigle, Emmylou Harris, Loudon Wainwright- Green Green Rocky Road

The McGarrigle Hour (Hannibal)

Fraser & Girard- Dance Hall Girls

Fraser & Girard (Allan Fraser & Marianne Girard)

Tom Russell- The Rose of Roscrae

The Rose of Roscrae: A Ballad of the West (Frontera)

Ian Tyson- Wolves No Longer Sing

Carnero Vaquero (Stony Plain)

Colleen Peterson- The Circle

Postcards from California (Souvenir)

Murray McLauchlan- Out Past the Timberline

Songs from the Street: The Best of Murray McLauchlan (True North)

Pete Seeger- Both Sides Now

Young vs. Old (Columbia)

John Carroll- Everybody Smokes in Hell

Live in the studio

Arthur McGregor- True Folk News

Live in the studio

Leonard Youngfoot- Which Side Are You On?

Live in the studio

Leonard Youngfoot- Heartache

Live in the studio

Catherine MacLellan- The Raven’s Sun

The Raven’s Sun (Catherine MacLellan)

Dave Gunning- These Hands

No More Pennies (Wee House of Music)

The show is now available for online listening. http://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/129/22902.html

I’ll be co-hosting Canadian Spaces again on August 29.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Ian Tyson – Carnero Vaquero

IAN TYSON

Carnero Vaquero

Stony Plain Records

iantyson.com

By now, the story of Ian Tyson’s losing much of the range in his voice is well known. And you can hear that loss on his last couple of albums. However, as I noted in a concert review about a year-and-half-ago, Ian’s got his voice back thanks to successful vocal cord surgery.

And that voice – familiar from those great Ian & Sylvia albums of the 1960s and early-‘70s and from so many great solo albums in the decades since – is in fine form on Carnero Vaquero a terrific collection that includes six new songs written or co-written by Ian, one of this country’s finest songwriters for more than a half-century.

My favorite of the new songs is “Wolves No Longer Sing,” a beautiful, poetic song co-written by Tom Russell about the changing West and the passage of the old ways. It’s even a lament for the days when music and songs came from people’s lives rather than a place of commerce. (The song first surfaced earlier this year in a version sung by Gretchen Peters on Tom’s brilliant folk opera The Rose of Roscrae: A Ballad of the West.)

Other favorites from among the new songs are a couple co-written with Kris Demeanor. “Jughound Ronnie,” is a contemporary take on the traditional “Black Jack David” story that is very much in the tradition of what Woody Guthrie did with the traditional source material in his “Gypsy Davy,” while “The Flood” uses the backdrop of the terrible floods in Alberta two years ago to set the scene for a story of a broken relationship.

Other highlights include the beautiful traditional cowboy song “Doney Gal,” Will Dudley’s infectious “Colorado Horses,” and new versions of “Will James,” Ian’s tribute to the great cowboy author (who was actually a French Canadian born in Quebec) and “Darcy Farrow,” Steve Gillette and Tom Campbell’s beautifully crafted traditional-style ballad first recorded 50 years ago by Ian & Sylvia.

Ian recorded the album on the ranch in Alberta with his working band and they know just what to do with these songs. At 81, Ian Tyson sounds as great as ever.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Jack Nissenson 1933-2015

The Mountain City Four in 1964: Kate McGarrigle, Jack Nissenson, Anna McGarrigle and Peter Weldon (Photo: Brian Merrett, Merrett Images)

I was saddened to hear that traditional folksinger and storyteller Jack Nissenson passed away this week in Montreal at age 82.

Jack started performing traditional folksongs in Montreal in the 1950s and was a member of an early-‘60s folk group called the Pharisees.

Circa 1964, Jack and Peter Weldon, also a member of the Pharisees, met teenaged sisters Kate and Anna McGarrigle and formed the Mountain City Four, the most legendary of 1960s folk groups in Montreal.

After the Mountain City Four, Jack performed as a soloist and in several other groups – most recently the What Four, which also included Peter Weldon and Jane McGarrigle. He was also active in storytelling circles.

On July 2, 1962, when the still relatively unknown Bob Dylan performed at Shimon Ash’s Finjan coffeehouse on Victoria Avenue in Montreal, Jack recorded the set and, years later, the tape became one of the best Dylan bootleg albums.

Jack was one of my early mentors on the Montreal folk scene. I learned much from him in the late-1960s and ‘70s. Although I didn’t see him often in recent years, I continued to enjoy his friendship whenever our paths crossed.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif