Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday November 24, 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/128/40368.html

Extended feature: Songs of Bob Dylan, Part 2.

Larry Hanks- South Coast

The Last Wagon (Zippety Whippet Music)

Catherine & Ronny Cox- Jesus Velarde

Jesus Velarde – single (Ronny Cox)

Eric Bibb- Hoist Up the Banner

Global Griot (Stony Plain)

Yale Strom's Broken Consort- The Fool Over Yonder *

Shimmering Lights (Arc)

Chris White- Hold Fast to Your Memories

Music All Around (Chris White)

*Due to a faulty CD only part of “The Fool Over Yonder” was heard.

The Roches- Pretty and High

Where Do I Come From: Selected Songs (StorySound)

Debi Smith- Gone, Gone

Deep Tracks (Degan Music)

Doc & Merle Watson- Deep River Blues

Sittin’ Here Pickin’ the Blues (Rounder)

Michael Jerling- When Words Still Mattered

Family Recipe (Fool’s Hill Music)

Noah Zacharin- No Oxygen

A Startle of Wings (Noah Zacharin)

Ken Tizzard- 1962

A Good Dog is Lost: A Collection of Ron Hynes Songs (Ken Tizzard)

Kat Danser- Goin’ Gone

Goin’ Gone (Black Hen)

Three O'Clock Train- Bluer Than You

Cuatro de Los Angeles (Three O’Clock Train)

The Ennis Sisters- Wheels

Keeping Time (The Ennis Sisters)

The rest of the show was the extended feature: Songs of Bob Dylan, Part 2.

Loudon Wainwright III w/Kate McGarrigle- You Ain’t Going Nowhere

Years in the Making (StorySound)

Ian & Sylvia- Tomorrow is a Long Time

Four Strong Winds (Vanguard)

Robin & Linda Williams- Boots of Spanish Leather

Back 40 (Red House)

David Wiffen- Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right

At the Bunkhouse Coffeehouse, Vancouver BC (Universal International)

Bob Dylan- Bob Dylan’s Dream

The Freewheelin’ Bob Dylan (Columbia/Legacy)

The Balladeers- Blowin’ in the Wind

It’s About Time (Balladeers Productions)

Jane Lewis- I Shall Be Released

Stay with Me (Jane Lewis)

Andrew & Casey Calhoun- When the Ship Comes In

Skeins (Waterbug)

Jenny Whiteley- Oxford Town

The Original Jenny Whiteley (Black Hen)

Bob Dylan- Farewell, Angelina

The Best of the Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12 (Columbia/Legacy)

Jimmy LaFave- My Back Pages

Peace Town (Music Road)

The Brothers & Sisters- Chimes of Freedom

Dylan’s Gospel (Columbia)

Finest Kind- The Times They Are A-Changin’

Silks & Spices (Fallen Angle)

Bob Dylan- It Ain’t Me Babe

Another Side of Bob Dylan (Columbia/Legacy)

Penny Lang- One Too Many Mornings

Stone + Sand + Sea + Sky (Borealis)

Happy & Artie Traum- It Takes a Lot to Laugh, It Takes a Train to Cry

The Test of Time (Roaring Stream)

Sneezy Waters- Visions of Johanna

Sneezy Waters Live (Sneezy Waters)

Tom Russell & Joe Ely- Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues

Folk Hotel (Frontera)

Bob Dylan- Mr. Tambourine Man

Bringing It All Back Home (Columbia/Legacy)

Mariane Faithfull- It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue

Negative Capability (BMG)

Ben Sidran- Ballad of a Thin Man

Dylan Different (Bonsai)

Joan Baez- Love is Just a Four-Letter Word

Any Day Now (Vanguard)

Dawn Tyler Watson- Forever Young

Jawbreaker (Dawn Tyler Watson)

Bob Dylan- Desolation Row

The Cutting Edge 1965-1966: The Bootleg Series Vol. 12 (Columbia/Legacy)

J.D. Crowe & the New South- Nashville Skyline Rag

Flashback (Rounder)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on January 5.

Find me on Twitter. @MikeRegenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Maggie Roche – Where Do I Come From: Selected Songs

MAGGIE ROCHE

Where Do I Come From: Selected Songs

StorySound Records

storysoundrecords.com 

As I’ve mentioned before, “I first started writing record reviews for the Montreal Gazette back in 1975 and one of the LPs I wrote about that first year was Seductive Reasoning, the debut of a sister duo, Maggie & Terre Roche, built around quirky, affecting songs and terrific harmonies. Later, younger sister Suzzy Roche joined up and they became The Roches, releasing a series of albums between 1979 and 2007.”

Maggie, the eldest sister – who lost her battle with cancer on January 21, 2017 at age 65 – was a uniquely gifted songwriter responsible for almost all of the songs on Seductive Reasoning, as well as on many of the The Roches’ albums. Where Do I Come From: Selected Songs is a lovingly compiled 2-CD set of Maggie’s songs including tracks from albums by The Roches, as well as duo albums by Maggie & Terre and Maggie & Suzzy, a couple of previously unreleased demos from the early-‘70s, a solo home recording of what was probably Maggie’s final song, and a new studio recording of a previously unreleased Christmas song of Maggie’s by family members Suzzy, Lucy Wainwright Roche, Oona Roche, Dave Roche and guest Daisy Press.

Whether singing solo on the demos or in beautiful or soaring harmonies with one or both of her sisters, Maggie’s songs are always compelling for their poetic lyrics – whether narrative or oblique – and gorgeous melodies.

While I could easily heap praise on all 32 songs, I’ll cite a few as particular favorites. For those of us who have worked in small folk clubs, “Malachy’s” rings with authenticity. Similarly, “Hammond Song” captures the 20-something angst that so many of us were feeling in the ‘70s as we created paths in life that steered away from conventional expectations. “The Married Men” balances guilt and defiance within irresistible harmonies, while “My Winter Coat” is a delightful eight-minute celebration of something simple. And those four highlights barely scratch the surface.

The album ends with a solo home recording of “Where Do I Come From,” a fragmentary song that Suzzy found after Maggie had passed away. Assuming that Maggie knew her time was short adds much poignancy to thoughts like “All I got is me/ My hands are full of time/ Wanting to be free/ Is that a crime/ No one seems to hear the beating of my heart/ Don’t want you to come near/ I’m torn apart.”

While almost all of these songs were already very familiar to me, these “selected songs” are a great reminder of Maggie’s brilliant creativity.

My one regret about Where Do I Come From is that it doesn’t include a version of “Apostrophe to the Wind,” a lovely early song of Maggie’s that was never included on any of the albums she made with her sisters. I learned it from the late Jack Hardy when he was staying at my apartment in Montreal in the early-1980s and was hoping this collection might include a demo of Maggie singing it.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

–Mike Regenstreif

Yale Strom’s Broken Consort – Shimmering Lights: Hanukkah Music

YALE STROM’S BROKEN CONSORT

Shimmering Lights: Hanukkah Music

Arc Music Productions

yalestrom.com

arcmusic.co.uk

(A version of this review was published in the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin.)

On Shimmering Lights: Hanukkah Music, violinist Yale Strom – a long celebrated innovator in Jewish music – along with singer Elizabeth Schwartz and an ensemble including guitar, oud and string players, offers a fascinating, multilingual musical tour through Hanukkah musical traditions and songs from Jewish cultures around the world.

The album opens with a version of “Maoz Tzur” from the Moroccan tradition featuring some outstanding oud playing by Amos Hoffman that contrasts beautifully with Elizabeth’s vocals and the string ensemble before shifting into a joyous klezmer-style version of “Khanike, Oi, Khanike” with verses sung in both Yiddish and English.

From there, we hear an extended version of “Kita’l Tas,” sung in Ladino and played in the Turkish Sephardic tradition, and “Latkes,” a Yiddish original by Yale based on the traditional Yiddish song “Bulbes” (in the 1960s, “Bulbes” was the template for “Nothing,” one of the best songs by the Fugs). Early in its nine-minute playing time “Latkes” is quite beautiful, as sung by Schwartz, before shifting into an exciting, Roma-influenced romp by guitarist Fred Benedetti, violinist Yale and the other musicians.

Some of other highlights include a jazzy version of “Akht Kleyne Brider” in Yiddish and a beautiful interpretation of the traditional Sephardic song “La Fiesta de la Hanukia” in Ladino.

The album ends with “The Fool Over Yonder,” a new song written by Yale and Elizabeth in English that celebrates both Hannukah and a universal message of tikkun olam.

Most of the pieces on Shimmering Lights are quite long allowing the terrific musicians in Yale Strom’s Broken Consort lots of opportunities to stretch out soulfully. This is my favourite Hanukkah album since the Klezmatics released Woody Guthrie’s Happy Joyous Hanukkah a dozen years ago.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

–Mike Regenstreif