Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – April 2, 2024: The Musical Adventures of Jim, Geoff & Maria

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU, 93.1 FM, in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

This episode of Stranger Songs was recorded and can be streamed on-demand, now or anytime, by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/64607.html

Theme: The Musical Adventures of Jim, Geoff & Maria.

Maria Muldaur, Geoff Muldaur & Jim Kweskin (1964) photo: Joe Alper

Geoff Muldaur and Maria Muldaur were both members of Jim Kweskin’s Jug Band in the 1960s – the pre-eminent jug band of the ‘60s folk revival – and this show will explore a few of the many directions that Jim, Geoff and Maria have taken over the past 60-plus years – including numerous collaborations with each other.

Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band- Jug Band Music

Jug Band Music (Vanguard)

Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band- Blues My Naughty Sweetie Gives to Me

Jug Band Music (Vanguard)

Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band- Wild About My Lovin’

Unblushing Brassiness (Vanguard)

Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band- Richland Woman

See Reverse Side for Title (Vanguard)

The Even Dozen Jug Band- Come On In

The Even Dozen Jug Band (Elektra)

Geoff Muldaur- Jelly Roll Baker

Sleepy Man Blues (Prestige)

Jim Kweskin- Make Me a Pallet On Your Floor

Relax Your Mind (Vanguard)

Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band- Chevrolet

See Reverse Side for Title (Vanguard)

Geoff & Maria Muldaur- Brazil

Pottery Pie (Omnivore)

Geoff & Maria Muldaur- Georgia On My Mind

Pottery Pie (Omnivore)

Paul Butterfield’s Better Days- Rule the Road

Paul Butterfield’s Better Days (Rhino/Bearsville)

Jim Kweskin- Sugar Babe

Jim Kweskin’s America (Reprise)

Maria Muldaur- Midnight at the Oasis

Maria Muldaur (Reprise)

Geoff Muldaur- Livin’ in the Sunlight (Lovin’ in the Moonlight)

Geoff Muldaur is Having a Wonderful Time (Reprise)

Jim Kweskin & The Neo-Passé Jazz Band- Jazzbo Brown

Jump for Joy (Vanguard)

Geoff Muldaur's Futuristic Ensemble- Futuristic Rhythm

Private Astronomy: A Vision of the Music of Bix Beiderbecke (Edge Music)

Maria Muldaur- He Ain’t Got Rhythm

Let’s Get Happy Together (Stony Plain)

Jim Kweskin & Geoff Muldaur- Sweet to Mama

Penny’s Farm (Kingswood)

Jim Kweskin & Maria Muldaur- Let’s Get Happy Together

Never Too Late: Duets with My Friends (StorySound)

Geoff Muldaur's Futuristic Ensemble & Martha Wainwright- There Ain’t No Sweet Man That’s Worth the Salt of My Tears

Private Astronomy: A Vision of the Music of Bix Beiderbecke (Edge Music)

Jay McShann & Maria Muldaur- Confessin’ the Blues

Goin’ to Kansas City (Stony Plain)

Jim Kweskin & Samoa Wilson- Remember Me

Never Too Late: Duets with My Friends (StorySound)

John Sebastian & The J-Band & Geoff Muldaur- Minglewood Blues

Chasin’ Gus’ Ghost (Hollywood)

Jim Kweskin & Fiona Kweskin- Side by Side

Never Too Late: Duets with My Friends (StorySound)

Next week: Songs I’ve Heard Tom Rush Sing.

--Mike Regenstreif

 

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – February 20, 2024: Songs of Chuck Berry

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif finds connections and develops themes in various genres. The show is broadcast on CKCU, 93.1 FM, in Ottawa on Tuesdays from 3:30 until 5 pm (Eastern time) and is also available 24/7 for on-demand streaming.

This episode of Stranger Songs was recorded and can be streamed on-demand, now or anytime, by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/63977.html

Theme: Songs of Chuck Berry (1926-2017)

Chuck Berry, who died in 2017 at the age of 90, was an influential guitar player, singer and songwriter and one of the founding and foundational figures of rock ‘n’ roll. Berry was a St. Louis blues musician who signed with Chess Records in Chicago and began releasing singles in 1955 and LPs in 1957. It wasn’t long before he was one of the early stars of rock ‘n’ roll.

Chuck Berry- Rock and Roll Music

Best of the Chess Years (Not Now Music)

The Beatles- Roll Over Beethoven

With The Beatles (Parlophone)

The Rolling Stones- Carol

The Rolling Stones (Decca)

Mollie O'Brien- Brown Eyed Handsome Man

Big Red Sun (Sugar Hill)

Ken Hamm- Maybellene

Live ’05 (North Track)

Chuck Berry- Beautiful Delilah

Best of the Chess Years (Not Now Music)

Ronnie Hawkins & The Hawks- Forty Days

The EP Collection (See for Miles)

The Band- Promised Land

Moondog Matinee (Capitol)

Linda Ronstadt- Back in the U.S.A.

