Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – February 22, 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/128/69061.html

Humphrey & The Dumptrucks- Merry Mansion Quadrology: Merry Mansion; Magician; Front Door; Red White & Blue

Six Days of Paper Ladies (Boot)

Boreal- Song for a Winter’s Night

Winterbirds (Boreal)

Mike Regenstreif & Lynn Miles (2013)

Lynn Miles- Just Let It Snow

Winter (Lynn Miles)

Steel Rail- A Thousand Miles of Snow

A Thousand Miles of Snow (Crossties)

Rosalie Sorrels & Mike Regenstreif (1993)

Rosalie Sorrels- Snowing On Raton

Borderline Heart (Green Linnet)

Ronney Abramson & Mike Regenstreif (2016)

Ronney Abramson- Long Lonely Winter

Stowaway (Castor Island Music)

Laurie MacAllister & David Glaser- Birches

The Lies the Poets Tell (Laurie MacAllister)

Mike Regenstreif & Bill Morrissey (2005)

Bill Morrissey- Ice Fishing

North (Philo)

Joel Mabus & Mike Regenstreif (2001)

Joel Mabus- Five Kinds of Snow

Promised Land (Fossil)

Herdman, Hills & Mangsen- The Druggist

At the Turning of the Year (Hand & Heart Music)

The Roches- My Winter Coat

Where Do I Come From: Selected Songs (StorySound)

Crys Matthews- In Her House

Reclamation (Crys Matthews)

Bradstreet & Keesee- The Land Beyond

Live in London (Street)

Kim Beggs- Miles & Miles Away

Beneath Your Skin (Out of a Paperbag Productions)

Cindy Kallet- Ride in the Light

Ride in the Light (Sleepy Creek Music)

Mary Chapin Carpenter, Julie Fowlis & Karine Polwart- Send Love

Looking for the Thread (Lambent Light/Thirty Tigers)

In memory of John Roberts (1944-2025)

John Roberts- Rambleaway

Spencer the Rover is Alive and Well… (Swallowtail)

John Roberts & Tony Barrand- We Have Fed Our Sea

Naulakha Redux: Songs of Rudyard Kipling (Golden Hind Music)

John Roberts & Debra Cowan- Drive Dull Care Away

Ballads Long & Short: The Best of Every Sort (Golden Hind Music)

John Roberts & Tony Barrand- Row On

Twiddlum Twaddlum (Golden Hind Music)

Rosanne Cash- My Old Man

Rhythm & Romance (Columbia)

Rhiannon Giddens- Up Above My Head

Tomorrow is My Turn (Nonesuch)

Laura Cortese- Into the Dark

Into the Dark (Laura Cortese)

Roy Zimmerman- Big Yellow Taxi

Road Map (Roy Zimmerman)

Tim Grimm- Broken Truth 

Broken Truth – single (Vault) 

Ian Robb & James Stephens- God and The Orange Clown

Declining …with thanks (Fallen Angle Music)

Lemon Bucket Orkestra- Da Ishly Divky

Cuckoo (Lemon Bucket Orkestra)

Alice Howe & Freebo- A Case of You

Live (Know Howe Music)

Perla Batalla- A Thousand Kisses Deep

A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda Music)

Orit Shimoni- My Flying Shoes

Lorem Ipsum (Orit Shimoni)

Lisa Gutkin- For All of You

From Here On In (Lisa Gutkin)

The Twangtown Paramours- Old Friends

The Wind will Change Again (Inside Edge)

NEeMA with Emmylou Harris- For You

Painting My Wall Gold (Neemaste Productions)

John McCutcheon with Windborne- Blessing

Field of Stars (Appalsongs)

Jim Brewer- Corrina, Corrina

Take It Easy Greasy (Earwig/Riverlark Music)

Odetta- Rock Island Line

Lookin’ for a Home: Thanks to Leadbelly (M.C.)

Guy Davis & Mike Regenstreif (2006)

Guy Davis- Don’t Know Where I’m Bound

The Legend of Sugarbelly (M.C.)

