Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – January 28, 2025: Harmonica

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/595/68751.html

Theme: Harmonica.

Jerry Jeff Walker- Harmonica Talk

Bein’ Free (Atco)

Sonny Terry

Sonny Terry & Brownie McGhee- Harmonica Blues

Sonny Terry’s New Sound (Folkways)

Guy Davis & Fabrizio Poggi- Freight Train

Sonny & Brownie’s Last Train (M.C.)

Paul Rishell & Annie Raines- Key to the Highway

I Want You to Know (Tone-Cool)

James Cotton with Joe Louis Walker & Charlie Haden- Country Boy

Deep in the Blues (Verve)

Michael Jerome Browne with JJ Milteau & Eric Bibb- Shake ‘Em on Down

Gettin’ Together (Borealis/Stony Plain)

Vince Halfhide with Steve Marriner- Sonny Boy Said

Vince Halfhide (Vince Halfhide)

The Paul Butterfield Blues Band- Blues with a Feeling

An Anthology: The Elektra Years (Elektra)

Corky Siegel

Corky Siegel- Movement I – Filisko’s Dream

Symphonic Blues No. 6 (Dawnserly)

Corky Siegel- Movement II – Slow Blues

Symphonic Blues No. 6 (Dawnserly)

Corky Siegel- Movement III – Allegro

Symphonic Blues No. 6 (Dawnserly)

Larry Adler- Blues in the Night

Harmonica Virtuoso (Audio Fidelity)

Paul Reddick- Breathless Girls

Sugar Bird (NorthernBlues Music)

Mike Stevens- Clarinet Polka

The World is Only Air (Borealis)

Saul Broudy- Bei Mir Bist Du Sheyn

Travels with Broudy (Saul Broudy)

Shtreiml- Uncle Tibor’s Spicy Paprikash

Spicy Paprikash (I.J. Rosenblatt)

Toots Thielmans- Five O’Clock Whistle

The Soul of Toots Thielmans (Dr. Jazz)

John Sebastian & David Grisman- Harmandola Blues

Satisfied (Acoustic Disc)

Grant Dermody- Waterbound

Lay Down My Burden (Grant Dermody)

Charlie Musselwhite- Blues Up the River

Mississippi Sun (Alligator)

Marc Nerenberg- This Time Around: A Banjo Harmonica Duet

Little Birdie: Birds, Beasts & Banjo Blues (Marc Nerenberg)

Next week: Remembering Garth Hudson (1937-2025).

--Mike Regenstreif

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 – Tuesday September 7, 2021: A Tribute to The Everly Brothers

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/595/53344.html

Theme: A Tribute to The Everly Brothers

The Everly Brothers – Phil Everly, who died in 2014 at age 74, and Don Everly, who died on August 21st at age 84 – were a highly influential duo whose music encompassed rock ‘n’ roll, country and folk music. All the songs on this show were recorded, at one time or another, by The Everly Brothers.

The Everly Brothers- This Little Girl of Mine
Cadence Classics: Their 20 Greatest Hits (Rhino)

Madeleine Peyroux- Bye Bye Love
The Blue Room (Decca)
Simon & Garfunkel- Wake Up Little Susie
The Concert in Central Park (Warner Bros.)
Kate Brislin & Katy Moffatt- Sleepless Nights
Sleepless Nights (Rounder)
The Persuasions- All I Have to Do is Dream
Good News (Rounder)
The Everly Brothers- Sweet Dreams
Walk Right Back: The Everly Brothers on Warner Bros. 1960 to 1969 (Warner Archives)

Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris- Love Hurts
Grievous Angel (Reprise)
Linda Ronstadt- When Will I Be Loved
Heart Like a Wheel (Capitol)
The Everly Brothers- (‘Til) I Kissed You
Cadence Classics: Their 20 Greatest Hits (Rhino)

Andy Hedges- Roving Gambler
Cowboy Songster (Yellowhouse)
Ian & Sylvia- Down By the Willow Garden
Ian & Sylvia (Vanguard)
Tim Grimm & Carrie Newcomer- Barbara Allen
Names (Wind River)
Billie Joe + Norah- Who’s Gonna Shoe Your Pretty Little Feet?
Foreverly (Reprise)
The Everly Brothers- I’m Here to Get My Baby Out of Jail
Songs Our Daddy Taught Us (Rhino)

Nanci Griffith- Walk Right Back
Other Voices, Too (A Trip Back to Bountiful) (Elektra)
The Everly Brothers- On the Wings of a Nightingale
EB 84 (Mercury)

John Sebastian- Stories We Could Tell
Faithful Virtue: The Reprise Recordings (Rhino)
The Everly Brothers- The Brand New Tennessee Waltz
Stories We Could Tell (RCA)
Jesse Winchester- Bowling Green
Seem Like Only Yesterday: Live in Montreal 1976 (Real Gone Music)

Kate Brislin & Katy Moffatt- So Sad
Sleepless Nights (Rounder)
Roberta Flack- Let It Be Me
Chapter Two (Atlantic)
Gram Parsons with Emmylou Harris- Brand New Heartache
Sleepless Nights (A&M)
Doc Watson- Bird Dog
Docabilly (Sugar Hill)
The Everly Brothers- I’m Movin’ On
Walk Right Back: The Everly Brothers on Warner Bros. 1960 to 1969 (Warner Archives)

The Everly Brothers- Asleep
EB 84 (Mercury)

Next week: Strange Songs and Stranger Songs

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

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Jim Kweskin & Geoff Muldaur – Penny’s Farm

JIM KWESKIN & GEOFF MULDAUR

Penny’s Farm

Kingswood Records

jimkweskin.com

geoffmuldaur.com

When I started collecting records obsessively in the 1960s, the LPs by Jim Kweskin & the Jug Band were – and remain – among my favorites. Drawing on folk songs, blues, jazz and early pop and novelty songs, the LPs were filled with fun, deceptively sophisticated, and an entrée into the older traditions and source artists they were drawing on. Well over 50 years after the Kweskin Jug Band got together and 40-something years since they broke up, Jim Kweskin and band stalwart Geoff Muldaur have reunited for the sublime Penny’s Farm, an eclectic collection of folk-rooted and folk-branched songs played by a couple of masters whose interpretive skills have aged like fine whiskey. Jim and Geoff each take the lead vocal on about half the tracks.

The album opens with Jim’s version of the traditional “Diamond Joe,” a song Alan Lomax collected from Big Charlie Butler at the Parchman Farm prison in Mississippi in 1939, and that has become familiar through countless interpretations by artists ranging from Cisco Houston to Ramblin’ Jack Elliott and Bob Dylan. Jim begins singing a cappella and is then joined by Suzy Thompson’s powerful fiddling, Jim and Geoff’s guitars, Cindy Cashdollar’s Weissenborn guitar and Geoff’s harmonies.

Jim continues to shine whenever he takes the lead vocal. Among his highlights are “Down on Penny’s Farm,” one of several songs on the CD drawn from Harry Smith’s seminal Anthology of American Folk Music, on which Jim plays banjo and Geoff is heard on pennywhistle; the infectious African song “Guabi, Guabi,” which he first recorded on a solo LP, Relax Your Mind, in 1965; a haunting version of “The Cuckoo,” also drawn from the Harry Smith Anthology and also a reprise from Relax Your Mind; and a couple of Mississippi John Hurt songs, “Louis Collins (Angels Laid Him Away) – which Philadelphia Jerry Ricks once told me was John Hurt’s very favorite of his own songs – and “Frankie,” a variant of “Frankie and Johnny (or Albert).”

Geoff’s first lead vocal is on “The Boll Weevil,” another folk song collected by Lomax that has become a folk music standard in countless versions. This version is among the best I’ve heard. Geoff is playing six-string banjo and is ably supported by Jim on harmony vocals and guitar, Suzy on fiddle, Cindy on Dobro and Kevin Smith on bass.

Geoff, too, shines, whenever he’s at the lead vocalist’s mic. His highlights include Henry Thomas’ “Fishing Blues,” also drawn from the Harry Smith Anthology; “Just a Little While to Stay Here,” a New Orleans funeral song Geoff recorded earlier on his wonderful album, The Secret Handshake; a couple of Beale Street Sheiks numbers, “Sweet to Mama” and “Downtown Blues” (Geoff first recorded “Downtown Blues” in 1967 on the Kweskin Jug Band LP See Reverse Side for Title); and a fun version of Mississippi John Hurt’s “C-h-i-c-k-e-n.”

My very favorite of Geoff’s tracks, though is his version of Bobby Charles’ beautiful “Tennessee Blues,” a song he recorded more than 40 years ago on Geoff Muldaur is Having a Wonderful Time. Van Dyke Parks joins the ensemble on accordion on this version of the song.

And while Geoff may have been having a wonderful time on that long-ago solo LP, I’ve been having a wonderful time listening to Jim and Geoff both having a wonderful time on Penny’s Farm.

I’ll also mention that the CD package includes an appreciation of Jim and Geoff and the Jim Kweskin Jug Band by John Sebastian and informative song notes by Mary Katherine Aldin.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Happy Traum – Just for the Love of It

HAPPY TRAUM

Just for the Love of It

Lark’s Nest Music

happytraum.com

Ten years ago, reviewing Happy Traum’s then-new album, I Walk the Road Again, in Sing Out! magazine, I noted, “It’s been much too long, more than two decades, since Happy Traum, a former editor of Sing Out! magazine, released a solo album. Happily, the long wait has resulted in a very sweet gem of a CD.”

Another decade has gone by, but the wait for Just for the Love of It, another very sweet gem of a CD, was worth it. As usual, Happy has impeccable taste in choosing a program of great traditional folk and blues songs or contemporary songs written in the tradition and even better taste in the way he arranges them with both reverence for his sources and the originality of his always creative fingerpicking guitar and warm singing. He also surrounds himself – track to track – with just the right set of supporting musicians for each song and arrangement.

Because I have multiple versions of every one of these songs in my collection (in some cases many versions) there’s an instant familiarity to every track. But, despite, that familiarity, Happy made each and every one of them sound fresh the first time listened to the album – and they still sound fresh no matter how many times I’ve played the CD.

The album kicks off with Happy’s interpretation of Brownie McGhee’s version of the traditional “Careless Love Blues.” I have versions of Brownie playing the song solo and with Sonny Terry on harmonica. With Happy doing a great job on guitar and vocals, John Sebastian does an equally great job on harmonica.

Other favorite tracks include the traditional “Deep Blue Sea,” learned from Pete Seeger and featuring David Amram on pennywhistle and terrific harmonies by Larry Campbell and Teresa Williams; a contemplative, solo version of Pete’s “Sailing Down My Golden River”; an arrangement of the traditional “Things Are Coming My Way” that is, like so many Georgia Sea Island songs, completely infectious; and a defiant-sounding version of Woody Guthrie’s classic “I Ain’t Got No Home,” that also features a great harmonica part by John Sebastian.

There is also a full-on version of Bob Dylan’s “Crash on the Levee (Down in the Flood),” featuring Happy’s son, Adam Traum on slide guitar and harmony vocals. This song was one of several duets Happy recorded with Dylan in 1971 for Dylan’s Greatest Hits, Vol. 2 album.

There are another eight songs on Just for the Love of It. I could just as easily have cited any of them as a highlight. I hope it’s not another decade before Happy decides to do another album.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif