Tanglefoot was a Canadian folk band from

Owen Sound Owen Sound ( 2021 Census population 21,612) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The county seat of Grey County, it is located at the mouths of the Pottawatomi and Sydenham Rivers on an inlet of Georgian Bay. The primary tourist attractio ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

. Formed in the early 1980s by schoolteachers Joe Grant, Bob Wagar, and Tim Rowat to play traditional music, they became a five-piece band playing largely original music. They regularly toured Canada, the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, and the

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Overview

The band has toured frequently throughout Canada and the United States, and also regularly in the UK. The band's song subjects are largely derived from history, especially Canadian history. Subject have included the

Frank Slide The Frank Slide was a massive rockslide that buried part of the mining town of Frank in the District of Alberta of the North-West Territories,The province of Alberta was not created until September 1905, more than two years after the slide. ...

The War of 1812 The War of 1812 (18 June 1812 – 17 February 1815) was fought by the United States, United States of America and its Indigenous peoples of the Americas, indigenous allies against the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom ...

Laura Secord Laura Secord ( Ingersoll; 13 September 1775 – 17 October 1868) was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812. She is known for having walked out of American-occupied territory in 1813 to warn British forces of an impending American atta ...

, the first flight in Canada, and the tale of Sir John A Macdonald's wife Agnes Macdonald riding the cowcatcher across Canada. Tanglefoot's lineup from 2007 on was: Steve Ritchie (guitar and whistle), the band's longest-serving member, Al Parrish (double bass), Terry Young (multi-instrumentalist incl guitar, mandolin, banjo, harmonica, whistle), Sandra Swannell (fiddle and viola), and Rob Ritchie (piano), returning after a five-year hiatus to replace departing pianist Bryan Weirmier. All the members sang and all, to varying degrees, wrote for the band. After performing for nearly three decades, Tanglefoot ended their run with a pair of farewell concerts at the Roxy Theatre in

, Ontario. In a comment on 27 June 2009 Al Parrish said that there was no bitterness in the breakup, but after more than twenty years the time had come to call it a day. Parrish also said there was a possibility of reunion gigs in the future, but nothing was planned. In October 2010 all five band members appeared together back at the Roxy Theatre for a leukemia fundraiser. The concert was billed as "The My Sweet Patootie Show with special guests, Al Parrish, Rob Ritchie & Steve Ritchie". Organized by former Tanglefoot members Sandra Swannell and Terry Young (who now perform as My Sweet Patootie), the concert featured all five performers in a variety of configurations but they played only a couple of Tanglefoot songs and the event was not particularly a "Tanglefoot reunion". In September 2012 the founding members of Tanglefoot (Joe Grant, Tim Rowat and Bob Wagar) were inducted into the Pathway of Fame in

Peterborough, Ontario Peterborough ( ) is a city on the Otonabee River in Ontario, Canada, about 125 kilometres (78 miles) northeast of Toronto. According to the 2021 Census, the population of the City of Peterborough was 83,651. The population of the Peterborough ...

. Three longstanding members of Tanglefoot – guitarist/vocalist Steve Ritchie, bassist/vocalist Al Parrish and keyboardist/vocalist Rob Ritchie teamed up with drummer/percussionist/vocalist Beaker Granger in 2012 and currently perform and record as RPR.

Members

ImageSize = width:800 height:300 PlotArea = left:100 bottom:130 top:0 right:05 DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Alignbars = justify Period = from:01/01/1984 till:05/12/2009 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal format:yyyy ScaleMajor = increment:5 start:1985 ScaleMinor = increment:1 start:1984 Legend = orientation:vertical position:bottom columns:2 Colors = id:f value:red legend:fiddle id:m value:pink legend:mandolin id:g value:green legend:guitar id:b value:blue legend:bass id:k value:purple legend:keyboard id:alb value:black legend:albums LineData = layer:back width: 1 at:01/05/1984 at:01/09/1984 at:01/01/1992 at:01/08/1994 at:01/01/1995 at:01/01/1996 at:01/01/1999 at:01/01/2002 at:01/01/2003 at:01/01/2004 at:01/01/2006 PlotData = width:12 textcolor:black align:left bar:Joe Grant from:start till:01/01/2003 color:f bar:Terry Snider from:01/01/2003 till:01/01/2006 color:f bar:Sandra Swannell from:01/01/2006 till:end color:f bar:Bob Wagar from:start till:01/01/1995 color:m bar:Frank Skrzeszewski from:01/01/1995 till:01/01/1999 color:m bar:Terry Young from:01/01/1999 till:end color:m bar:Tim Rowat from:start till:01/01/1988 color:g bar:Steve Ritchie from:01/01/1988 till:end color:g bar:Al Parrish from:01/01/1994 till:end color:b bar:Rob Ritchie from:01/01/1996 till:01/01/1999 color:k bar:Rob Ritchie from:01/01/2000 till:01/01/2002 color:k bar:Rob Ritchie from:01/01/2007 till:end color:k bar:Erin Donovan from:01/01/1999 till:01/01/2000 color:k bar:Bryan Weirmier from:01/01/2002 till:01/01/2007 color:k

Discography

*''Dance Like Flames'' – Released by Borealis Records in 2006; BCD-179CD *''Way More Live'' – Released on DVD by Borealis Records in 2004; BDVD001 *''Captured Alive'' – Released by Borealis Records in 2003; BCD-157CD *''Agnes on the Cowcatcher'' – Released by Borealis Records in 2002; BCD-143CD *''Full Throated Abandon'' – Released by Borealis Records in 1999; BCD-115CD *''The Music in the Wood'' – Released by Tanglefoot Media in 1996; TML14-0896CD *''Voyageurs et Vagabonds: Songs of the Voyageurs'' – Released by Ooze River Music 1995; ORM8-989 *''Saturday Night in Hardwood Lake'' – Released by Tanglefoot Media in 1994; TML12-1194CD *''Grain of Salt'' – Released by Ooze River Music 1992; ORM11-1192CD *''Voyageurs & Vagabonds'' (cassette) – Released by Ooze River Music 1987; ORM5-287 *''Songs of the River'' (cassette) – Released by Ooze River Music 1984; ORM-002 *''Igg's Pig: Songs and Stories for Young Canadians' – Released by Waterloo Music 1984; WR-8030

References

External links

* *

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databa ...

s article on Tanglefoot
My Sweet Patootie web site

RPR web site

Al Parrish web site

Steve Ritchie web site

Rob Ritchie web site

Bryan Weirmier web site
{{DEFAULTSORT:Tanglefoot (Band) Canadian Folk Music Award winners Canadian folk rock groups Musical groups from Ontario Owen Sound Musical groups established in 1979 Musical groups disestablished in 2009 1979 establishments in Ontario 2009 disestablishments in Ontario