Montreal Folk Reunion

The Montreal Folk Reunion brings together six people who played leading roles in the vital folk music scene that Montreal enjoyed in the 1960s and ‘70s. They’ll reminisce about the old days at clubs like the New Penelope, the Café André, the Back Door, the Yellow Door, the Karma Coffee House, the Golem Coffee House and the Montreal Folk Workshop, and show us why they remain important forces in the folk scene so many decades later.

 Singer-songwriters Jesse Winchester, Bruce Murdoch, Penny Lang, Willie Dunn and Ron Bankley all started their careers on that Montreal folk scene. Host Mike Regenstreif started hanging out on the folk scene as a high school student in 1969. Soon he was one of its major organizers.

Mike Regenstreif hosted Folk Roots/Folk Branches on CKUT in Montreal from 1994 to 2007 and continues to contribute feature segments to CKUT. He also writes about music for several publications including The Montreal Gazette, Sing Out Magazine and the Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, where he is the editor. He has been active on the folk scene since about 1970 and has produced concerts and run the Golem, a Montreal folk venue of the 1970s and ‘80s, represented artists internationally and programmed folk festivals. He has hosted many concerts and workshops at such folk festivals as Ottawa and Champlain Valley and served on many industry panels and juries. He now divides his time between Ottawa and Montreal.