Fabrizio Poggi with Shar White- I Want Jesus to Walk with Me

Healing Blues (Appaloosa)

Mike Regenstreif & Priscilla Herdman (2000)

Priscilla Herdman- Waltzing with Bears

Stardreamer (Alacazam)

Natalie Merchant with The Klezmatics- The Dancing Bear

Leave Your Sleep (Nonesuch)

Dave Van Ronk- Teddy Bears’ Picnic

Songs for Ageing Children (Cadet)

Jenny Scheinman- Every Bear That Ever There Was

All Species Parade (Royal Potato Family)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on March 22. I also host Stranger Songs on CKCU every Tuesday from 3:30-5 pm.

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – December 3, 2024: Top 10 for 2024

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/595/67938.html

Theme: Songs from my top 10 folk-rooted and folk-branched albums of 2024.

The annotated and illustrated list is posted on the Folk Roots/Folk Branches blog at this link. https://frfb.blogspot.com/2024/11/top-10-for-2024.html

Number 10 – Heartbreak, Misery & Death by Grayson Capps

Grayson Capps- Hallelujah

Heartbreak, Misery & Death (Royal Potato Family)

Number 9 – Lonesome Road: Suite for Solo Guitar and Voice – Songs of the Lost Generation 1924-1928 by Joel Mabus

Joel Mabus- The Lonesome Road

Lonesome Road: Suite for Solo Guitar and Voice – Songs of the Lost Generation 1924-1928 (Fossil)

Number 8 – American Patchwork Quartet by American Patchwork Quartet

American Patchwork Quartet- Shenandoah

American Patchwork Quartet (Carolina Jasmine)

Number 7 – Heart of the Swan by Carla Sciaky

Carla Sciaky- Standing by a River

Heart of the Swan (Propinquity)

Carla Sciaky- This Forsaken Garden

Heart of the Swan (Propinquity)

Number 6 – Two Sides to Your Story by Chris Rawlings

Chris Rawlings- Bastille Day

Two Sides to Your Story (Cookingfat Music)

Chris Rawlings- Smoker’s Lullaby

Two Sides to Your Story (Cookingfat Music)

Number 5 – Live at the Scala Theatre and In the Real World by Eric Bibb

Eric Bibb- Bring Me Little Water, Sylvie 

Live at the Scala Theatre (Stony Plain) 

Eric Bibb- Best I Can

In the Real World (Stony Plain)

Number 4 – American Railroad by Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens

Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens- Swannanoa Tunnel/Steel-Driving Man

American Railroad (Nonesuch)

Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens- Tamping Song

American Railroad (Nonesuch)

Number 3 – Feel with Blood by Lenka Lichtenberg

Lenka Lichtenberg- Feel with Blood

Feel with Blood (Six Degrees)

Lenka Lichtenberg- Wintry Dusk

Feel with Blood (Six Degrees)

Number 2 – Bandits, Ballads and Blues by James Talley

James Talley- The Love Song of Billy the Kid

Bandits, Ballads and Blues (Cimarron)

James Talley- If We Could Love One Another

Bandits, Ballads and Blues (Cimarron)

Number 1 – A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend by Perla Batalla

Perla Batalla- A Singer Must Die

A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda Music)

Perla Batalla- You Want It Darker

A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda Music)

I’m taking the next four weeks off and Stranger Songs will feature some repeat shows from 2022. You can see the playlists and stream the shows at the following links.

December 10: Songs of the Mountain City Four and Kate & Anna McGarrigle. https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/57707.html

December 17: “Acapella Stella” and other a capella songs. https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/57170.html

December 24: Happy Holidays. https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/58701.html

December 31: Songs of – or inspired by – Jesse Winchester. https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/56097.html

New programs will resume on January 7.

--Mike Regenstreif

Top 10 for 2024

Here are my picks for the Top 10 folk-rooted or folk-branched albums of 2024. I started with a list of about 30 superb albums released between December 2023 and November 2024. I’ve been over the list several times over the past couple of weeks and came up with several similar – not identical – Top 10 lists. Today’s list is the final one. The order might have been slightly different and there are several other worthy albums that might have been included, had one of the other lists represented the final choice. Any new albums that arrive between now and the end of the year will be considered for my 2025 list. 

1. Perla Batalla – A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda Music). Early in her career, in the late-1980s and ‘90s, Perla Batalla toured the world as a backup singer in Leonard Cohen’s band. I remember being mesmerized by her singing as I sat front row, centre at the St. Denis Theatre in Montreal in 1988. In 2004, Perla released the superb collection, Bird on the Wire: The Songs of Leonard Cohen, and now follows up with this sublime album. She includes superb versions of eight of Leonard’s songs; a version of “The Partisan,” a song from the French Resistance in the World War II that Leonard made his own; and two of Perla’s original songs inspired by her friend and mentor.

2. James Talley – Bandits, Ballads and Blues (Cimarron). James Talley has been one of my favorite singer-songwriters since he released Got No Bread, No Milk, No Money, but We Sure Got a Lot of Love in 1974. On Bandits, Ballads and Blues, James sings compassionate songs about old west outlaws, family, a missed dog, and – most importantly – common folk victimized by forces beyond their control.

3. Lenka Lichtenberg – Feel with Blood (Six Degrees). Feel with Blood by Lenka Lichtenberg, the second album that Lenka has done based on poems written by Anna Hana Friesová, her maternal grandmother, while she was a prisoner at the Theresienstadt concentration camp during the Holocaust. While Thieves of Dreams, her first album of this material was largely sung in Czech, this album is largely sung in English translation.

4. Silkroad Ensemble with Rhiannon Giddens – American Railroad (Nonesuch). The Silkroad Ensemble is a multicultural group of musicians founded by Yo-Yo Ma and now under the artistic direction of Rhiannon Giddens. As explained on the Silkroad Ensemble website, American Railroad, was inspired by the impact that African American, Chinese, Indigenous, Irish, and other immigrant communities had on the creation of the transcontinental and connecting railways in North America.

5. Eric Bibb – Live at the Scala Theatre (Stony Plain) and In the Real World (Stony Plain). The always inspiring Eric Bibb, who has been a favorite folk and acoustic blues performer for many years, released both a live album, Live at the Scala Theatre, and a studio album, In the Real World, this year and both are deserving of inclusion on this list, so I decided to bend my list and have two albums share a slot.

6. Chris Rawlings – Two Sides to Your Story (Cookingfat Music). I’ve known Chris Rawlings since circa 1970 and I think that Two Sides to Your Story – featuring stellar backup from Henry Heillig and Jim Hoke – is his best (and best sounding) album yet. Among the highlights is a new version of “Smoker’s Lullaby,” a piece that Chris sang the first time I heard him about 55 years ago, featuring slightly edited lyrics that make a great song even better – and whose opening line gives the album its title.

7. Carla Sciaky – Heart of the Swan (Propinquity). Heart of the Swan, the first solo album in about 30 years by Carla Sciaky, marks a triumphant return of a fine singer and songwriter who was unheard from for too long. This is an album of quiet power with several tracks featuring recurring instrumental or vocal passages from the traditional ballad, “Polly Vaughn,” about a hunter mistakes the woman he loves for a swan.

8. American Patchwork Quartet – American Patchwork Quartet (Carolina Jasmine). American Patchwork Quartet is a multicultural group whose members are both ethnically and musically diverse, traits which they bring to their delightfully re-imagined versions of 14 traditional folksongs that demonstrate how relevant and powerful traditional source material remains for contemporary music.

9. Joel Mabus – Lonesome Road: Suite for Solo Guitar and Voice – Songs of the Lost Generation 1924-1928 (Fossil). Joel Mabus, a longtime veteran of the folk music scene, is a fine singer and player of many stringed instruments. Joel is also an excellent songwriter whose work is well informed by his knowledge of diverse styles including traditional balladry, old-time country, bluegrass, jazz, vintage pop and blues. On Lonesome Road: Suite for Solo Guitar and Voice – Songs of the Lost Generation 1924-1928 Joel offers fine versions of 14 classic songs written between 1924 and 1928.

10. Grayson Capps – Heartbreak, Misery & Death (Royal Potato Family). On Heartbreak, Misery & Death, Grayson Capps, a singer-songwriter from Alabama well-versed in folk and blues styles, turns his attention to really nice versions of traditional folksongs and contemporary folk classics written by the likes of Leonard Cohen, Gordon Lightfoot, Jerry Jeff Walker and Randy Newman.

I will be featuring songs from each of these albums on Stranger Songs, Tuesday December 3, 3:30-5 pm (ET), on CKCU. The program is already available 24/7 for on-demand streaming at this link. https://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/595/67938.html

–Mike Regenstreif

Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday November 2, 2024

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/128/67537.html

This is the second of three editions of the Saturday Morning show airing during CKCU’s 2024 Funding Drive. Your support is meaningful and essential to keeping CKCU’s diverse programming on the air for another year. You can make a donation in support of Saturday Morning and CKCU at this link. Charitable income tax receipts are issued for donations of $20 or more. Thanks for your support. https://www.canadahelps.org/en/charities/CKCU/p2p/fundingdrive2024/page/saturday-morning

Walter Hyatt- In November

King Tears (MCA)

Mary Flower- Brother, Can You Spare a Dime

Bywater Dance (Yellow Dog)

El Coyote- Tip Jar

El Coyote (El Coyote)

Old Man Luedecke- Easy Money

Easy Money (True North)

Bonnie Dobson- Living on Plastic

Take Me for a Walk in the Morning Dew (Hornbeam)

Bill Hearne- Cash on the Barrelhead

Always Trust Your Cape (Howlin’ Dog) 

Perla Batalla- Sisters of Mercy

A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda)

Dave Van Ronk- Bird on the Wire

Van Ronk (Polydor)

Martin Simpson- The Stranger Song

Vagrant Stanzas (Topic)

Leonard Cohen- Famous Blue Raincoat

Songs of Love and Hate (Columbia/Legacy)

Perla Batalla- The L of Your First Name

A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda)

Carla Sciaky- Dear Mr. Bowers

Heart of the Swan (Propinquity)

Tom Mitchell & Mike Regenstreif (1999)

Tom Mitchell- Wasted Rose

1976 live recording – used with permission

Amy Speace- Love is Gonna Come Again

The American Dream (Windbone)

Lenka Lichtenberg- Wintry Dusk

Feel with Blood (Six Degrees)

Mike Regenstreif & Brendan Nolan (2023)

Brendan Nolan- Packing Her Bag

Beneath White Stars: Holocaust Profiles in Song (AlmondSeed Media)

Chava Alberstein & The Klezmatics- Mayn Shvester Khaye (My Sister Khaye)

The Well (Rounder)

Lenka Lichtenberg- Feel with Blood

Feel with Blood (Six Degrees)

Ian Robb & James Stephens- God and The Orange Clown

Declining …with thanks (Fallen Angle Music)

Resistance Revival Chorus featuring Rhiannon Giddens- All You Fascists Bound to Lose

This Joy (Righteous Babe)

John McCutcheon- If I Had a Hammer

To Everyone in All the World: A Celebration of Pete Seeger (Appalseed)

Perla Batalla- Democracy

A Letter to Leonard Cohen: Tribute to a Friend (Mechuda)

Connie Kaldor- Set You Free

Keep Going (Coyote Entertainment) 

Carolyn Shulman- Bolt Out of the Blue

Heart on a Wire (Carolyn Shulman)

Kurt Anderson- Whistlers and Jugglers

Life on Interstate 40 (Riverlark Music)

Neale Eckstein & BettySoo- Like a Poem Needs a Rhyme

Never Too Late (Neale Eckstein)

Rik Palieri- When the Circus Leaves Town

Hands of Time (Rik Palieri)

Geneviève Racette- X2

Golden (Geneviève Racette)

Eric Bibb- Make a Change (Chains & Free)

In the Real World (Stony Plain)

Reggie Harris- The Times They are A-Changin’

Ready to Go (Reggie Harris Music)

Bettye LaVette- A Change is Gonna Come

Change is Gonna Come Sessions (Anti-)

Jerron Paxton- Things Done Changed

Things Done Changed (Smithsonian Folkways)

Moses Crouch- Hillbilly Willie’s Blues/Travelin’ Railroad Blues

Earth Music (Riverlark)

Joel Mabus & Mike Regenstreif (2001)

Joel Mabus- Blues in a Bottle

Lonesome Road: Suite for Solo Guitar and Voice – Songs of the Lost Generation 1924-1928 (Fossil)

Misty Blues- Weepin’ Willow Blues

I’m Too Old for Games: A Live Tribute to Odetta (Guitar One)

Odetta with Dr. John- Oh Papa

Blues Everywhere I Go (M.C.)

Terra Spencer & Stephen Fearing- East to West

Sunset (Terra Spencer)

Steve Lundquist- The Great Northwest

The Great Northwest (Steve Lundquist)

Tish Hinojosa- If I Could Only Fly

With a Guitar & a Pen (Tish Hinojosa)

Sav Sankaran- Looking for the Moon

Bluegrass Sings Paxton (Mountain Home)

Amir Amiri Ensemble- Raghseh Choobi (Dance of the Wooden Sticks)

Ajdad – Ancestors: Echoes of Persia (Fifth House)

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

--Mike Regenstreif

Saturday Morning with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Saturday October 5, 2024

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/128/67154.html

Bill Staines- October Winds

The First Million Miles (Rounder)

Ann Savoy- Who Knows Where the Time Goes

Another Heart (Smithsonian Folkways)

Tommy Makem & Liam Clancy- White Swans and Black/Grey October Clouds

Two for the Early Dew (Shanachie)

Laura Smith & Mike Regenstreif (2013)

Laura Smith- My Bonny

As Long As I’m Dreaming (Borealis)

Dave Van Ronk- Urge for Going

…and the tin pan bended, and the story ended… (Smithsonian Folkways)

Susie Burke- Will You Come Home

The Seasons Project: Autumn (Christine Lavin)

David Buskin- When I Need You Most of All

The Seasons Project: Autumn (Christine Lavin)

Christine Lavin- Getting Used to Leavin’

The Seasons Project: Autumn (Christine Lavin)

John Gorka & Mike Regenstreif (2012)

John Gorka- Out of My Mind

The Seasons Project: Autumn (Christine Lavin)

Sussex- Take You Back

Shine (Lucky Bear)

Jesse Winchester- Yankee Lady

Seems Like Only Yesterday – Live in Montreal 1976 (Real Gone Music)

Priscilla Herdman- Talk to Me of Mendocino

Forgotten Dreams (Flying Fish)

Mike Regenstreif & Anne Hills (2001)

Anne Hills- Brown Leaves

Angle of the Light (Flying Fish)

Cindy Mangsen- October Roses

Songs of Experience (Redwing Music)

Jenny Burtis- I Won’t Chase You Down

Woodbird (Ploodepesh)

Ray Bonneville- Oh the Night is Long

On the Blind Side (Stonefly) 

James Gordon- Wrinkles and Scars

Wrinkles and Scars (James Gordon)

Katherine Wheatley- Great Big Guitar

Landed (The Hoot Music Company)

Corin Raymond- There will Always be a Small Time

There will Always be a Small Time (Corin Raymond)

Gathering Sparks- Many Sparks Make a Fire

All That’s Real (Borealis)

Terra Spencer- At Your Service

Old News (Terra Spencer & Ben Caplan)

Sussex- I’ll See You in My Dreams

Shine (Lucky Bear)

Graham Nash- Marrakesh Express (demo)

Over the Years (Rhino)

Pink Martini- Hang On Little Tomato

A Retrospective (Heinz)

Ben Caplan- What Love Can Heartache Allow

Old Stock (Rhyme and Reason)

Mike Regenstreif & Old Man Luedecke (2015)

Old Man Luedecke- Le Ciel est Noir (A Hard Rain’s A-Gonna Fall)

Easy Money (True North)

Carla Sciaky- Standing by a River

Heart of the Swan (Propinquity)

Moira Smiley- Awake Awake

The Rhizome Project (Moira Smiley Music)

Anna McGarrigle, Chaim Tannenbaum, Lily Lanken, Rufus Wainwright & Martha Wainwright- Dink’s Song

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

Andy Statman- Brown County Breakdown

Bluegrass Tracks (Shefa)

Sonya Cohen Cramer- Oh the Wind and Rain

You’ve Been a Friend to Me (Smithsonian Folkways)

Ren Harvieu- I Used to be So Pretty

Linda Thompson: Proxy Music (StorySound)

Carolyn Shulman- Heart on a Wire

Heart on a Wire (Carolyn Shulman)

Amy Speace- Homecoming Queen

The American Dream (Windbone)

Philadelphia Jerry Ricks- Casey Jones

True Blues (Traditional Line)

Moses Crouch- Falling Down Blues/Good Morning Judge

Earth Music (Riverlark)

Furry Lewis- Make Me a Pallet on Your Floor

Blues Magician (Lucky Seven)

Steve Lundquist- Up in the Cascades

The Great Northwest (Steve Lundquist)

Erin Ash Sullivan- Rest Stop Bird

Signposts and Marks (Erin Ash Sullivan)

Julian Taylor- Love Letters

Pathways (Howling Turtle)

Claire Lynch- I Give You the Morning

Bluegrass Sings Paxton (Mountain Home)

Tom Paxton- Wish I Had a Troubadour

The Compleat Tom Paxton (Even Compleater) (Rhino Handmade)

Mike Regenstreif, Tom Paxton & Joel Mabus (2001) photo: Janice Hanson

  
Joel Mabus- Old Man River

Lonesome Road: Suite for Solo Guitar and Voice – Songs of the Lost Generation 1924-1928 (Fossil)

Tom Russell & The Norwegian Wind Esemble- Mississippi River Running Backwards

Aztec Jazz (Frontera)

Sussex- Bye Bye Blues

Shine (Lucky Bear)

I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning next on November 2. I also host Stranger Songs on CKCU every Tuesday from 3:30-5 pm.

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday May 10, 2022: “Rooty Toot Toot for the Moon”

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/595/56173.html

Theme: “Rooty Toot Toot for the Moon”

Tom Paxton- Looking for the Moon
Looking for the Moon (Appleseed)

Over the Moon- Over the Moon
Moondancer (Over the Moon)
Shelley Posen- Ontario Moon
Ontario Moon (Well Done Music)
Leon Redbone- Shine On Harvest Moon
Double Time (Warner Bros.)
Chaim Tannenbaum- It’s Only a Paper Moon
Chaim Tannenbaum (StorySound)

Patti Casey with Paul Asbell- Blue Moon
Just an Old Sweet Song (Long Shot Music)
Martha Seyler & Robert Resnik- Blue Moon of Kentucky
Martha Sings & Robert Plays (Martha Seyler & Robert Resnik)
Pat Alger- Once in a Very Blue Moon
True Love & Other Short Stories (Sugar Hill)

Noel Paul Stookey- I’ll Be Seeing You
Fazz: Now & Then (Neworld Multimedia)

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

Erik Frandsen- Dig That Moon
Antiques: New & Used (Erik Frandsen)
Nanci Griffith- Grapefruit Moon
Ruby’s Torch (Rounder)
Billie Holiday- I Wished On the Moon
Songs for Distingué Lovers (Verve)
Durham County Poets- The Moon Won’t Go Down
Hand Me Down Blues (Durham County Poets)

Ben Bullington- Ring Around the Moon
White Sulphur Springs (Ben Bullington)
Lily Henley- Alta Alta Va La Luna
Oras Dezaoradas (Lior Éditions)
Perla Batalla- Cuando Sale la Luna
Discoteca Batalla (Mechuda Music)
Tom Russell- Walking On the Moon
Old Songs Yet to Sing (Frontera)

Maggie & Terre Roche- Underneath the Moon
Where Do I Come From: Selected Songs (StorySound)
Kevin Head- Full Moon
Hear Them Callin’ (Kevin Head)
Ian Tyson- Horsethief Moon
Eighteen Inches of Rain (Stony Plain)

Mike Regenstreif, Tom Paxton & Joel Mabus (2001) phto: Janice Hanson

Joel Mabus- The Moon May Never Shine This Way Again
Time & Truth (Fossil)
Vance Gilbert- Unfamiliar Moon
Unfamiliar Moon (Disismye Music)
Missy Burgess- Drive to the Moon
Play Me Sweet (Missy Burgess)
David Francey- Big Texas Moon
Empty Train (Laker Music)

Lui Collins- Rooty Toot Toot for the Moon
Baptism of Fire (Green Linnet)

Next week: These Songs are for the Birds.

Find me on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Joel Mabus – American Anonymous

JOEL MABUS

American Anonymous

Fossil

joelmabus.com

As I’ve noted before, Joel Mabus has a most impressive body of work spanning both traditional and contemporary folk music. He’s a fine singer, plays any number of stringed instruments – some at virtuoso level -- has a deep repertoire of traditional ballads, old-time music and blues, and is a songwriter whose work consistently equals the venerable traditional music in his repertoire.

Joel devotes American Anonymous to 14 authentic folksongs, all of which were written by that venerable songwriting team of Trad and Anon. Joel’s impeccable solo performances – his voice and either guitar, banjo or autoharp – are riveting.

Among the highlights are a version of “In the Pines,” played on the autoharp, which brilliantly captures the inherent loneliness of the lyric, and a unique ragtime guitar arrangement of “Rising Sun Blues (House of the Rising Sun)” which turns the song into more of fun thing than the tragic ballad we’re used to.

Other favourites include Joel’s hot-picking takes on “Grieve My Lord No More” and “The Fox” on the guitar, and “Sally Gal” and “Ebenezer,” the album’s only instrumental, on banjo.

Joel ends the set with a great version of “A Closer Walk with Thee” that reminds me a lot of how Merle Travis reinterpreted some great old African American spirituals.

American Anonymous, like virtually every other album Joel Mabus has ever made, gets my  strongest recommendation.

--Mike Regenstreif

This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history (August 10-16)

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 50th instalment of “This week in Folk Roots/Folk Branches,” a weekly look back, continuing through the end of this month, at some of the most notable guests, features and moments in Folk Roots/Folk Branches history.

August 11, 1994: Extended feature- Klezmer music.
August 10, 1995: Extended feature- Sister acts.
August 13, 1998: Guest- Hy Goldman of KlezKanada.
August 12, 1999: Guest- Joel Mabus.
August 15, 2002: Guest- Jim Rooney.
August 14, 2003: Extended feature- Tribute to the late Lanie Melamed; Guest- Dean Cottrill.
August 16, 2007: Extended feature- Remembering Elvis Presley on the 30th anniversary of his death.

Pictured: Joel Mabus and Mike Regenstreif at the 2001 Champlain Valley Folk Festival.

--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

Bluegrass radio show

Sunday December 20, 2009 – 7:00-8:00 pm

I made a rare return to live radio to guest-host Bluegrass Ramblings hours on CKUT (90.3 FM in Montreal).

This program is available as a podcast (for two months) for streaming or downloading at

http://secure.ckut.ca/64/20091220.19.01-20.00.mp3

The program begins five seconds into the download.

STEVE MARTIN w/TIM O’BRIEN & EARL SCRUGGS- Daddy Played the Banjo
The Crow (Rounder)
CHARLIE HADEN featuring JACK BLACK- Old Joe Clark
Charlie Haden Family & Friends: Rambling Boy (Decca)
TONY TRISCHKA w/MICHAEL DAVES- Fox Chase
Territory (Smithsonian Folkways)
RHONDA VINCENT- Christmas Time at Home
Beautiful Star: A Christmas Collection (Rounder)

LAKE OF STEW- Darlin Starlin’
Sweet as Pie (Woodhog)
LOUDON WAINWRIGHT III- Way Up in NYC
High Wide & Handsome: The Charlie Poole Project (2nd Story)
GEOFF MULDAUR & THE TEXAS SHEIKS- Poor Boy, Long Ways from Home
Geoff Muldaur & the Texas Sheiks (Tradition & Moderne)
HULL & LARSON- Santa Claus is Coming to Town
The Goose is Getting Fat (Arabica)

DOC WATSON- Slidin’ Delta
Americana Master Series: Best of the Sugar Hill Years (Sugar Hill)
CAROLINE HERRING- See See Rider
Golden Apples of the Sun (Signature Sounds)
LAURIE LEWIS & TOM ROZUM- Hot Buttered Rum
Winter’s Grace (Signature Sounds)

CHRIS COOLE- Wish We Had Our Time Again
Old Dog (Chris Coole)
SHEARWATER BLUEGRASS- Snows of December
Shearwater (Shearwater)
MARGOT LEVERETT & THE KLEZMER MOUNTAIN BOYS w/TONY TRISCHKA- Calgary Reel
2nd Avenue Square Dance (Traditional Crossroads)
JOEL MABUS- Children Go Where I Send Thee
How Like the Holly (Fossil)

SAM BUSH- Sleigh Ride
A Family Christmas (Putumayo)

--Mike Regenstreif