Folk Roots/Folk Branches with Mike Regenstreif: Jez Lowe

Showing posts with label Jez Lowe. Show all posts

Thursday, December 16, 2021

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday December 21, 2021: Winter Solstice & Christmas

Mike Regenstreif & Erik Frandsen (1976) photo: Felicity Fanjoy

Erik Frandsen- Christmas in Brooklyn
Antiques: New & Used (Erik Frandsen)
Louis Armstrong- Cool Yule
Cool Yule: Deluxe Edition (Verve)
Peter Davis- Zat You Santa Claus?
The Pleasures of Winter (Fiddle & Dance)
Mike Goudreau Band & Dany Roy- Shufflin’ on Christmas Day
Christmas Rendezvous (Éditions Goudreau)

Brian Campbell- All Alone This Christmas
All Alone This Christmas – single (Brian Campbell)
Norman Doucette- Christmas in a Phone Booth
Dangerous Ground (Norman Doucette)
Emma’s Revolution- A Zeesn Christmas
A Zeesn Christmas – single (Moving Forward Music)
Suzzy Roche, Lucy Wainwright Roche, Oona Roche, David Roche & Daisy Press- Christmas Love
Where Do I Come From: Selected Songs (StorySound)
David Massengill- Jesus, the Fugitive Prince
The Return (Plump)

Jay Ungar & Molly Mason with Tony Trischka- Christmas Eve
The Pleasures of Winter (Fiddle & Dance)

Next week: Mike Regenstreif's top 10 folk-rooted and folk-branched albums of 2021

Find me on Twitter. www.twitter.com/mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Thursday, June 10, 2021

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday June 15, 2021

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

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

This episode of Stranger Songs was prerecorded at home and can already be streamed on-demand by clicking on “Listen Now” at … https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/52334.html

Theme: Working in the Coalmine – Coal mining, traditionally, has been one of the most environmentally destructive sources of fuel. As well, coal mining has been one of the most dangerous occupations with untold numbers of miners being killed over the decades in both large-scale disasters and smaller accidents. Coal mining has also been one of the most dangerous occupations in terms of long-term health effects in the way that coal dust eventually destroys the lungs of miners. As well, the coal industry has been one of the most exploitative of its workers. The songs on this show address those issues.

Allen Toussaint- Working in the Coalmine
From a Whisper to a Scream (Kent)

Mary Hott with The Carpenter Ants- They Built a Railroad
Devil in the Hills: Coal Country Reckoning (Mary Hott)
Last Forever- Pay Day at Coal Creek
No Place Like Home/Last Forever (2nd Story Sound)
Kronos Quartet with Lee Knight- Which Side Are You On?
Long Time Passing: Kronos Quartet & Friends Celebrate Pete Seeger (Smithsonian Folkways)
Frida’s Brow- Canary in a Coal Mine
Frida’s Brow (Frida’s Brow)

Fourtold- Ballad of Springhill
Fourtold (Appleseed)
Matt Anderson- Coal Mining Blues
Coal Mining Blues (Busted Flat)

Judy Collins- Red-Winged Blackbird
Judy Collins 3 & 4 (Wildflower)
Priscilla Herdman- The Coming of the Roads
Darkness into Light (Flying Fish)
Laurie MacAllister- Coal Tattoo
The Things I Choose to Do (Laurie MacAllister)

Tom Paxton- Dogs at Midnight
Tom Paxton 6 (Elektra)
The Friends of Fiddler's Green- Down in the Coalmine
This Side of the Ocean (FOFG)
Jez Lowe with The Bad Pennies- These Coal Town Days
Live at the Davy Lamp (Tantobie)

Joni Mitchell- Dark as a Dungeon
Archives – Volume 1: The Early Years (1963-1967) (Rhino)
Mose Scarlett with Ken Whiteley- Nine Pound Hammer
The Fundamental Things (Pyramid)
Oscar Brown, Jr..- Sixteen Tons
The Voice of Cool (Not Now Music)

Jim Ringer- Paradise
Waitin’ for the Hard Times to Go (Folk-Legacy)
Susie Glaze- West Virginia Mine Disaster
Dear Jean: Artists Celebrate Jean Ritchie (Compass)
Glen Reid- The L&N Don’t Stop Here Anymore
Wildcats Howlin’ (Royston Road Music)
Kathy Mattea- Blue Diamond Mines
Coal (Captain Potato)

Mary Hott with The Carpenter Ants- Annabelle Lee
Devil in the Hills: Coal Country Reckoning (Mary Hott)
Undertakin' Daddies- Pictou County Coal
Post Atomic Hillbilly (Caribou)
Andy & Judy- St. Paul Mine
Let Us Sing (Andy & Judy Daigle)
Annie Lou- Fire in the Hole
End Zone (Annie Lou)

Next week – Summer Songs

Find me on Twitter. www.twitter.com/mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Friday, July 26, 2013

The Short Sisters – Downsized

THE SHORT SISTERS

Downsized

Black Socks Press

ss.mapping.com

I really like what happens when three talented women singers come together in glorious harmony. Groups like the Wailin’ Jennys, the Good Lovelies, Herdman, Hills & Mangsen (Priscilla Herdman, Anne Hills, Cindy Mangsen) and the Marigolds – all of them very different in sound and repertoire – are quite wonderful with what they do with a song.

Along with the groups mentioned above, the Short Sisters are one of my all-time favorite trios of harmonizing women. They’ve been singing together since 1979, but Downsized is just their fifth album and their first since 2002 – and like its predecessors, the CD is a treat from the first song to the last. In fact, the opening paragraph I wrote 11 years ago for my Sing Out! magazine review of their previous album, Love and Transportation, is just as applicable to Downsized:

“The Short Sisters – Fay Baird, Kate Seeger and Kim Wallach – are not real sisters. However, when their voices combine in sweet harmony on this set of traditional and contemporary songs drawn from a variety of sources, they sure do sound like siblings who have been harmonizing for a lifetime. It is also obvious that they have chosen and arranged these songs, to borrow a phrase from the late Townes Van Zandt, simply for the sake of the song and the joy of singing. When they’re not singing a cappella, the Short Sisters keep the arrangements tasteful and simple, acoustic guitars played by Kim and Kate, banjo by Fay and occasionally, some very nice harmonica work by Dean Spencer.”

The only thing I need to add is that Kate also plays autoharp on a couple of songs on the new album.

While all 16 songs in the hour-long set are delightful, a few of my favorites include “The Vikings,” a satirical tune by Jez Lowe (perhaps my very favorite British songwriter), a beautiful version “Ca’ the Yowes,” a Scottish song written or collected by Robert Burns, Kim’s “Home in Old New Jersey,” a delightfully arranged nostalgic piece about the state she grew up in, and “Tell Me Why You Like Roosevelt,” Otis Jackson’s tribute to the president who introduced the New Deal (this is the song my friend Jesse Winchester rewrote about 40 years ago to also pay tribute to the Canadian politicians whose policies allowed safe haven for Vietnam War resistors).

I was also delighted to hear the Short Sisters’ version of “Upon Finding Just One,” a terrific round written by my neighborhood pal Ann Downey, the traditional “Goin’ Down to Tampa,” and Lester Simpson’s “Twenty-Four Seven,” a labor song for these times we’re living in.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif