Sing Out! Magazine – Spring 2010

My copy of the latest issue of Sing Out! Magazine arrived in today’s mail. It’s the Diamond Anniversary issue of the most venerable of folk music publications. I’ve been honoured to be one of the contributing writers for about half of Sing Out’s 60 years (and a subscriber for a fair bit longer). It remains an essential read for anyone interested in folk music. Congratulations to Sing Out! editor Mark Moss and everyone else connected to the magazine.

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

Beyond the Pale- Postcards
Guy Clark- Somedays the Song Writes You
Stevie Coyle- Ten in One
Caroline Herring- Golden Apples of the Sun
James Keelaghan- House of Cards
Kris Kristofferson- Closer to the Bone
Frank London & Lorin Sklamberg- Tsuker-zis
Corb Lund- Losin’ Lately Gambler
Maria Muldaur- Maria Muldaur and Her Garden of Joy
Nathan Rogers- The Gauntlet
Tom Russell- Blood and Candle Smoke

Sadly, there’s also an obituary I wrote about my old friend Kate McGarrigle.

--Mike Regenstreif

This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history (May 25-May 31)

Folk Roots/Folk Branches with Mike Regenstreif was a Thursday tradition on CKUT in Montreal for nearly 14 years from February 3, 1994 until August 30, 2007 and around the world via the web for most of those years). Folk Roots/Folk Branches continued for some time as occasional features on CKUT, and is now a blog. Here’s the 39th instalment of “This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches,” a weekly look back continuing through next August at some of the most notable guests, features and moments in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history.

May 26, 1994: Extended feature- Tom Russell.
May 25, 1995: Show theme- 25 years of Rounder Records.
May 28, 1998: Guest- Penny Lang.
May 31, 2001: Guests- John & Michele Law (The Laws).
May 29, 2003: Guest- Samantha Parton (Be Good Tanyas).
May 27, 2004: Guest- Murray McLauchlan.
May 25, 2006: Show theme- Hommage à Bob Dylan on the occasion of (the day after) his 65th birthday.
May 31, 2007: Guests- Dawn Tyler Watson & Paul Deslauriers.
May 29, 2008 (Folk Roots/Folk Branches feature): Recent reissues by Shel Silverstein and Bob Gibson.

Pictured: Mike Regenstreif and Penny Lang at the Folk Alliance Conference, February 2005 (Photo: Taylor Caffery).

--Mike Regenstreif

This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history (May 18-May 24)

Folk Roots/Folk Branches with Mike Regenstreif was a Thursday tradition on CKUT in Montreal for nearly 14 years from February 3, 1994 until August 30, 2007. Folk Roots/Folk Branches continued for some time as occasional features on CKUT, and is now a blog. Here’s the 38th instalment of “This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches,” a weekly look back continuing through next August at some of the most notable guests, features and moments in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history.

May 19, 1994: Guest- Connie Kaldor; Extended feature- Priscilla Herdman.
May 18, 1995: Extended feature- Songs about the Canadian Prairies.
May 23, 1996: Guest- Penny Lang.
May 22, 1997: Show theme- Songs about politicians, the political process and current issues.
May 18, 2000: Guest- Nancy White.
May 24, 2001: Show theme- "A nod to Bob Dylan" on his 60th birthday.
May 22, 2003: Guest- Maria Dunn; Extended feature- Tribute to the late Freyda Epstein.
May 19, 2005: Guest- Sue Foley.
May 24, 2007: Show theme- Songs of Bob Dylan on his 66th birthday.

--Mike Regenstreif

This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history (May 11-May 17)

Folk Roots/Folk Branches with Mike Regenstreif was a Thursday tradition on CKUT in Montreal for nearly 14 years from February 3, 1994 until August 30, 2007. Folk Roots/Folk Branches continued for some time as occasional features on CKUT, and is now a blog. Here’s the 37th instalment of “This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches,” a weekly look back continuing through next August at some of the most notable guests, features and moments in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history.

May 12, 1994: Extended feature- Western Swing.
May 11, 1995: Extended feature- Gift of the Tortoise: A musical Journey through Southern Africa with Ladysmith Black Mambazo.
May 16, 1996: Extended features- The Friends of Fiddler’s Green; A Tribute to the late Walter Hyatt.
May 14, 1998: Show theme- The Songs of Tom Paxton.
May 11, 2000: Show theme- The 50th anniversary of Sing Out! Magazine with Guest- Mark Moss, editor of Sing Out!
May 15, 2003: Show theme- From All His Friends in Far-Flung Places: A Tribute to Dave Van Ronk.
May 17, 2007: Guest- Max Layton.

Pictured: Mike Regenstreif and Tom Paxton at the Champlain Valley Folk Festival, circa mid-1990s.

--Mike Regenstreif

Lainie Marsh -- The Hills Will Cradle Thee

LAINIE MARSH
The Hills Will Cradle Thee
Bait & Tackle
lainiemarsh.com

Just last week, I wrote that Natalie Merchant’s Leave Your Sleep was an early candidate for my album of the year. My early candidate for discovery of the year is Lainie Marsh, a singer and songwriter whose work on her debut album, The Hills Will Cradle Thee, is steeped in Appalachian authenticity – she grew up in West Virginia – and blended with the sophistication and imagination of a Berklee College of Music education and, quite obviously, a craftsperson’s dedication to her art.

All of those elements are revealed in “Jalopy,” the opening track, a timeless song that bears Marsh’s 2008 copyright, but that sounds like it could have been a stringband tune or country blues song from the 1920s or ‘30s or any time since. In addition to Marsh’s voice, the old-time banjo playing of Ketch Secor of Old Crow Medicine Show is a particular delight on “Jalopy.

A lot of Marsh’s songs reflect her West Virginia upbringing. “Motherlode,” a kind of down-home jazz tune, is filled with references to country life from farm animals to coon dogs to the centrality of religion. “Way Down” is written from the perspective of a coal miner’s wife who is ready to break out of her traditional role, while “Banjo Moon,” is a sweet reminiscence of simpler times and younger days back home.

A couple of songs combine Marsh’s country-folk roots with wider musical references. “Hey Ludwig” is a clever ditty that lyrically nods to some of Beethoven’s most familiar compositions while “Little Samba Queen” blends Appalachian and Brazilian motifs with nods to Antonio Carlos Jobim, João Gilbreto and Astrud Gilbreto and their classic “Girl from Ipanema.”

Although Marsh was new to me with this album, I did recognize one of her songs, “A Ways to Go,” as the lead track from Cowgirl’s Prayer, an album by Emmylou Harris from 1993. That she’s been writing such quality material for a long time suggests to me that there's probably many more great Lainie Marsh songs waiting to be heard. And I’m looking forward to hearing them.

--Mike Regenstreif

Joel Mabus -- No Worries Now

JOEL MABUS
No Worries Now
Fossil
joelmabus.com

In 2004, I reviewed Golden Willow Tree, an album by Joel Mabus, in Sing Out! Magazine and led the review by saying “Very quietly, and under too many people’s radar, Joel Mabus has spent the past 25 years building one of the most impressive bodies of work spanning both traditional and contemporary folk music. He’s a fine singer, has a virtuoso’s command of guitar and banjo (and fiddle, which he doesn’t play on this particular album), has a deep repertoire of traditional ballads, old-time music and blues, and is a superb songwriter whose compositions are well informed by the traditions and traditional songs he’s mastered.”

Except for needing to add another six years or so onto his résumé, that strikes me as a good lead for a review of No Worries Now, Joel’s latest album.

Many of Joel’s past albums – this is his 20th – have had some sort of focus: albums of traditional ballads or banjo music or guitar instrumentals come to mind. The focus on No Worries Now is on his songwriting – and, from the first song to the last, he leaves no doubt that he’s a terrific and musically versatile songwriter who can knock off swing tunes filled with witty lyrics and hot guitar licks, topical songs that would do Tom Paxton proud, and riveting narrative ballads with equal facility.

Among the many highlights here are “Am I Right,” a swing tune filled with down home witticisms, “Two Cents Plain,” a ragtime song for the new depression, “Little Mister Diddy,” a clever tune about Joel’s favourite corrupt politician that could also be about your favourite corrupt politician, and “How Can I Keep From Singing,” in which he keeps the melody and repeating line from the old hymn but rewrites the verses as a universalist song of peace.

My favourite track, though, is the epic “Charlie Birger,” about a 1920s gangster who, apparently, ousted the KKK from his turf. In the tradition of Woody Guthrie’s “Pretty Boy Floyd” or Bob Dylan’s “John Wesley Harding,” Joel casts Birger as a Robin Hood of his time, a friend to the common people. Joel’s performance is so riveting and intense that you hardly notice that it’s an eight-minute ballad.

I can’t imagine a Joel Mabus album that I wouldn’t highly recommend and No Worries Now is certainly no exception.

--Mike Regenstreif

This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history (May 4-May 10)

Folk Roots/Folk Branches with Mike Regenstreif was a Thursday tradition on CKUT in Montreal for nearly 14 years from February 3, 1994 until August 30, 2007. Folk Roots/Folk Branches continued for some time as occasional features on CKUT, and is now a blog. Here’s the 36th instalment of “This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches,” a weekly look back continuing through next August at some of the most notable guests, features and moments in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history.

May 5, 1994: Extended feature- Nanci Griffith.
May 4, 1995: Extended feature- Sweet Honey in the Rock.
May 9, 1996: Show theme- The music of Texas.
May 6, 1999: Guest- Pete Seeger; Show theme- An 80th birthday (May 3) tribute to Pete Seeger.
May 4, 2000: Guest- James Leva.
May 6, 2004: Extended feature: A nod to Pete Seeger on the occasion of his 85th Birthday(May 3).
May 10, 2007: Guest- Annabelle Chvostek.

Pictured: Pete Seeger, circa 1960.

--Mike Regenstreif

Natalie Merchant -- Leave Your Sleep

NATALIE MERCHANT
Leave Your Sleep
Nonesuch
nataliemerchant.com

Leave Your Sleep, the new album by Natalie Merchant – 26 exquisite songs on two CDs with an 80-page, hardcover book – is a stunning achievement.

Merchant is a successful pop singer – both as a soloist and with 10,000 Maniacs – whose last album of new recordings was The House Carpenter’s Daughter, a fine collection of traditional and contemporary folksongs released seven years ago. Since then, Merchant took time off to have and raise a daughter.

Over the years that Merchant has been raising her child she has been finding poems by various British and American poets from the 19th and 20th centuries, setting the poems to music and researching the lives of the poets (she writes about each of them in the album’s book – which also includes the lyrics).

In composing the music for these poems, Merchant used a broad palette of musical styles, from Appalachian folk to blues, reggae, klezmer, New Orleans jazz, classical, Chinese and Native American music and employed a cast of 130 musicians and singers to help her realize the arrangements. Although the musical styles, arrangements and number of collaborators vary greatly from song to song, the album flows with a seamlessness seemingly borne from Merchant alone.

There is much to admire, if not love, on almost every one of the 26 songs but among my very favourites is “The Dancing Bear,” a poem by Albert Bigelow Paine, a close friend of Mark Twain’s that features the Klezmatics in a klezmer arrangement that’s both plaintive and playful. Another is “The Janitor’s Boy,” a sassy New Orleans jazz setting – featuring a band fronted by Wynton Marsalis – of a poem by Nathalia Crane published in 1924 when the child prodigy poet was all of 11 years old. Another is “Adventures of Isabel,” an Ogden Nash poem, which has a back porch folk feel courtesy of such musicians as Judy Hyman and Richie Stearns of the Horse Flies. And yet another is the blues arrangement of “The Peppery Man,” Arthur Macy’s portrait of a sour, antisocial contrarian that features some amazing vocals by the Fairfield Four.

Truth be told, I could rave on about every poem that Merchant has crafted into a song for this album. Kudos to Natalie Merchant for the conception of this ambitious, grand project – and for realizing it so brilliantly.

We’re just a third of the way through 2010 and I’m sure there will be more worthy releases, but Leave Your Sleep is an early candidate for my album of the year.

--Mike Regenstreif

Willie Nelson -- Country Music

WILLIE NELSON
Country Music
Rounder
willienelson.com

Willie Nelson, who turns 77 on Friday, has got to be one of the most prolific of all recording artists. He’s rooted in the Texas country tradition, but, like Ray Charles, he’s a genre-crosser who’s made compelling music in all sorts of styles. I have no idea how many albums he’s made over the years, but I’ve got more than 30 Willie Nelson keepers sitting on my shelves. (To be honest, there have also been some that haven’t made it on to my keeper shelves.)

In recent years, Nelson has released several excellent albums including Two Men with the Blues, a classy set of jazz and blues with Wynton Marsalis and his band, and Willie and the Wheel, a great western swing album with Asleep At the Wheel.

Add Country Music, recorded with a drummerless collection of A-list musicians assembled by producer T-Bone Burnett – and including Folk Roots/Folk Branches guest Riley Baugus on clawhammer banjo and Buddy Miller on electric guitar – to Nelson's list of fine recent albums. This one rooted, as the album title implies, in traditional country music. Most of the songs are bona fide classics.

The album opens “Man with the Blues,” the only Nelson original, an old-school honky tonk tune like the kind of songs Nelson was probably singing back in the 1950s, and closes with a deep-from-the-well arrangement of “Nobody’s Fault But Mine,” an African American gospel tune that's given a haunting arrangement featuring Nelson stalwart Mickey Raphael on bass harmonica, Dennis Crouch’s heartbeat bass playing and some eerie guitar interplay between Nelson on gut string acoustic and Miller on electric.

One of my favourite tracks is an exciting rendition of f the Delmore Brothers’ “Freight Train Boogie” which, like Doc Watson’s version, you can’t help but feel the train boogieing down the tracks.

Other highlights include Merle Travis’ coalmining classic, “Dark as a Dungeon,” the tongue-in-cheek “Pistol Packin’ Mama,” and a sweet version of Hank Williams’ “House of Gold” that seems like a traditional folksong.

--Mike Regenstreif

This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history (April 27-May 3)

Folk Roots/Folk Branches with Mike Regenstreif was a Thursday tradition on CKUT in Montreal for nearly 14 years from February 3, 1994 until August 30, 2007. Folk Roots/Folk Branches continued for some time as occasional features on CKUT, and is now a blog. Here’s the 35th instalment of “This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches,” a weekly look back continuing through next August at some of the most notable guests, features and moments in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history.

April 28, 1994: Extended feature- Stan Rogers.
May 2, 1996: Extended feature- Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee.
April 30, 1998: Show theme- 50 Years of Folkways Recordings with Guest- Tony Seeger.
April 29, 1999: Show theme- Songs by Old Friends.
April 27, 2000: Guests- Tony Babinski with Robert Marchand.
April 29, 2004: Show theme- The folk roots of rock ‘n’ roll and the rock ‘n’ roll branches of folk music.
April 28, 2005: Extended features- Tribute to the late Cyril Tawney; Songs of Passover.
April 27, 2006: Guest- Dave Clarke.
May 3, 2007: Guest- Ken Hamm.
May 1, 2008 (Folk Roots/Folk Branches feature): Songs from the Folk Roots/Folk Branches Archives.

--Mike Regenstreif

Mark O'Connor, Chris Thile, Frank Vignola, Bryan Sutton, Jon Burr, Byron House -- Jam Session

MARK O’CONNOR, CHRIS THILE, FRANK VIGNOLA, BRYAN SUTTON, JON BURR, BYRON HOUSE
Jam Session
OMAC
markoconnor.com

Although this 71-minute CD is called Jam Session, its nine tracks were actually recorded with three different combinations of musicians at several live sets between 2000 and 2004. And, although the six musicians seem to have equal billing on the CD cover, violinist Mark O’Connor is the only musician common to all nine tunes. He is also the composer of six of them and co-writer – with Sam Bush – of another.

O’Connor started as a child prodigy on guitar and, as a young man, spent several years playing with David Grisman in his groundbreaking, genre-blending, instrumental quintet of bluegrass virtuosos who essentially created a new kind of acoustic music inspired by both jazz – particularly the hot swing of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli – and bluegrass. As a violinist, O’Connor plays classical, jazz and bluegrass at virtuosic levels. He is an amazing player and you can be sure that the musicians surrounding him on these tracks are more than up to the task of playing on these Grismanesque sessions.

Five of the tunes were recorded in 2002 and feature O’Connor with mandolinist Chris Thile (who was also a child prodigy), guitarist Bryan Sutton and bassist Byron House. There are some amazing bluegrass-based exchanges on tunes like “Granny White Special” and the traditional “Don’t let Your Deal Go Down.” But this combo also combines bluegrass with gypsy jazz on “Macedonia,” swings like Reinhardt and Grappelli on “Swingin’ on the ‘Ville” and brings a Brazilian feel to “Soft Gyrations.”

Two tracks – “Gypsy Fantastic” and “Pickles on the Elbow” – with guitarist Frank Vignola (a Reinhardt specialist) and bassist Jon Burr swing like crazy with all kinds of hot playing.

The two finale tracks combining O’Connor with Thile, Vignola, Sutton and Burr were recorded in 2004 and include “In the Cluster Blues,” a slow, intense blues jam that is riveting through 16 minutes, and “Minor Swing,” a Grappelli-Reinhardt classic that seems to start off in just-noodlin’ mode but soon catches fire.

--Mike Regenstreif

Tom Lehrer -- The Tom Lehrer Collection

TOM LEHRER
The Tom Lehrer Collection
Shout! Factory
shoutfactory.com

In the 1950s and ‘60s, Tom Lehrer, a highly respected mathematician, occasionally wrote, recorded and performed brilliant satirical songs that lampooned the social and political mores of the Cold War era. His was a limited output: 37 songs spread out over a few LPs, several of which were recorded live in concert. Later on, there were a few more songs written in the early-1970s for The Electric Company, an educational TV show for kids and some rare compositions and performances in the 1990s.

The Tom Lehrer Collection is a CD/DVD combination that provides an excellent overview of Lehrer’s catalogue.

The CD includes 26 songs most of which are drawn from that repertoire of 37 songs written and recorded in the ‘50s and ‘60s. You’d think that topical songs from 40 or 50 years ago would seem dated today, but the relevance of some of them has only deepened over time. Many of the environmental problems that Lehrer was singing about in “Pollution” in 1965 are so much worse now than they were back then and the nuclear threat documented in songs like “So Long, Mom (A Song for World War III)” and “We Will All Go Together When We Go,” is still being addressed in international non-proliferation conferences. The racial, ethnic and religious bigotry that Lehrer lampooned in “National Brotherhood Week,” has a direct line of descent to some of the veiled bigotry that still plays out in American tea parties and reasonable accommodation debates in Canada.

If I had to pick my favourite track, I suppose I’d go with “(I’m Spending) Hanukkah in Santa Monica,” a very funny send-up of the kind of secular holiday songs written by Jewish songwriters like Irving Berlin for Christian holidays like Christmas. Recorded in 1999, it’s one of those rare, later period Lehrer songs.

Lehrer himself chose the songs for this collection and wrote the liner notes. As an old folkie, my one quibble with his song selection is that he left out “The Folk Song Army,” his hilarious send-up of the early-60s folk boomers. But, he did include “The Irish Ballad,” his equally-hilarious parody of a traditional Irish ballad with an introduction that brilliantly sizes up folkier-than-thou purists.

The CD is a great set for anyone looking for an excellent primer on Lehrer and his songs. The DVD is a great bonus for anyone interested in the songs and makes The Tom Lehrer Collection essential even to Lehrer completists who already have all the original Lehrer albums (they’re all in print on CD) or The Remains of Tom Lehrer boxed set that came out a decade ago.

The DVD includes a complete 12-song concert recorded for Norwegian television in 1967, several rare performances from the ‘80s and ‘90s, and four animated videos of the songs that Lehrer wrote for The Electric Company.

The song intros on the DVD -- and on many of the live tracks on the CD -- also show Lehrer to be a much wittier comedian than most of today's stand-ups.

In the small world department, two of the DVD performances, “The Derivative” and “That’s Mathematics,” were taken from a 1997 event at the Mathematical Sciences Research Institute event honouring the 80th birthday of Irving Kaplansky, who had been Lehrer’s math professor at Harvard in 1943 and ’44. Kaplansky, who was an amateur musician and songwriter himself, was the father of singer-songwriter Lucy Kaplansky, one of the finest of today’s contemporary folk artists.

--Mike Regenstreif

This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history (April 20-26)

Folk Roots/Folk Branches with Mike Regenstreif was a Thursday tradition on CKUT in Montreal for nearly 14 years from February 3, 1994 until August 30, 2007. Folk Roots/Folk Branches continued as occasional features on CKUT and is now a blog. Here’s the 34th instalment of “This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches,” a weekly look back continuing through next August at some of the most notable guests, features and moments in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history.

April 21, 1994: Extended feature- The Montreal folk scene.
April 20, 1995: Extended feature- Environmental songs.
April 22, 1999: Guest- Noel Paul Stookey of Peter, Paul & Mary.
April 20, 2000: Guest- James Talley.
April 25, 2002: Guests- Scott Cameron Smith, Ariel Rogers and David Rogers.
April 22, 2003: Guest- Maria Dunn.
April 21, 2005: Guest- John Prine.
April 20, 2006: Guest- Gerry Goodfriend.
April 26, 2007: Guest- Garnet Rogers.
April 24, 2008 (Folk Roots/Folk Branches feature): A tribute to the late Sam Gesser.
April 23, 2009 (Folk Roots/Folk Branches feature): Guest- Tom Paxton.

Pictured: Mike Regenstreif and Garnet Rogers on April 29, 2006.

--Mike Regenstreif

The Good Lovelies and Amelia Curran win Junos

As per usual, all the Juno categories that I actually have any interest in (Roots/Traditional, blues, world, etc.) were awarded before the televised award show, thus relieving me of any reason to tune in tonight.

Congratulations to the winners of the Roots/Traditional categories; both of which have been written about on this blog. The Good Lovelies won the group award for their self-titled Good Lovelies, and Amelia Curran won the solo award for Hunter Hunter.

--Mike Regenstreif

Bruce Murdoch and Penny Lang – April 24 at Petit Campus

Pictured: The Montreal Folk Reunion at the 2009 Apple Hollow Folk Festival with (left to right) Willie Dunn, Penny Lang, Ron Bankley, Bruce Murdoch, Marc Nerenberg and Mike Regenstreif.

The finale for this season’s Wintergreen Concert Series in Montreal features Bruce Murdoch and Penny Lang, two old friends I’ve known since my earliest days on the Montreal folk scene in the late-1960s. In fact, I remember a Penny Lang concert at my high school in Montreal in 1968 that predated when I started hanging around coffee houses in 1969. That Penny Lang concert was one that helped spark my interest in going out to folk clubs like the Back Door and Yellow Door (where I first met Bruce Murdoch).

In 1972, I started my first folk concert series at Dawson College in Montreal and invited Bruce to be headline the first concert (Kevin Head, a fellow Dawson student, was the opening act). Penny played the series in 1973 and both – along with Jesse Winchester, Sneezy Waters, and Bill Garrett – were on the bill for the final concert in the series in the spring of 1974.

When the Dawson series finished, I took over running the Golem Coffee House, which became the pre-eminent Montreal folk club of the 1970s and ‘80s. Bruce, again, was the first artist I presented there. Both Bruce and Penny were regular performers at the Golem during my first tenure there from 1974-’76 (I reopened the Golem again in 1981).

I thought Bruce was one of the finest singer-songwriters of that time period. But, for reasons that I understood and respected, Bruce needed to quit performing and get away from the music business. I always hoped that he’d return and he did, just in time to be one of my final guests on Folk Roots/Folk Branches in July 2007. A year later, Bruce released his first album of new songs in almost three decades. Here’s my review from Sing Out! Magazine.

BRUCE MURDOCH
Matters of the Heart
Bruce Murdoch 2-2008

Bruce Murdoch’s is an interesting story. He grew up in working-class Montreal, left for Greenwich Village as a teenager and made his recording debut in 1965 at age 17 with four songs on Elektra’s Singer-Songwriter Project LP, an album that also introduced Richard Fariña, Patrick Sky and David Blue.

Bruce went on to record a full-length LP with Richie Havens as producer before returning to Montreal around 1970. He was one of my favorite songwriters and performers and when I started my first concert series, at Montreal’s Dawson College in 1972, Bruce was the first artist I asked to perform in it.

Bruce made one more album, an LP released by Radio Canada International in 1980. But before that record came out, he quit the music business and moved to Alberta where he went back to school, got his credentials and became a high school teacher in the small town of Hinton. His Martin D-28 sat unopened in its case for about 25 years until a recent burst of creativity brought forth the 11 new songs on this CD.

Bruce’s focus is now more personal and less obviously political than on his many of his older songs, but, they are as compelling as ever with several revealing more layers of meaning every time I listen. And I’ve listened to this CD often in the weeks it’s been out.

Many of the songs are informed by the pain of separation including “Angels in My Heart,” written for his daughters, and the poignant “I Keep You in My Heart,” in which he tries to explain his absence to a child who can’t understand.

The album’s minimalist production keeps the attention on Bruce’s songs, vocals and rhythmic guitar playing. Among the musicians adding nice touches are guitarist Ron Bankley and violinist Jeri Corlew. --Mike Regenstreif

In 2006, Penny Lang released what I think was the finest album of her long career. Here’s my review of that album from Sing Out!

PENNY LANG
Stone + Sand + Sea + Sky
Borealis 176

Six years ago, Penny Lang was sidelined by a stroke. Always a fighter and no stranger to illness, Penny battled back, slowly began touring again and put out Gather Honey, a collection of previously-unreleased tracks from early in her career.Now comes Stone + Sand + Sea + Sky, a remarkable album, certainly the finest of her long career, and an album unlike anything she has done before.

Except for “Let Me Fly,” a gospel song given a Zydeco arrangement here, these are quiet songs, each with a unique, often unusual arrangement. Working with co-producers Roma Baran – who played in Penny’s band as a teenager in the late-1960s – and Vivian Stoll, Penny has re-imagined her approach to singing, lowering the keys and singing in a quiet voice that draws the listener into the song.

While every one of these 13 songs is deserves attention, space permits me to comment on only a few. "It’s Not Easy,” written specifically for Penny by Ken Pearson, is cast as a classic blues with the composer at the piano, Dave Clarke on guitar and some lovely muted trumpet by Rebecca Coupe Franks. Penny sings the song as if every word comes from deep within her soul. Penny strips the bluegrass off the Greenbriar Boys’ “High Muddy Waters,” giving it a chamber-folk arrangement that beautifully captures the personal redemption at the essence of the lyrics while Utah Phillips’ “If I Could Be the Rain,” with its key message about the absolute need to express feelings through singing, has a gentle country arrangement featuring Clarke on guitar with Penny’s 1960s accompanists Kate McGarrigle on piano and Baran on lap steel.

Quite obviously, a tremendous amount of thoughtful creativity, by Penny, the producers, and the various musicians went into the making of this very special album. --Mike Regenstreif

Last summer, I hosted an event called the Montreal Folk Reunion at the Apple Hollow Folk Festival in the Chateauguay Valley that included both Bruce and Penny. It was magical to see them on stage together for the first time since the 1970s and I’m so looking forward to seeing more of that magic on Saturday, April 24, 8:00 pm at Petit Campus, 57 Prince Arthur East in Montreal. For info or tickets, call Hello Darlin’ Productions at 514-524-9225.


--Mike Regenstreif