Living in the U.S.A. (Asylum)

Chuck Berry- Sweet Little Sixteen

Best of the Chess Years (Not Now Music)

Jim Kweskin & The Jug Band- Memphis, Tennessee

Jug Band Music (Vanguard)

Geoff & Maria Muldaur- Havana Moon

Sweet Potatoes (Omnivore)

Geoff Muldaur & Amos Garrett- La Juanda

Geoff Muldaur & Amos Garrett (Flying Fish)

George Benson- How You’ve Changed

Walking to New Orleans: Remembering Chuck Berry and Fats Domino (Provogue)

The Stephen Barry Band- You Can’t Catch Me

Happy Man (Bros)

Tom Rush- Too Much Monkey Business

Tom Rush/Take a Little Walk with Me (BGO)

Emmylou Harris- (You Never Can Tell) C’est La Vie

Luxury Liner (Warner Bros./Rhino)

Dion- Johnny B. Goode

Born in the Bronx (Dance House)

Chuck Berry- Bye Bye Johnny

Best of the Chess Years (Not Now Music)

Jim Byrnes- Nadine

St. Louis Times (Black Hen Music)

Ry Cooder- 13 Question Method

Get Rhythm (Warner Bros.)

Ann Rabson- School Days

Struttin’ My Stuff (M.C.)

Jerry Lee Lewis- Little Queenie

Jerry Rocks (Bear Family)

Chuck Berry- Let It Rock

Best of the Chess Years (Not Now Music)

Chris Smither- Tulane

Another Way to Find You (Flying Fish)

Geoff Bartley- No Money Down

Hear That Wind Howl (Waterbug)

Gerry & The Pacemakers- Reelin’ and Rockin’

The EP Collection (See for Miles)

Chuck Berry- Downbound Train

Best of the Chess Years (Not Now Music)

Chuck Berry- Berry Pickin’

Best of the Chess Years (Not Now Music)

Next week: “Take the ‘A’ Train”: A Tribute to Duke Ellington.

--Mike Regenstreif

Geoff & Maria Muldaur – Pottery Pie; Sweet Potatoes

GEOFF & MARIA MULDAUR

Pottery Pie

Omnivore Recordings

omnivorerecordings.com/shop/pottery-pie/

Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band were early favorites of mine when I was first getting into music and record collecting as a kid in the 1960s so I was already familiar with (and a fan of) the husband and wife team of Geoff & Maria Muldaur – stalwarts of the Kweskin band – when they recorded Pottery Pie in 1968, the first of two LPs they would release as a duo. Remarkably, Pottery Pie and the other LP, Sweet Potatoes, have just recently been reissued for the first time in North America.

Geoff and Maria alternated lead vocals on Pottery Pie, an album that seemed to point in directions both would go on to explore later on. Geoff’s version of “Death Letter Blues,” for example, is the kind of track he’d record some years later as a member of Paul Butterfield’s Better Days, while Maria’s version of “Me and My Chauffeur Blues,” presaged the tribute to Memphis Minnie she would produce years later.

Geoff’s other highlights on Pottery Pie include a great version of “New Orleans Hopscop Blues,” originally recorded by Bessie Smith, that combines an updated classic blues feel with a New Orleans-style horn arrangement, and a soulful rendition of “Prairie Lullaby,” a classic recorded by Jimmie Rodgers in 1932, that features great playing by Bill Keith on pedal steel and an uncredited fiddler (who I suspect may have been Maria).

And I must mention Geoff’s fun version of “Brazil,” a classic Brazilian jazz tune that would go on to give Terry Gilliam’s film its name when he used this recording in the movie.

Among Maria’s highlights is her sexy definitive version of Bob Dylan’s “I’ll Be Your Baby Tonight” and the traditional gospel song “Trials, Troubles, Tribulations” with nice harmonies from Betsy Siggins.

But my absolute favorite track on Pottery Pie is Maria’s gorgeous version of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Georgia On My Mind,” with a sublime electric guitar solo by Amos Garrett, perhaps the first of many notable guitar solos Amos would play on albums with both Muldaurs.

GEOFF & MARIA MULDAUR

Sweet Potatoes

Omnivore Recordings

omnivorerecordings.com/shop/sweet-potatoes/

While Pottery Pie seemed to be equal parts Geoff and Maria, Geoff dominates Sweet Potatoes, their second and final LP, released in 1972. It’s a charming album, but just a tad disappointing that only three of the 10 songs featured Maria.

That said, some of my favorites of Geoff’s leads include “Havana Moon,” a very atypical Chuck Berry tune given a bluesy arrangement featuring Paul Butterfield on harmonica, and “Dardanella,” a New Orleans jazz standard whose intricate arrangement points at the kind of work Geoff would do decades later with his album of Bix Biederbecke material.

Another favorite is the languid but delightful version of Hoagy Carmichael’s “Lazy Bones,” with a lead vocal and patented guitar solo by Amos Garrett, that certainly presaged the duo album they recorded on Flying Fish after playing together in Paul Butterfield’s Better Days.

Maria’s three lead vocals are also highlights of Sweet Potatoes. These include “Blue Railroad Train,” a Delmore Bothers song that Doc Watson introduced to the folk revival in the mid’60s, and the title track, a lovely little number on which she’s accompanied by pianist Jeff Gutcheon, the song’s composer.

But my absolute favorite is Maria’s beautiful version of “Lover Man (Oh Where Can You Be),” a jazz standard sung decades earlier by Billie Holiday. This version features another dreamy guitar solo by Amos as well as strings and woodwinds – including Geoff on clarinet. 

I should note also that the cover painting for Sweet Potatoes was by the great folk and blues performer and visual artist Eric Von Schmidt.

These two albums are much more than footnotes in the discographies of two artists would go on to give us – and still continue to give us a half-century later – much great music.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday February 4, 2017

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 http://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/128/30927.html.

Corin Raymond- There will Always be a Small Time

There will Always be a Small Time (Corin Raymond)

Eva Cassidy- Early Morning Rain

Imagine (Blix Street)

Doug McArthur- The Morning I Left Galway

Tears Like Rain (Doug McArthur)

Lynn Miles- Drunks and Fools

Black Flowers Vol. 3 (Lynn Miles)

Moore & McGregor- Don’t Let Us Get Sick

Dream with Me (Ivernia)

Jack Williams- Sing-Song World

Far Away, Long Ago (Wind River)

Missin' Cousins- I Ain’t Got No Home/Old Man Trump (Missin’ Cousins)

Tim Grimm- Woody’s Landlord (Tim Grimm)

Paul Siebel- The Ballad of Honest Sam

Woodsmoke and Oranges (Elektra)

Tom Russell- Who’s Gonna Build Your Wall

Wounded Heart of America (HighTone)

Tom Paxton- Silent Night

New Songs for Old Friends (Reprise)

Maria Dunn- I Cannot Tell You

Piece By Piece (Distant Whisper)

Guy Clark- Immigrant Eyes

Old Friends (Sugar Hill)

Martha Trachtenberg w/Dede Wyland- Ticket Back

It’s About Time (Mom and Pop)

Sharon Goldman- Pillar of Salt

Kol Isha/A Woman’s Voice (Sharon Goldman)

The Klezmatics- Apikorsim (Heretics)

Apikorsim/Heretics (World Village)

The rest of the show was a celebration of the songs and musical influence of Mississippi John Hurt (circa 1892-1966), one of the greatest and most influential of the blues and folk songsters.

Michael Jerome Browne- Sliding Delta

Sliding Delta (Borealis)

Jackson Delta- Ain’t No Tellin’

Jackson Delta Live (Jackson Delta)

Bruce Cockburn- Avalon, My Home Town

Avalon Blues: A Tribute to the Music of Mississippi John Hurt (Vanguard)

Bill Bourne- Uncle John’s Gospel

Farmer, Philanthropist & Musician (Blue Streak)

Mississippi John Hurt- Corrinna, Corrinna

Today (Vanguard)

Tom Paxton, Anne Hills & Bob Gibson- Did You Hear John Hurt?

Best of Friends (Appleseed)

Adam Karch- Louis Collins

Moving Forward (Bros)

Dave Van Ronk- Spike Driver Blues

Live in Monterey (Omnivore)

Rosalie Sorrels- I’m Satisfied

Miscellaneous Abstract Record No. 1 (Green Linnet)

Martin Grosswendt- Pay Day

Pay Day! (Martin Grosswendt)

Mississippi John Hurt- Talking Casey

Today (Vanguard)

Rory Block- Everybody Loves John

Avalon: A Tribute to Mississippi John Hurt (Stony Plain)

Bill Morrissey- If You Don’t Want Me

Songs of Mississippi John Hurt (Philo)

Jim Kweskin & Geoff Muldaur- C-H-I-C-K-E-N

Penny’s Farm (Kingswood)

Maria Muldaur- Richland Woman Blues

Richland Woman Blues (Stony Plain)

Jim Kweskin & Geoff Muldaur- Frankie

Penny’s Farm (Kingswood)

Mississippi John Hurt- Coffee Blues

Today (Vanguard)

Peter Keane- Poor Jessie

Walkin’ Around (Flying Fish)

Manitoba Hal Brolund- Let the Mermaids Flirt with Me

Flirting with Mermaids (Hal’s Kitchen)

Tim Williams- Pallet on the Floor

Evenings Among Friends (Cayuse)

David Essig- Candy Man

Redbird Country & High Ground (Appaloosa)

Mississippi John Hurt- Keep On Knocking

The Immortal Mississippi John Hurt (Vanguard)

Rory Block- Stagolee

Avalon: A Tribute to Mississippi John Hurt (Stony Plain)

Eve Goldberg- My Creole Belle

Ever Brightening Day (Sweet Patootie)

Happy & Artie Traum- Mississippi John

Hard Times in the Country (Rounder)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on March 4. I’ll also be co-hosting Canadian Spaces next with Chris White on March 25 (10 am-noon).

Find me on Twitter. @MikeRegenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif