Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – February 11, 2025: Four Strong Winds

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/595/68904.html

Theme: Four Strong Winds.

Ian & Sylvia- Four Strong Winds

Four Strong Winds (Vanguard)

John Stewart- Chilly Winds

Cannons in the Rain/Wingless Angels (One Way)

Mike Regenstreif & Jesse Winchester (2006)

Jesse Winchester- Blow On, Chilly Wind

Let the Rough Side Drag (Stony Plain)

Mike Regenstreif & Bill Staines (1993)

Bill Staines with Guy Van Duser- Canadian Winds

Old Wood and Winter Wine (Mineral River)

Amy Helm- Mandolin Wind

This Too Shall Light (Yep Roc)

Boreal- Cold North Wind

Winterbirds (Boreal)

Mike Regenstreif & Mary McCaslin (1999)

Mary McCaslin- Wayward Wind

Old Friends (Philo)

Mike Regenstreif & Jimmy LaFave (2017)

Jimmy LaFave- Catch the Wind

Cimarron Manifesto (Red House)

Eve Goldberg & Mike Regenstreif (2013)

Eve Goldberg- Sweet Sorrow in the Wind

Ever Brightening Day (Sweet Patootie Music)

Dakota Dave Hull & Sean Blackburn- The Wicked Wind of Fargo

River of Swing (Arabica)

Mike Regenstreif & Bruce Cockburn (2017)

Bruce Cockburn- High Winds White Sky

High Winds White Sky (True North)

Sam Cooke- They Call the Wind Mariah

Sam Cooke (RCA)

Mike Regenstreif & David Amram (2004)

David Amram- Wind from the Indies

No More Walls (Flying Fish)

Mike Regenstreif & David Francey (2019)

David Francey- Wind in the Wires

Torn Screen Door (Laker Music)

Jim Ringer- Any Old Wind That Blows

The Band of Jesse James: The Best of Jim Ringer (Philo)

Barrence Whitfield & Tom Russell- A Little Wind

Cowboy Mambo (Stony Plain)

Wenzel- Blow, Big Wind

Ticky Tock: Wenzel Sings Woody Guthrie (Conträr Musik) 

James Gordon- Wild Wind Blows 

Wrinkles and Scars (James Gordon) 

Mike Regenstreif & Priscilla Herdman (1978)

Priscilla Herdman- Wild Wind

The Road Home (Redwing Music)

Tex König- Wild Winds

Königsblende (Music Cellar)

Wendy Grossman- South Wind

The Last Trip Home (Riverlark Music)

Andy Cohen- Windy and Warm

Road Be Kind (Earwig)

Next week: Songs from the Gullah Traditions.

--Mike Regenstreif

Stranger Songs with Mike Regenstreif – CKCU – November 5, 2024: Addendums to Past Themes

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/595/67577.html

Theme: Addendums to Past Themes.

This is the second of two editions of Stranger Songs 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 Stranger Songs 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/stranger-songs

A theme I do every year on the second Stranger Songs funding drive show is Addendums to Past Themes. More often than not, when I choose a theme for Stranger Songs, there are more possible songs to choose from than I can include – and sometimes new music that fits the theme arrives after the show has been produced. So, I’ve chosen a few of the themes from the past year for addendums.

Perla Batalla- A Thousand Kisses Deep

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

Leonard Cohen- Going Home

Old Ideas (Columbia)

Perla Batalla- Everybody Knows

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

Scottie Miller- Ah, New York

Carnival Cocoon (Scottie Miller)

Lucy Kaplansky- Love Song/New York

The Red Thread (Red House)

Amy Speace- In New York City

The American Dream (Windbone)

Shelley Posen- The Old Songs Home

The Old Songs Home (Well Done Music)

Madeleine Peyroux- I Hear Music

Careless Love: Deluxe Edition (Rounder)

The Central Park Sheiks- The People’s Key

Honeysuckle Rose (Flying Fish)

Misty Blues- Keep On Movin’ It On

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

Eric Bibb & Odetta- ‘Tain’t Such a Much

Friends (Telarc)

Odetta- Look the World Over

Blues Everywhere I Go (M.C.) 

Bob Dylan- My Back Pages

Another Side of Bob Dylan (Columbia)

Ian & Sylvia- You Were On My Mind

Northern Journey (Vanguard)

Sam Cooke- A Change is Gonna Come

Ain’t That Good News (RCA)

Lenka Lichtenberg- Remember the Sun

Feel with Blood (Six Degrees)

Lenka Lichtenberg- After the Flood

Feel with Blood (Six Degrees)

Sid Selvidge- Pearlee

Twice Told Tales (Elektra Nonesuch)

Rosalie Sorrels- One More Next Time

If I Could Be the Rain (Folk-Legacy)

Gordon Lightfoot- Steel Rail Blues

The Original Lightfoot (EMI)

Duke Ellington- Sugar Hill Shim Sham

Ellington in Order, Volume 8 (1937) (Legacy)

Next week: Remembering Barbara Dane (1927-2024).

--Mike Regenstreif

Corin Raymond – Hobo Jungle Fever Dreams

CORIN RAYMOND

Hobo Jungle Fever Dreams

Local Rascal

corinraymond.com

Toronto-based singer-songwriter Corin Raymond arrived on my radar about seven years ago thanks to a brilliant song called “There will Always be a Small Time,” a piece I described at the time as “a near-perfect piece of songwriting.” But, just as there is so much more to Ian Tyson than “Four Strong Winds,” or to Gordon Lightfoot than “The Canadian Railroad Trilogy,” or to Leonard Cohen than “Suzanne,” or to so many other examples, there is more to Corin Raymond than “There will Always be a Small Time.”

That is more than evident on Corin’s new album, “Hobo Jungle Fever Dreams,” a set of nine fine songs he either wrote or co-wrote, and one cover.

Corin is a singer-songwriter whose work engages the listener, the words and melodies combining to draw listeners into the stories he’s telling – and whether the stories are autobiographical or about other people, real or fictional, it’s the story that matters with the lyrics, music, arrangement and delivery all in service to the story.

The album opens strongly with “Hard on Things,” co-written with Rob Vaarmeyer, in which he conversationally describes all those things he’s hard on – from his body to many material things and, by implication (“I’ve worn out two gold wedding rings”), his relationships.

Among the other highlights are “Under the Belly of the Night,” co-written with Jonathan Byrd, which pays tribute to fallen early rock ‘n’ roll and R&B heroes Buddy Holly, Sam Cooke and Jackie Wilson and to how their music endures so many decades after their deaths; “Two Miles of Trains,” co-written with Raghu Lokanathan, an upbeat, infectious celebration of hobo culture (the album’s title comes from this song); and “Morning Glories,” a piano-based tribute to some of the characters – flawed but good-hearted folks – that one might encounter walking around a rundown Toronto neighbourhood.

Corin Raymond makes you care about the people in these songs.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif

Various Artists – Tulare Dust: a songwriters’ tribute to Merle Haggard (Expanded Edition)

VARIOUS ARTISTS
Tulare Dust: a songwriters’ tribute to Merle Haggard (Expanded Edition)
RockBeat 
fronterarecords.com

Tulare Dust: a songwriters’ tribute to Merle Haggard, co-produced by Tom Russell and Dave Alvin and originally released in 1994, was one of the very finest tribute albums of that era and featured a great collection of 15 roots artists singing their favorite songs from Merle Haggard’s impressive catalog.

Tulare Dust has recently been reissued as an expanded 2-CD set; the first CD is the original album while the second CD is live tracks taken from the CD release concert which featured about half the artists each doing their Haggard selection plus one of their own.

Dave Alvin nails the significance of Haggard in the liner notes to this new edition when he writes that Haggard “has always been one of the great American songwriters in the folk music tradition. Being in this folk tradition doesn’t necessarily just mean strumming an acoustic guitar in a coffee house, it can also mean learning your musical craft from your elders, then taking what you’ve learned and finding your own voice inside that musical and community tradition. It’s what Muddy Waters and Bill Monroe did. It’s what Hank Williams, Sam Cooke, Elvis Presley, Bob Dylan and Curtis Mayfield did. It’s exactly what Merle Haggard did.”

Haggard himself has paid tribute to some of those musical elders – notably Jimmie Rodgers and Bob Wills – who influenced him. But, as becomes obvious in listening to some of these songs, the influence of Woody Guthrie is also strongly felt in Haggard’s work. Listen to Tom Russell’s great medley of “Tulare Dust/They’re Tearing the Labor Camps Down” to understand that Haggard’s own family were among the waves of Okies who risked all of their do-re-mi trying to find a better life in California during the Dust Bowl era.

That Guthrie influence can also be heard in such songs as “Kern River,” sung from deep-in-the-traditional-well by Dave Alvin and “A Working Man Can’t Get Nowhere Today,” sung with conviction by Peter Case.

Some of my other favorite tracks include Iris DeMent’s world-weary version of “Big City”; Lucinda Williams’ heartbreaking version of the heartbroken “You Don’t Have Very Far to Go”; Marshall Crenshaw’s rendition of the separation song “Silver Wings”; and Steve Young’s sad version of “Shopping for Dresses,” Haggard’s portrait of loneliness.

Another highlight is R&B singer Barrence Whitfield’s very affecting take on “Irma Jackson,” Haggard’s poignant song about inter-racial love – a song that was taboo-breaking in the world of early-1970s country music.

Among the best of the songwriters’ original material on the second CD are Tom Russell’s always exciting “Gallo del Cielo,” Dave Alvin’s “King of California,” Billy Joe Shaver’s “Georgia on a Fast Train,” and Peter Case’s “A Little Wind (Could Blow Me Away),” about Elvis Presley's comeback concert, which was co-written by Tom Russell.

Tulare Dust: a songwriters’ tribute to Merle Haggard was a great album 20 years ago and is made even greater by the inclusion of the second live disc.

Find me on Twitter. twitter.com/@mikeregenstreif

And on Facebook. facebook.com/mikeregenstreif

--Mike Regenstreif