Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – Tuesday July 13, 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/595/52675.html

Theme: Songs About Refugees

Guest: Diana Jones

Moira Smiley SMILEY- Refugee
Unzip the Horizon (Moira Smiley Music)

Murray McLauchlan- Lying By the Sea (For Alan Kurdi)
Hourglass (True North)
Eric Bibb- Refugee Moan
Migration Blues (Stony Plain)
Kim Wallach- Refugee’s Lullaby
Chatter of the Finches (Black Socks Press)

Guy Davis- I’ve Looked Around
Be Ready When I Call You (M.C.)
Jabbour- Je tournais la clé
Carling Lake (Jabbour)
Eric Bogle- Refugee
At This Stage (Greentrax)

 

The next five songs punctuated my conversation with Diana Jones. The conversation was recorded on June 17 via Zoom.

Diana Jones- Song to a Refugee
Song to a Refugee (Goldmine)

Diana Jones- El Chaparral
Song to a Refugee (Goldmine)

Diana Jones, Steve Earle, Richard Thompson, Peggy Seeger & Zahara Phillips- We Believe You
Song to a Refugee (Goldmine)

Diana Jones- The Life I Left Behind
Song to a Refugee (Goldmine)

Diana Jones- The Sea is My Mother
Song to a Refugee (Goldmine)

Tom Russell- Across the Border
Appleseed’s 21st Anniversary: Roots and Branches (Appleseed)
Guy Clark- El Coyote
The Best of the Dualtone Years (Dualtone)
Los Texmaniacs with Rick Treviño- I am a Mexican
Cruzando Borders (Smithsonian Folkways)

Eric Andersen- Rain Falls Down in Amsterdam
Woodstock Under the Stars (Y&T Music)
Sultans of String featuring Ifrah Mansour- I Am a Refugee
Refuge (Sultans of String)

Sultans of String featuring Edmar Castaneda- Refuge
Refuge (Sultans of String)

Next week – Remembering Mimi Fariña

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

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Canadian Spaces – CKCU – Saturday May 27, 2017

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

This particular show is now available for on-demand listening.

http://cod.ckcufm.com/programs/129/32540.html

Canadian Spaces on CKCU in Ottawa is Canada’s longest-running folk music radio program. It is heard Saturday mornings from 10:00 am until noon (Eastern time).

It was hosted for more than 33 years by the late Chopper McKinnon and is now hosted by Chris White and a rotating cast of co-hosts.

This week’s show was co-hosted by Mike Regenstreif and Chris White.

Guests: Jeff Mills; Tony Turner; Terry Gillespie; Bill Garrett & Sue Lothrop

The Malvinas- Crow

God Bless the Grass (Soona Songs)

Jayme Stone, Moira Smiley, Sumaia Jackson & Joe Phillips- Drunken Hiccups

Jayme Stone’s Folklife (Borealis)

The Eisenhauers- Newfoundland Song

The Road We Once Knew (Black Hen)

Michael Earnie Taylor Orchestra- Clyde Beatty

$3 Pants (Laughing Cactus Music)

Jon Brooks- Down by the Dirty Don

The Songs of Tony Quarrington (B. Gladstone/Winterfolk)

David Clayton-Thomas- Suzanne

Canadiana (Antionette/ILS)

Tom Russell- Wild Geese

Play One More: The Songs of Ian & Sylvia (True North)

Joe Newberry & April Verch- Will You Wait for Me?

Going Home (Slab Town)

Diana Braithwaite & Chris Whiteley- Morning Sun

Morning Sun (Electro-Fi)

Durham County Poets- Monday Morning

Grimshaw Road (Durham County Poets)

Doug McArthur- The Big Machine

Tears Like Rain (Doug McArthur)

Lynn Miles- Surrender Dorothy

Black Flowers Volume 1-2 (True North)

Jennifer Noxon- Nothing More

Sweet (Jennifer Noxon)

Tony Turner- Long Way Down

Love & Other Attractions (Tony Turner)

Terry Gillespie- Brother of the Blues

Live in the studio

Terry Gillespie- Magnolia Tree

Live in the studio

Bill Garrett & Sue Lothrop- Red Shoes

Red Shoes (Borealis)

I’ll be co-hosting Canadian Spaces again on July 8.

In the meantime, I’ll be hosting Saturday Morning (7-10 am) on June 24.

Find me on Twitter. @MikeRegenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Jayme Stone’s Folklife

JAYME STONE’S FOLKLIFE

Jayme Stone’s Folklife

Borealis Records

jaymestone.com

borealisrecords.com

A little over two years ago, the masterful banjo player Jayme Stone released Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project, an superb album in which he and a revolving cast of singers and musicians reimagined 19 songs – mostly traditional folksongs – that had been collected by legendary folklorist Alan Lomax (1915-2002) over a period of many years. As I noted in my review, “it is an extraordinary collection at once timeless, traditional and utterly contemporary.”

Although the CD featured different musicians and singers on different tracks Jayme worked with more focused smaller groups when taking the Lomax Project out on the road. The superb Lomax Project concert that I got to see and hear – March 16, 2016 in Ottawa at the National Arts Centre Fourth Stage – featured Jayme with primary lead singer and accordionist Moira Smiley, bassist Joe Phillips and fiddler Sumaia Jackson. Moira and Joe had each appeared on about a third of the tracks on Jayme Stone’s Lomax Project while Sumaia was recruited sometime after the recording was completed.

While I went into that concert wondering if Jayme, Moira, Joe and Sumaia would be credible performing the often complex arrangements that had been played by other combinations of musicians on the CD, it was quickly obvious that the four had formed a wonderful, tight performing unit. It was one of the finest concerts I’ve seen in recent years.

Jayme Stone’s Folklife is the follow-up to the Lomax Project CD. At about 43 minutes and 10 songs it’s a shorter CD than the first one (which had 19 songs and clocked in at 66 minutes). But it’s a tighter, more focused group with nine of the 10 songs featuring the core group of Jayme, Moira, Joe and Sumaia – sometimes augmented by drummer Nick Fraser and/or harmony singers Felicity Williams and Denzel Sinclaire. And although most of the songs come from Lomax field recordings, there are a couple here that came through other collectors.

Although each of these tracks is a terrific performance highlighted by great playing and Moira’s charismatic lead vocals, a few of my very favorites include “Mwen Pas Danse” with its bouncy, breezy Caribbean rhythms; “Hey, Lally Lally Lo,” which I learned at summer camp in the 1960s as a singalong song that we’d improvise verses to, but which Moira turns into a sexy torch song; and the a cappella finale, “Wait on the Rising Sun,” with Moira’s lead vocals supported by Jayme, Sumaia, Joe, Felicity and Denzel in glorious harmonies.

“Buttermilk” is the only song on Jayme Stone’s Folklife not to feature the core musicians. On this song Jayme, on banjo, is joined by Dom Flemons who sings and plays guitar and quills (a panpipe flute made from cane reeds) and jazz musician Ron Miles on cornet. It’s a delightful, energetic performance on which you can also hear percussive bones playing – I assume by Dom who I’ve seen play them during his days with the Carolina Chocolate Drops.

As I said about Jayme Stone's Lomax Project, this album is “an extraordinary collection at once timeless, traditional and utterly contemporary.”

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif