Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – October 4, 2025

Saturday Morning is an eclectic roots-oriented program on CKCU, 93.1 FM, in Ottawa on Saturday mornings from 7 until 10 am (Eastern time) and available for on-demand streaming anytime. I am one of the four rotating hosts of the Saturday Morning show. 

This episode of Saturday Morning was recorded and can be streamed on-demand, now or anytime, by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/72258.html

Sandy Denny- Who Knows Where the Time Goes

Where the Time Goes (Castle)

Mike Regenstreif & Jesse Winchester (2006)

Jesse Winchester- I’m Gonna Miss You Girl

Love Filling Station (Appleseed)

Norah Jones- (Talk to Me of) Mendocino

Sing Me the Songs: Celebrating the Works of Kate McGarrigle (Nonesuch)

Darrell Scott- Urge for Going

Modern Hymns (Appleseed)

Archie Fisher- The Witch of the West-mer-lands

The Man with a Rhyme (Folk-Legacy)

The Longest Johns- Barrett’s Privateers

Caught in the Net (The Longest Johns)

Ben Sands- First Christmas Away from Home

Roots & Branches (Spring)

Highland Weavers- The Mary Ellen Carter

Going Home (Highland Weavers)

Stan Rogers- The White Collar Holler 

Between the Breaks…Live! (Fogarty’s Cove/Borealis)

Sweet Absalon- The Flowers of Bermuda

Remembering Stan Rogers: An East Coast Tribute II (Brookes Diamond Productions)

Ian Robb- Rolling Down to Old Maui

Ian Robb & Hang the Piper (Folk-Legacy)

Willie Watson- Harris and the Mare

Willie Watson (Little Operation)

Peter, Paul & Mary- Delivery Delayed

Such is Love (Warner Bros.)

Jory Nash & Mike Regenstreif (2024)

Jory Nash- The Light Still Shines on the Main

The Light Still Shines on the Main (Thin Man)

Martha Wainwright- Whither Must I Wander

Martha Wainwright: 20th Anniversary Edition (Report Card Music)

Sylvia Tyson & Mike Regenstreif (1997)

Ian & Sylvia- Rambler Gambler

Ian & Sylvia (Vanguard)

Donald WG Lindsay- Wild Rover

Two Boats Under the Moon (Donald WG Lindsay)

The Pairs- Everything Ends

Together on a Rock (The Pairs)

Lennie Gallant- Shelter from the Storms

Shelter from the Storms (Gallant Effort Productions)

Kate Greenland- Concrete Cowboy

Longing and Dreaming (Kate Greenland)

Mike Regenstreif & Connie Kaldor (2015)

Connie Kaldor- Down the Road to Lonesome

Wide Open Spaces (Coyote Entertainment)

Kate & Anna McGarrigle & Mike Regenstreif (1976) photo: Felicity Fanjoy

Kate & Anna McGarrigle- You Tell Me That I’m Falling Down

Oddities (Querbeservice)

Rags Rosenberg- Catherine’s Song

Song of the Bricoleur (Coyote Gulch)

Sarah Segal-Lazar- This Old House

Valleys (Sarah Segal-Lazar)

The Whispering Tree- Bones of Better Days

Bones of Better Days (Eyelash Soup Music)

Mike Regenstreif & Joan Baez (2003)

Joan Baez- Gulf Winds

Gulf Winds (A&M)

Le Vent du Nord- Par-Dessus le Pont

Voisinages (La Compagnie du Nord)

Teni Rane- Killing the Blues

Goldenrod (Teni Rane)

Eva Cassidy- Autumn Leaves

Simply Eva (Blix Street)

Mike Regenstreif & Michael Smith (2014)

Michael Smith- Rondi’s Birthday

Love Letter on a Fish (Tales from the Tavern)

Mike Regenstreif & Anne Hills (2001)

Anne Hills- First Day of Autumn

Bittersweet Street (Redwing Music)

Jubal Lee Young- Hand-Painted Portuguese Punch Bowl

Squirrels (7Bridges Entertainment)

Steve Young- The Year That Clayton Delaney Died

Stars in the Southern Sky (Omnivore)

Tom Russell, Mike Regenstreif & Andrew Hardin (2005)

Tom Russell- The Angel of Lyon

The Tom Russell Anthology: Veteran’s Day (Shout! Factory)

Andrew Hardin with Eliza Gilkyson- Puerto Peñasco

Blue Acoustic (Andrew Hardin)

Eliza Gilkyson & Mike Regenstreif on Zoom (2022)

Eliza Gilkyson- Stranger

Dark Ages (Realiza)

Karen Dalton- Katie Cruel

In My Own Time: 50th Anniversary Edition (Light in the Attic)

Rory Block- Mississippi Blues

Heavy on the Blues (M.C.)

Juanita Hall- Hold That Train

Juanita Hall Sings the Blues (Counterpoint)

Louis Armstrong & Velma Middleton- Hesitating Blues

Louis Armstrong Plays W.C. Handy (Columbia/Legacy)

Mallory Chipman- Sing Me Home

Songs to a Wild God (Tunnel Mountain)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on November 1. I also host Stranger Songs on CKCU every Tuesday from 3:30-5 pm.

--Mike Regenstreif

Tom Russell – Old Songs Yet to Sing

TOM RUSSELL

Old Songs Yet to Sing

Frontera Records

tomrussell.com

fronterarecords.com

Old Songs Yet to Sing is a reunion album. A reunion of singer-songwriter Tom Russell, virtuoso guitarist Andrew Hardin – and 20 of the songs they used to play together.

Tom and Andy were an extraordinary team for about 25 or 26 years. They started playing together, circa 1980, and were at the heart of The Tom Russell Band for some years and an acoustic duo for many more. Their musical integration – on stage and on recordings – was remarkable.

Tom is one of the most prolific songwriters I know – I’ve referred to him more than once as “the best songwriter of my generation” – with an output of many great songs and brilliantly conceived albums. Last year he released two great albums, a tribute album, Play One More: The Songs of Ian & Sylvia, and Folk Hotel, two of my favorite records of 2017. He’s also never been shy about revisiting older material – those “old songs yet to sing” – in new ways that makes them seem fresh and new again.

Well after a decade of not touring or recording together, Tom and Andy reunited at Congress House Studio in Austin, Texas for two days in February to record new versions of 20 songs they used to play back in the day – songs Tom wrote or co-wrote between 1974 and 2004.

It’s just the two of them on the record – Tom on lead vocals and guitar and Andy on lead guitar and harmony vocals – and they make these songs, no matter how familiar they may be, sound fresh.

Tom Russell, Mike Regenstreif & Andrew Hardin (2005)

Highlights? How about every song? Of course there’s “Gallo Del Cielo,” Tom’s epic border ballad about a fighting rooster (the song is fictional – no real roosters were harmed in its creation); “Angel of Lyon,” co-written by Steve Young, the story of a businessman who finds salvation in Europe, a compelling song that was and remains a showcase for Andy’s virtuosity; the irresistible “Navajo Rug,” co-written with Ian Tyson; and the sad and beautiful story-song, “Blue Wing,” about an Indigenous ex-con who shared a prison cell with the real-life R&B singer and convicted killer Little Willie John (a line from “Blue Wing” gives the album its title); and, of course, 16 more.

Tom told me he thought he was singing these “old songs” better now than when they were new. With all due respect to all the great Tom Russell albums with the original versions, I’m not going to argue.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

The Shopkeeper – A film by Rain Perry

Mark Hallman at Congress House Studio

THE SHOPKEEPER

A film by Rain Perry

shopkeepermovie.com

rainperry.com

I first discovered singer-songwriter Rain Perry in 2003 when Tom Russell sang her beautiful song “Yosemite” on a promo EP sent out in conjunction with his Modern Art album. I believe he recorded the song during the sessions for that album at Mark Hallman’s Congress House Studio in Austin, Texas. About a decade later, I wrote about Rain’s album Men, which was also recorded at Congress House with Mark as producer, principal accompanist and occasional songwriting collaborator.

Rain Perry

Rain’s latest project is a highly interesting and engaging documentary film called The Shopkeeper which, on the surface, tells the story of Mark Hallman’s career as a musician – he was a principal in the ‘70s band Navarro and worked extensively as a sideman with Dan Fogelberg and Carole King – recording engineer and record producer, and of his Congress House Studio, by now the longest-running recording studio in Austin, one of the great American music cities.

But, more than that, the film looks at how the music business has changed over the decades of Mark’s career and at the existential issues facing artists, recording studios and record companies in an era where the public wants to consume music without paying for it.

Rain effectively uses comments and commentaries from artists – some who I know well, some whose music is familiar to me, some who I’d not heard of before – including Mark Hallman, of course, Tom Russell, Eliza Gilkyson, Ani DiFranco, Andrew Hardin, Sarah Hickman, Iain Matthews and many others. These artists lend much insight both to the stories of Congress House and to how the underlying issues of a changing music business have affected them and their careers. There are several terrific segments where singer-songwriter Jon Dee Graham uses facts and figures (with charts) to show the financial changes in the music business over the years.

Along the way we get to hear some of the great music that has been made at the Congress House over the years and bear witness to Mark’s struggle to keep the studio economically viable.

The Shopkeeper is a film that should be seen by anyone interested in understanding what it means to be an independent roots music artist in these times.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif